{"id":937442,"date":"2026-10-22T23:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T23:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937442\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T23:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T23:18:10","slug":"rugby-league-world-cup-2026-england-boss-brian-mcdermott-wants-super-league-to-accept-nrl-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937442\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby League World Cup 2026: England boss Brian McDermott wants Super League to accept NRL investment"},"content":{"rendered":"

England head coach Brian McDermott has called for Super League to accept investment from Australia’s NRL in order to improve the English game.<\/p>\n

Talks are currently ongoing after Super League clubs rejected a \u00a335m package from the Australian Rugby League Commission and a second deadline of 15 October was allowed to pass without an agreement being reached.<\/p>\n

Formalising a partnership between the sport’s two leading competitions is seen as as a key step in helping to grow the European competition’s revenue. <\/p>\n

“I think the NRL’s investment in Super League could be very, very positive,” said McDermott, who is also the assistant coach of the Gold Coast Titans.<\/p>\n

“The product’s brilliant. It has always being brilliant. The product’s never been the problem. The players have never been the problem. The coaches have never been the problem.<\/p>\n

“It’s just how it’s marketed and how it’s presented to people. I think there’s some dominoes could start falling our way if the NRL invests and we accept their investment.”<\/p>\n

Super League is yet to agree a new title sponsorship deal, finalise broadcast negotiations or even its fixtures for the 2027 campaign with London Broncos’ position yet to be fully determined. <\/p>\n

The Broncos came in 16th on the yearly grading list,<\/a> below fellow Championship side Barrow Raiders, despite a season in which they won the second tier’s Grand Final, the 1895 Cup and were runaway champions in the regular-season standings.<\/p>\n

The Broncos were overlooked 12 months ago when Bradford Bulls, York Knights and Toulouse Olympique joined the expanded 14-team competition.<\/p>\n

But with the backing of Australian businessman Grant Wechsel and former Brisbane Broncos star Darren Lockyer, and with a squad full of internationals, they do still harbour hopes of playing in Super League in 2027.<\/p>\n

It is understood any completed deal would involve the Australian governing body insisting on Broncos featuring in the top flight in the near future.<\/p>\n

The financial gulf between the northern and southern hemisphere’s elite competitions was laid bare, when the NRL struck a record A$5.3bn (\u00a32.78bn) television deal over seven years in July. <\/p>\n

Super League’s TV deal with Sky Sports, which expired at the end of 2026, was worth around \u00a321.5m per year. <\/p>\n

“I know there’s some positive notes around Super League at the moment, especially with crowds,” McDermott added.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a really interesting competition this year and Wakefield winning the Grand Final puts a brilliant marker down that all the teams can win it. <\/p>\n

“It would be a real positive validation of Super League if the NRL were to invest.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England head coach Brian McDermott has called for Super League to accept investment from Australia’s NRL in order…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-937442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937442","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=937442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}