NRL CEO Andrew Abdo has credited the discipline and the hard work of the game and the 16 clubs throughout the 2020 season to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NRL had to shut down its season for two months on March 23 as the coronavirus situation escalated across Australia, leaving the code on the verge of a financial catastrophe.

It then became one of the first sporting competitions to restart on May 28 continuing its season right through to tonight’s Grand Final between Penrith and Melbourne.

He told The Continuous Call Team while there’s been some minor setbacks, there were two elements which has helped the game get to where it is today.

“You can have the best protocols in the world, you can have the best specialists in the world,” Abdo said.

“But if people weren’t going to be prepared to do it and be disciplined to do it, then we wouldn’t have got to where we are now.

“Obviously from time to time, we had people making mistakes but 99.99 percent of the time, people were doing the right thing.

“I’ll admit when we were planning for things and for the season, we absolutely had it in our mind at some point we might have to move a game, miss a game or think about what happens if games are disrupted.

“There’s two elements – I think one of them is preparation and discipline by everyone.

“The other is a bit of luck but you do make your own luck sometimes and I think all the planning has really helped us.”

The Grand Final kicks off at 7:30pm AEDT and you can hear it LIVE on 2GB or watch it on Nine.

Click ‘play’ to hear the full interview below.

Image: Nine News.