A secretive South Island NRL bid threatens to shake up New Zealand’s expansion hopes; the chaos of NRL player contracts exposed; Israel Adesanya faces a career-defining fight in August; Amazon enters the Kiwi sports streaming market.
OPINION
A mystery third bid for a South Island-based Australian NRL expansion franchise has emerged.
And when Sports Insider says “mystery”, we mean it.
One Australian media report described them as “a secret consortium of millionaire businessmen from the same region who have reached out to the NRL”.
To date, efforts to out these so-called “millionaires” have come to naught. We’re told they exist but we can’t substantiate it yet and I’ll believe it when I see it.
First cab off the rank was the South Island NRL bid led by former Canterbury Rugby League chair Tony Kidd, followed swiftly by the Kea consortium, pulled together by ex-NRL and New Zealand Rugby chief executive David Moffett.
Now we have No 3 coming to the table right when the Australian Rugby League Commission releases its timetable and criteria for extending the NRL from a 17-team competition to a 20-franchise model by the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
A second New Zealand team by that date seems a given but already any additional Kiwi franchise is behind the pecking order in the race for the teams set to gain early admission.
Perth is now the new favourite for the 18th club to join in 2027, with Papua New Guinea tipped to follow a year later and then possibly another New Zealand team sometime after 2030.
Both Moffett and Kidd want to leapfrog Perth and Papua New Guinea but that prospect is not being helped by the emergence of a third bid out of Christchurch.
In fact, it makes New Zealand’s campaign look disjointed and haphazard and is more likely to push us to the back of the queue (not to mention the influence of a covert and self-serving campaign by the Warriors to retain a Kiwi monopoly).
I am told the same view is shared by the Christchurch City Council, who are keen for a strong additional anchor tenant beyond Super Rugby Pacific’s Crusaders at the new indoor Te Kaha Stadium, now just 19 months away.
There is a high-level view within the council that Kidd and Moffett’s consortiums should merge forces to provide a singular focus. That makes sense.
A third entry is starting to make the whole process look a bit chaotic and is not the signal New Zealand league needs to be sending to NRL heavyweights Peter V’Landys and Andrew Abdo right now.
New Zealand could still potentially have rivals for the 20th franchise with Cairns, another Brisbane team and Sydney foundation club the Newtown Jets – backed by billionaire advertising guru John Singleton – also making noises of bids. The NRL has confirmed expansion to 20 teams is planned and has sent a document to all interested parties to be returned at the end of this month with relevant latest planning, business plans and timelines.
It’s a tight timeframe and organisational skills and a strong commercial plan, including broadcasting rights appeal and community and local government backing, will be crucial.
If the latest mob to the party prove to be opportunists rather than visionaries – and I have my suspicions they are the former, given the juicy A$20 million ($22m) plus annual grant each club now gets – it will also further cloud the South Island picture and harm the overall prospects.
In fact, News Limited even suggested last week there are as many as five New Zealand-based consortiums who have registered expressions of interest around an expansion bid!
If so, it’s time for them to out themselves and prove skeptics like me that they’re the real deal and not just grifters.
And it’s time for a bit of common sense around a unified South Island bid.
Kiwi Dylan Brown has just secured the craziest ‘contract’ of all time
Whoever the three new franchises are entering the NRL, they better get ready for all sorts of player-contracting shenanigans.
There’s no such thing as a fair-for-all approach in Australian league, particularly in Sydney, where the powerbrokers at the big glamour clubs are consistently the tail that wags the NRL dog.
Often this manifests in all sorts of dubious alliances and increasingly creative player-contracting deals that are hidden from fans but can decimate a club if they turn sour.
An example is what is going on now with the Parramatta Eels and their Kiwi star Dylan Brown, who was recently linked to the Warriors as a potential replacement for Shaun Johnson.
Brown has just reportedly signed an eight-year contract until the end of 2031 with the Eels but it contains two crucial “get-out” clauses in his favour for 2026 and 2028.
It means Brown can simply bail either of those years if he is unhappy or gets a better offer (like becoming a marquee signing for a newly admitted franchise). So you can expect Brown to be linked to just about every club for the next three years, given his securing of the most bizarre contract I’ve ever seen in rugby or rugby league.
It’s crazy and as a result, rumours are swirling that Chad Townsend’s signing with the Sydney Roosters is simply a holding move by that club so Brown can extract himself from his Eels contract and join the Roosters when and if it suits him.
Both Townsend and Brown share the same manager, which is another problem.
Similar goings-on involving a different player-manager have been happening at South Sydney, who – like Parramatta – sacked their head coach earlier this season and are aggressively trying to build improved rosters.
The reality in the NRL is that any announced contract should be taken at face value. You can’t bank on anything (as Warriors fans painfully know, following early contract exits from the likes of Reece Walsh through to Addin Fonua-Blake).
I worked in Sydney for the Super League for three years and was warned on day one that the code in the New South Wales capital city is a vipers’ nest.
The lesson for the South Island NRL hopefuls to bank is that nothing has changed.
It’s time for TMOs in union and league to go to the bin
There may be no way to tell but Sports Insider would be intrigued to know what percentage of fans lapping up last Saturday night’s Warriors and All Blacks double-header stayed with the league when the Wahs match went to extra time and crossed over the starting time for the test.
I’m surprised how many households, like mine, have told me they stuck with the gripping Warriors-Bulldogs showdown and then played catch-up with the rugby.
A straw poll also made it obvious viewers overwhelmingly felt the league was the more exciting and pulsating match and that it was really only patriotic duty and interest in Scott Robertson’s debut as coach that drew away others at 7.05pm.
