{"id":517500,"date":"2026-04-07T11:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/517500\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T11:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:33:10","slug":"talked-a-good-game-but-gary-hetherington-gives-nrl-investment-verdict-amid-urge-for-strategic-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/517500\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Talked a good game but…\u2019 -Gary Hetherington gives NRL investment verdict amid urge for \u2018strategic plan\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"London\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

London Broncos part-owner Gary Hetherington has shared his thoughts on the possibility of the NRL investing in rugby league in the northern hemisphere.<\/p>\n

Hetherington, alongside Paul Caddick, helped transform Leeds Rhinos into one of the powerhouses of English rugby league but the sport on the whole in the northern hemisphere is miles behind the NRL in terms of financial power.<\/p>\n

Having left Headingley, Hetherington is now involved with London Broncos as a part-owner alongside Grant Wechsel and Darren Lockyer who both have strong links to the NRL with the CEO of the Australian competition set to fly to England this week<\/a> to start proper negotiations about a deal.<\/p>\n

Appearing on Sky Sports\u2019\u00a0The Bench Podcast<\/a>,\u00a0Hetherington was asked for his thoughts on the prospect of NRL investment in Super League with the 70-year-old admitting that whilst it\u2019s obvious the competitions should work together, the NRL need to back up their talk.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThey\u2019ve talked a good game but they\u2019ve not actually produced an offer<\/a> to be considered but there\u2019s no doubt that we do need a strategic partnership with the NRL, and they need one with us as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are only two competitions in the world and we need to actually come together and have a strategic plan for the game, and one for international football which is in many ways the low-hanging fruit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve done a good job with that in the southern hemisphere but we need a much more robust plan than we have at present.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gary Hetherington gives verdict on reported NRL investment<\/p>\n

NRL investment would likely mean Super League club owners to cede some control, however, there is much more to rugby league in the UK than just Super League with the RFL also needing to be looped into discussions.<\/p>\n

Agreeing that NRL investment can be of huge benefit, Hetherington called on those involved in any discussions to actually formulate a \u2018strategic plan\u2019 than can advance the sport at all levels.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cI think there are a load of opportunities but it needs the NRL, the Super League and the RFL to come together to actually create this strategic plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investment would be welcome because our game does need external investment to fuel growth. That\u2019s where I see NRL investment could be quite significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hetherington added: \u201cThis is not something that you\u2019re going to sort out over a 20-minute chat. We need to bring together the people who actually know about the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

Self-interest is something that NRL powerhouse Peter V\u2019landys has warned Super League club owners against<\/a> and Hetherington outlined his belief that decisions would be made for the good of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who own clubs in many ways are the custodians of the game,\u201d he explained, adding: \u201cThey\u2019re custodians of their own club but also of the game so whatever decision we make, we make in the best interest of the game and not just for a select number of clubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be fair to Peter V\u2019landys and Andrew Abdo, they\u2019ve done an outstanding job in the southern hemisphere, so we need to welcome their ingenuity, their professionalism and their expertise but we\u2019ve got to be mindful of our needs as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London Broncos part-owner Gary Hetherington has shared his thoughts on the possibility of the NRL investing in rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-517500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}