Newly appointed NRL executive chairman Peter V’landys has revealed there is no intention to introduce any more rule changes next season, effectively torpedoing a contentious proposal to alter the kick-off rule.
V’landys has effectively become NRL chief executive and chair of the Australian Rugby League Commission, a move that was ratified by the clubs, states and the Commission last week.
After ending his 22-year tenure as boss of Racing NSW, V’landys has outlined to this masthead his vision for rugby league in his new role, which includes further globalising the game, increasing participation and potentially taking over the running of rugby league in England.
Yet the news likely to be of most interest to players, fans and clubs is that there are no plans to tinker with the fabric of the game via rule changes.
“We will meet with the coaches and players and go through it,” Vlandys said. “At this stage, there is no intention to change a rule.”
V’landys makes no apologies for introducing rule tweaks such as the six-again, claiming they have made the game more entertaining, attracted more views and helped secure a record $5.3 billion broadcasting deal.
However, several star players – including James Tedesco and Harry Grant – railed against an increase in set restarts, and their inconsistent application, at the start of the finals series.
The NRL also considered bringing in a change to the kick-off rule, whereby the team conceding points would have the option of kicking off or receiving the ball, at the start of this season. V’landys listened to the concerns of stakeholders and only road-tested the initiative in three “dead rubber” games at the end of the season.
However, that proposed change is no longer on the agenda.
“If somebody comes up with something that will be good for the game, we’ll look at it,” Vlandys said. “We’ve always got an open mind.
“But we don’t go out with the intention of changing rules. That’s the first thing. But we listen, good leadership listens. We listen and act.”
V’landys’ tenure as chairman will be best remembered for an early restart of the competition after Covid, making rugby league the most watched sport in Australia, building an asset base virtually from scratch, taking the game to Las Vegas and brokering a record television deal.
The focus now is to attract even more supporters by making rugby league a truly international game.
“My priority is globalisation of the game, that’s where our new revenues will come from,” V’landys said. “We want to promote the game and get new fans all around the world, similar to what the NFL are doing.”
The NRL has tabled an offer to purchase 50 per cent of the Super League in a bid to reinvigorate the cash-strapped game in the northern hemisphere.
“There’s no doubt that the Super League situation is important to us, but even if we don’t get Super League we are going to promote our game very substantially in England,” he said.
“There’s 750,000 Australians at any one time in London, and there’s over two million rugby league fans in the northern part of England. If you look at the analogy, everyone subscribes to the best competition in the world for a particular sport.
“With soccer, it’s the [English] Premier League, so Australians subscribe to Premier League. The leading rugby league competition is the NRL, so we should be able to get a massive market in England watching NRL. There could be tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars to us. So that’s certainly an objective.
“And then you’ve got Hong Kong, where there are 250,000 Australians. Because these people don’t know you can get the app and watch the games, so that’s what we’ll focus on. ”
A decision on whether the Super League purchase goes through is imminent.
“It’s in their hands at the moment, we’ve had heavy discussions over the past two weeks. We’re expecting some sort of landing by early next week.“
The Perth Bears will enter the competition in 2027 and the PNG Chiefs the following year. The NRL is pushing for a 20th team to be introduced in 2029, with bids from New Zealand and Queensland the current front-runners.
“Expansion has been big on our agenda,” V’landys said. “We want to make sure the Perth Bears and PNG go through and then the 20th team. We’ll have a white piece of paper to determine how the competition looks in years to come.”
Boosting playing numbers is also a key plank in V’landys’ agenda.
“Participation is very big for us, we want to continue getting people playing our game,” he said. “Even if it’s just touch, tag or contact.
“And then you’ve got other initiatives we haven’t announced yet that we will focus on.”
The on- and off-field officials have been in the spotlight throughout the season, including a sharp focus during the finals series. Referee Ashley Klein was dropped from the preliminary final for missing an escort that could have resulted in the Warriors tying up the scores late in their loss to the Knights last weekend.
However, V’landys defended the officials.
“I see the statistics every Monday, so I have an advantage over everybody,” he said. “People see the ones that are incorrect, they don’t see the 99 they got correct, just the one they got incorrect.
“When you have a human element in rugby league or any sport, it’s the same thing – they complain about the referees and umpires or the video ref. We’re not immune to it, but I see the statistics every week and as a game those statistics have improved dramatically.
“We’ve got a much better compliance for 10 metres, we’ve got much faster and consistent ruck speed, all the big areas. Unfortunately, people focus on the errors.
“I understand that, that’s part of the tribalism of the game. We’re not immune, it’s in every sport.”
Mystery surrounds the NRL grand final entertainment after negotiations with Tones and I spectacularly broke down.
“We’re going to turn the lights off, then turn them on with 11 minutes to go and everyone can see what we’ve got,” he said.
“Of course we have [something up our sleeve]. That’s the beauty of it, we’ll probably have the highest ratings in Australian TV 10 minutes before the game because everyone wants to see what we’re going to do.”
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