{"id":618806,"date":"2026-04-20T08:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/618806\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T08:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:35:09","slug":"state-of-origin-coaches-back-australian-nrl-takeover-of-englands-super-league-nrl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/618806\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin coaches back Australian NRL takeover of England\u2019s Super League | NRL"},"content":{"rendered":"

State of Origin coaches Billy Slater and Laurie Daley have backed the NRL\u2019s pursuit of a stake in the Super League<\/a>, arguing a strong northern hemisphere game is key to the future of rugby league.<\/p>\n

The NRL\u2019s chief executive, Andrew Abdo, was in England last week exploring the investment opportunity that would involve governance reform in the UK and a potential shift back to a winter season to allow broadcasters to screen elite rugby league year-round<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Slater, who coached the Maroons to an Origin series win in 2025, said the sport needed to improve its pathways across the globe to ensure standards remain high.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely something over there in the English Super League, and I think [the NRL] can make that work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While Abdo has said opportunities with the Super League could help grow the value of the NRL\u2019s next broadcast deal, Slater believed the main benefit was to help improve playing standards in Europe and in the NRL, which is expected to grow to 20 teams in coming years.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo bring in three teams in a handful of years, we\u2019re certainly going to have to dive into some development pathways and make sure that we\u2019ve got the talent and the developed talent to push into these clubs,\u201d Slater said.<\/p>\n

NSW\u2019s coach, Daley, said the NRL\u2019s potential involvement in the Super League was \u201ca great opportunity to help their game over there because we do need a strong international game\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as we\u2019re strong here in Australia, you want to make sure that other nations are strong as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There are discussions around the scale of the investment required by the NRL \u2013 reportedly one-third or more of the Super League \u2013 and the extent to which European clubs would have to cede power to Australian administrators.<\/p>\n

Brodie Croft of Leeds Rhinos in action during their Saturday defeat of Huddersfield Giants in the Super League. Photograph: Olly Hassell\/SWpix.com\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Daley acknowledged there were issues around the extent to which the NRL would control the Super League competition, but he remained confident they could be resolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you could help English rugby league, and have control, and be able to develop it like the way they have done with our competition, it would be a great thing for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdo said last week there was some urgency to negotiations given the NRL is already speaking with broadcasters about the next deal due to start in 2028.<\/p>\n

The Australian Rugby League Commission chair, Peter V\u2019landys, is targeting a $4bn deal, with international markets such as Papua New Guinea and the UK representing some of the few opportunities for significant growth amid an advertising slowdown on free-to-air television.<\/p>\n

The existing broadcast deal with Nine and Foxtel in Australia is worth around $400m a year. It helped the NRL record a surplus of $64.8m in 2025.<\/p>\n

Super League owners are now losing around $38m (\u00a320m) a year, and the NRL\u2019s involvement would help cover each team\u2019s wages bill.<\/p>\n

Launching this year\u2019s State of Origin series on Monday in Melbourne, where game two will take place at the MCG on 17 June, Slater \u2013 who also works for Channel Nine \u2013 said the Australian game was in a healthy state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game is in an extremely healthy position, it\u2019s extremely attractive to watch, the players are doing a wonderful job on the field, the administrators have done a wonderful job off the field to create an entertainment product that we all love,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State of Origin coaches Billy Slater and Laurie Daley have backed the NRL\u2019s pursuit of a stake in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-618806","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\/618806","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=618806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}