BY STEVE MASCORD
LOOK at the things rugby league fans were posting on social media 12 months ago and you get a depressing sense of how ‘Groundhog Day’ professional sport really is.
There is comforting monotony to it all. The same colours, the same stadiums, just the fit young bodies and fresh faces rotate. In an existence full of often painful change, these enduring motifs give us comfort.
But there IS real change in the world of rugby league right now. There hasn’t been a deal like IMG’s 12-year partnership with the British game before. A second tier country has never made a World Cup final before. Wheelchair rugby league has never attracted million-plus free-to-air television audiences before.
Here are 13 burning questions for 2023.
13. Will we still have three divisions in England beyond this year? IMG have made all the right noises about being concerned regarding the whole of the professional game in the UK but grants for League 1 are less than a high school dropout’s first salary. When the crowd is just a few hundred and the match isn’t being streamed, you have to ask why it’s being played. Central funding then seems to be not much more than the dole.
12. Who, if anyone, will England play at the end of this year? The rumour mill says Tonga, which means there is now a third country that can tour a very wealthy market – the UK – in spring and make money. When you consider there’s only been two for 116 years, that’s a major step forward for the sport.
11. Who will win the battle for the soul of wheelchair rugby league? England are the world champions but the inventors of the discipline say they are turning it into a television sport, a circus, that excludes the disabled. Unlike us to fight amongst ourselves.
10. Will Super League survive as a brand? IMG are open to changing it but say it’s “not a big deal”. If It’s not a big deal, why change it? The phrase doesn’t really mean much anymore, does it? Bonus question: will Leigh just go down again?
9. Will the 2025 World Cup be as ambitious as announced? Sixty-plus matches was a stretch last year; is France ready to host 120-plus just two years from now? A 16-team women’s comp when there aren’t 16 countries even playing the women’s game? A 16-team men’s youth competition, nine-a-side, when there is no such competition at the moment? Expect a significant scale-down.
8. Who will be the 18th NRL team? Once upon a time a team in Papua New Guinea seemed a ridiculous idea – no TV rights, no-one wants to live there, no money from anything else. Then China tried to expand its sphere of influence in the Pacific and a South Sydney fan became Australian prime minister. Now running an NRL franchise on foreign aid seems eminently sensible.
7. Can it be Warrington’s year? The Wolves sign big-name players and then big players – but have they signed the right players? The idea that players needed cleaning out because they were too comfortable was seen by many as a convenient throw-off for an old-fashioned purge.
6. Can the Panthers be headed? Penrith’s rise extends way off the pitch, giving Polynesians in Western Sydney a focal point in much the same way Samoa and Tonga have done so for their respective diaspora. But Viliame Kikau (yes, he’s Melanesian) and Stephen Crichton have left and there’s no suggestion they’ll be as good at regeneration as Melbourne.
5. Is the World Club Challenge back for good? St Helens are filling the gap left by the odd number of teams in the NRL pre-season. Clearly it shows the gap in prestige between the two competitions – the Super League side is leaving after its season has begun to play two games the NRL consider to be friendlies. If they are not competitive we could be waiting a while for the next WCC.
4. What will be done to capitalise on success in the Pacific? Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the rest – as is typical – don’t know when their next game will be. Will these nations let the NRL finance their matches at the end of the year, meaning the NRL control the rights, or will they turn down government-backed packages and go it alone?
3. When will Australia play next? They won the men’s and women’s World Cups but fans couldn’t even buy the jerseys they wore. They do have to play this year for TV contracts but who they take on, and where, is a mystery.
2. Will Shaun Wane be retained as England coach? We thought he was under contract for another year but he isn’t. A decision is expected in the coming weeks. What can we realistically expect of a coach for a team that hasn’t won a series involving Australia for 50 years?
1. Will Peter V’landys see out the year? The NRL chairman has enemies – you just don’t read about them because the newspapers in Australia are owned by the same companies that have the NRL TV rights: the companies to which V’landys caved by shutting down the NRL’s digital arm, only for the AFL to get a much, much better deal on broadcast rights. Ruling buy fear has a shelf life.
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