{"id":333486,"date":"2025-12-07T20:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T20:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/333486\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T20:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T20:33:08","slug":"nrl-player-agents-chasing-easy-money-says-rlpa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/333486\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL player agents chasing \u2018easy money\u2019 says RLPA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Rugby League Players Association has released its Annual Player Survey &amp; Findings Report for 2025 and, as always, the results make for very interesting reading.<\/p>\n<p>Amongst several eye-opening findings\u2014based on the responses of 552 male and 301 female players\u2014the report casts serious doubts over the role being played by many of the game\u2019s player agents.<\/p>\n<p>According to results published in the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/incredibly-concerning-players-covering-up-concussions-at-training-poll-reveals-20251206-p5nld7.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sydney Morning Herald,<\/a> 96 per cent of NRL and NRLW players confirmed they have an agent acting on their behalf.<\/p>\n<p>However more than 50 per cent of those players reported their agent has never negotiated a sponsorship deal for them, large or small, despite earning many thousands of dollars from their club deals\u2014a situation the RLPA says isn\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n<p>MORE: <a data-testid=\"card--article-thumbnail\" role=\"article\" target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/news\/nrl-enforcer-dolphins-rlpa-president-felise-kaufusi-tonga\/fe298e30c8c3e0d917fe37bf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Felise Kaufusi takes another hit up, assumes RLPA presidency<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAgents collectively receive over $15 million per year in fees from players \u2013 more than the salary cap of any single NRL club,\u201d RLPA boss Clint Newton said of the findings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a salary-capped league where player earnings are limited, the commercial and sponsorship endorsements must significantly improve.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBased on these results there are not enough agents focused on growing player brands through sponsorship agreements, but instead taking easy money from NRL and NRLW contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the RLPA and Newton, the game\u2019s agents have a responsibility to bring a more holistic approach to the way they serve their players, particularly when it comes to generating additional revenue opportunities from a player\u2019s personal brand, or intellectual property.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany fans would assume all players are topping up their salaries with endorsements, but that is not the case,\u201d Newton revealed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost players are either trying to do it themselves or not doing it at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The RLPA survey also found the bulk of NRLW players continue to rely on external income to support their playing careers\u201489 per cent reported working during the off-season while 87 per cent also conducted work or study during the season itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rugby League Players Association has released its Annual Player Survey &amp; Findings Report for 2025 and, as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-333486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}