The NRL will likely grant the Canberra Raiders an exemption from the soft salary cap on football department spending for their pre-season camp to escape the smoke from the NSW bushfires.
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Raiders coach Ricky Stuart is looking into the best available option of where the Green Machine can move their training to after the Canberra smoke turned toxic on the weekend.
The Raiders have cancelled their planned running around Mt Stromlo on Monday, with the club doctor to decide what training is safe.
Canberra coach Ricky Stuart is investigating all the bases available at short notice, with Northern NSW and the Sunshine Coast two possible options.
Training camps are meant to be part of an NRL soft cap on football department spending, along with coaches' salaries.
But the NRL indicated they would likely grant the Green Machine an exemption given the extreme circumstances.
Smoke from the bushfires on the NSW south coast have made Canberra's air quality the worst in the world and dangerous to train in.
With every minute vital ahead of their opening round clash against the Gold Coast Titans at Canberra Stadium on March 13, the Raiders can't afford to lose any sessions.
The NRL's chief medical officer Paul Bloomfield has been in touch with club doctors since before Christmas, while it's believed the Raiders have also been liaising with the AIS around their protocols.
"Club doctors are the best placed to determine if conditions are safe to train in," an NRL spokesman said on Sunday.
"They have the expertise and can assess the conditions first hand to make the best possible decision regarding the welfare of our players.
"Naturally we would be sympathetic to any club who seeks an exemption to relocate training as a result of the bushfires."
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The entire Raiders squad was due to assemble for the first time this pre-season on Monday, but with Canberra's air quality index skyrocketing to 3936 at the time of writing it's too dangerous to train.
Anything above 150 is considered hazardous and smoky conditions are expected to continue until at least next weekend.
Stuart hoped to have his plans finalised Monday morning, with the ACT Brumbies having already left for Newcastle.
"It's such short notice, it's one finding the right climate and then two finding the availability of grounds, gymnasiums and accommodation. Then flights on top of that," he said.
"We've got to take the best-case scenario because this will be the first week we'll have our full squad back together after the grand final."
The Bureau of Meteorology predicted smoke levels should begin to ease on Monday and throughout the week, before again becoming thick on Friday morning.
But that's only the visible smoke, while the invisible PM2.5 particles are what make the air hazardous.
That's what the ACT government uses to calculate the air quality index.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr was unsure when it might return to levels below hazardous.
"I'll need to get some advice ... but what I had seen in terms of computer modelling and projections was the easterlies would be in place through [Monday] and might start to change on Tuesday," he said.
"But if there's more information on that we'll certainly post that on the various ACT government communication channels."