NRL 2023: Five off-field concerns the league and its executives are dealing with this year

The NRL should soar toward 2023 with a brand-new squad in the mix and a brand-new deal between players and officials on the table. But despite the blue sky, several big storms are brewing.

Ending the acrimonious salary dispute

Player strikes. boycott backers. the postponing of launches. For its 2023 season debut to be a success, rugby league does not need this sweltering, hellish mess as its runway.

Months after standoffs and threats, and just days before round one of the NFL season begins, it appears like the NRL and Rugby League Players Association have finally reached a peace accord.

A new $1.347 billion collective bargaining agreement for five years will be completed in the coming days. For the 68% of club executives who are upset with how long the NRL has taken to accomplish it, it couldn’t come fast enough.

The CBA suggests higher salaries and better health benefits for NRL and NRLW players, RLPA authority over how injured/retired player funds are handled, and a ban on players signing up with rival teams a year in advance (ala Dom Young and Stephen Crichton recently).

Is it greater financing for young women, interstate travel, or local, grassroots development in the bush? Let’s wait and see. At the very least, this will allow spectators to focus on the game and not hear as much about the CBA.

Dolphin’s Day Dawn

The NRL has a new team for the first time in 16 years: the Dolphins, headquartered in the Redcliffe neighborhood of Brisbane and led by seven-time premiership winner Wayne Bennett.

The Dolphins seek to bring soccer-crazy supporters from the 500km region north of Brisbane to Rockhampton despite the fact that their moniker controversially omits a home base. It’s simpler stated than done. The Gold Coast Titans have the lowest fan base in the NRL and have only reached the finals four times in 16 seasons despite being introduced in 2007 to a region that shares a similar love of sports.

Having rejected applications from Brisbane, Western Australia, and the NSW Central Coast, did the NRL make the correct decision in selecting a fourth Queensland club? If not, can it maintain its composure long enough to turn the Dolphins into a team similar to the 1998 NRL entry Melbourne Storm, which won four championships and had more than 40,000 fans by the time it left the league after 25 years?

Raid in rugby

The NRL will not like Eddie Jones’ selection as the Wallabies’ coach. Four legendary players from the league, Wendell Sailor, Lote Tuquiri, Mat Rogers, and Andrew Walker, were in Jones’ Wallabies squad in 2003 when he led them to the World Cup final.

In addition, “Fast Eddie” was plotting further raids on the NRL in front of the Australia-hosted Rugby World Cup in 2027 within weeks of taking over again. Joseph Suaalii (Roosters), Will Penisini (Eels), Tolu Koula (Sea Eagles), Nelson Asofa-Solomona (Storm), and Cameron Murray are among the schoolboy union athletes on Jones’ target list thus far (Rabbitohs).

Jones’s war chest is expanding quickly as sponsors pour into the 15-man code in anticipation of the 2023 World Cup and the 2025 British & Irish Lions tour. Any NRL players unhappy with the way rugby league is being conducted would find the challenge of a code hop and World Cup in front of home fans to be very profitable indeed if the Wallabies start winning again under his leadership.

Pride Round 

That was the cause of Manly’s 2022 season’s collapse and the firing of coach Des Hasler. The NRL’s drama is unending, just like the rainbow itself. An unnamed survey of NRL executives conducted last week revealed that 82% of them opposed a Pride round, 57% were reluctant to have their clubs adopt Pride jerseys, and 38% were receptive to the idea but only with player consent.

Both within and outside of the game, it was criticized. Toby Rudolf, a star for the Cronulla Sharks who freely discussed his personal same-sex experiences last year, wondered, “What are we afraid of? Since 2015, the Sydney Swans have played a Pride game every year while wearing rainbow colors and advocating for inclusivity. The A-League and NBL both have designated Pride rounds. Nonetheless, the NRL has cautiously floated a “Respect round” solution that many clubs have deemed to be too difficult to buy, obviously still stinging from the seven-player boycott at Manly last year on religious grounds.

A severe blow to the NRL’s reputation was dealt when it was discovered that a staff member had reportedly been secretly recording the NRL’s discussions with the RLPA. Not only did the CBA negotiations become controversial and drag on for too long, but they also became heated. Even worse, the Sydney Morning Herald poll found that 36% of club executives feel “unsupported” by the NRL (more than twice as many as in 2021), and that more than half of them believe the NRL started when the New South Wales government broke its $800 million promise to rebuild Brookvale Oval, Penrith Stadium, Shark Park, and Leichhardt Oval.

After threatening to transfer the 2022 grand final interstate, the NRL changed direction and signed a last-minute arrangement to keep it in New South Wales, which aggravated the deep wound. So where and in which state will the 2023 NRL championship game be held? Your prediction is as accurate as ours.

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