Johns discusses chances of NRL taking over Super League comp
MATTY Johns has declared that the NRL are looking to buy the Super League competition.
There have been rumours, and in some parts, even a desired fantasy, about the Australian powerhouse purchasing the English game, but Johns, a well-known media figure in Australia, has stated those rumours are “getting stronger”.
The NRL is now a billion-dollar organisation, overtaking Aussie Rules Football to become the biggest sport in Australia.
Featuring 17 clubs, it is getting stronger by the year, with a growing belief they are looking to purchase the Super League, which has run since 1996 when the British game moved to summer.
Johns went on to suggest British rugby league should move back to winter, allowing for the reintroduction of crosscompetition deals, with the most famous of those being the likes of Peter Sterling, who had two stints at Hull FC, and Phil Lowe, a Hull KR legend who starred in Australia, not to mention the likes of Brett Kenny and Ellery Hanley.
Speaking on SEN League, which also features former NRL player Bryan Fletcher, Johns said: “The rumour I’m hearing boys, and it’s getting stronger, and it’s that the NRL are seriously looking to possibly buy the English Rugby League.
“They have to do that, and they should move it back in England to being a winter sport. That way, it broadens the base and adds to the depth of both competitions.
“Players can go over and have guest stints and things like that. One of the things that really helped the game over there was guys like Peter Sterling, Brett Kenny, Phil Blake, going and having those short stints with Wigan, Leeds, Castleford, and what not, they really miss that over there.”
Johns was challenged by Fletcher, who believes NRL clubs wouldn’t release their star players to go and play in England.
However, he sees potential in Super
League’s brightest talents playing some part in the NRL.
“I like the idea of them coming here, but I can’t see a club letting a gun go over. I think it would be too dangerous for them,” Fletcher said.
Meanwhile, Johns went on to suggest the move to winter would also be a way to fight off rugby union, who have poached some of league’s biggest names over the years like Israel Folau, Sonny Bill Williams, Roger Tuivasa-sheck (now back in rugby league), and Joseph Sua’ali’i, who has signed with Rugby Australia from 2025.
“Let’s imagine that the Roosters are faced with a scenario: we allow Joey
Manu to go to French rugby or we let him go have a stint at Castleford,” Johns explained. “It’s an opportunity for players to really optimise their income while they’re in the game.
“It helps the English game twofold in the fact that Wigan, etc, send their players here to have guest stints, whether it’s half a season or four or five games, but the other thing why it helps them is that guys like Jack Welsby can get their NRL fix, come out and prove themselves, but still be part of the English competition, as opposed to having to make the complete change.”
Johns also believes cross-competition deals would be beneficial for young emerging NRL players, using young Penrith Panthers half Jack Cole, who is set to start in today’s World Club Challenge against Wigan, as an example.
He added: “You have a look at the Penrith side, and all those terrific young blokes that they’ve got coming through the grades, young Jack Cole, a player like that, Penrith could go, and a bit like Harry Grant at Melbourne, ‘We haven’t got the spot for you right now, but we know you’re going to make it’ and he goes to Wests Tigers, well, that’s where you could send them over to Wigan or Saints or Warrington. It would lift the standard of their game over there.”