What a shame then that once again the NRL’s much-maligned Bunker blew it during the golden-point period, missing an obvious penalty to the Warriors which would have won them the match – and then later suspending the culprit, despite no action being taken at the time.
The TMO remains a blight on both codes.
I’ll excuse the Damian McKenzie halted penalty attempt debacle because that was the referee and if anything, criticism should be levelled at New Zealand Rugby for failing to provide a visible time clock in the stadium (the organisation seems to be getting progressively worse in failing to get the little things right, let alone the big ones).
Sports Insider also watched the South Africa-Ireland rugby test but gave up after the referee once again handed ultimate power to the drongos sitting in a box above them.
The TMO analysis took longer than your typical Oliver Stone movie, not only for the forensic examination of James Lowe’s second-half “try” but also whether he was in or out of the field of play later on when trying to retrieve a kick for touch.
Then there’s the reality that both decisions could have gone either way – but the fact they both went against Ireland ruined the match as a contest.
As a fan, I’d rather go back to the so-called “bad old days” when human error was occasionally part of instant decision-making, instead of the nonsensical approach we’re now seeing where tests begin in bright afternoon sunlight and end under lights in the evening, because the game takes so damn long!
The TMOs in both codes are consistently getting it wrong on critical calls, resulting in growing frustration for viewers. League might be faster in reaching its decision but constantly comes up with clangers.
Rugby simply takes too long and looks at far too much in intricate detail.
What’s more, the watching fan is now being regularly robbed of that genuine “punch-the-air” moment when your team “scores”.
Instead it’s now a collective intake of breath and all eyes on the referee to see which dreaded hand movement he or she comes up with – either a crossing of the arms (“I don’t think it was a try but I’ll send it upstairs to cover my arse” or drawing the TV box, which results in a collective “arrgh” from the crowd.
Time to sin-bin the TMO.
Israel Adesanya’s career is at a crossroads
The All Blacks are not the only New Zealanders looking to send the world a sporting signal of renewed vigour.
Sports Insider is an unabashed fan of Israel Adesanya, while acknowledging the way he makes his money isn’t necessarily everyone’s cup of tea.
But there is something refreshing in the way the Nigerian-born Kiwi breaks every convention conservative New Zealand grimly tries to hold on to from the past – you know, the stoic (boring) unsmiling and grinch-type attitudes we so often see.
But Adesanya stands at a personal crossroads next month when he returns to the UFC octagon in a blockbuster middleweight fight against South African Dricus du Plessis, who took the title off Adesanya’s surprise conqueror, American Sean Strickland.
Adesanya hasn’t fought since that uncharacteristic defence and a recent biography-type doco titled Stylebender revealed some mental kinks in his armour as he attempts to come to grips with extending a legacy as one of the greatest martial arts fighters of all time.
He was either being honest or simply letting his guard down in front of the cameras. Either way, it underlined what a fascinatingly complex character Adesanya is and how his August 17 showdown with du Plessis in Perth at UFC305 will be compelling viewing.
It could also determine Adesanya’s fighting future. A loss will further fracture the aura the Last Stylebender has carefully and skillfully built over time. A win will reaffirm him as king of the ultra-competitive middleweight division and possibly even launch a second attempt at claiming the light heavyweight championship as well.
Adesanya has typically been earning US$1m to $1.2m ($1.6m-$1.97m) per fight in recent years and although he will be the challenger when he takes on du Plessis, his appearance fee is still likely to be north of a million dollars.
Outside of Irishman Conor McGregor, Adesanya has the biggest contract in Dana White’s UFC carnival.
He has also proven himself to be a shrewd businessman and even if he was to wind down his career if Perth doesn’t go his way, Adesanya is far from the stereotyped fighter who has squandered his prized winnings.
Beyond his fight earnings, Adesanya gains substantial income from Puma as the first UFC athlete the giant German company has ever endorsed and as a content creator on YouTube, where his popular channel has well over a million subscribers.
He also has a profitable association in endorsing the popular video game Call of Duty.
Beyond that, Adesanya has invested heavily in real estate in New Zealand, adding further to the estimated US$15m in prizemoney he has earned over his fighting career.
Amazon dips its toes into Kiwi TV rights market
Amazon has joined the British-based DAZN streaming service in tinkering in the New Zealand sports rights market.
The Jeff Bezos-founded Big Tech giant has announced it will exclusively stream the US-based Major League Cricket (MLC) Twenty20 competition to Australian and New Zealand viewers.
DAZN recently secured the Kiwi rights for Joseph Parker and David Nkiya’s next fights, which will be pay-per-view.
Amazon subscribers won’t have to pay for MLC coverage though. It will be included in their current Prime subscription.
MLC’s second season will feature 25 games in the fledgling competition, which is growing in exposure following the signing of Australia’s one-day captain Pat Cummins and former skipper Steve Smith.
Kiwi allrounder Rachin Ravindra is also making an appearance, along with former Black Cap Corey Anderson, who played for the US in the recent T20 World Cup.
Team of the week
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves: Has there been a tougher rugby league warrior out of New Zealand since the days of Mark Graham and Kevin Tamati? How fitting the big man’s record 307th first-grade appearance for one of the great NRL clubs featured a sin-binning (and later a three-game ban) and a bloodied but satisfying victory. Imagine how many games J.W.H. would have played but for all those suspensions!
Sir Lewis Hamilton: There may be life in the dreadlocked little fella yet. Ahead of a move to Ferrari next year, Hamilton racked up a record ninth British Grand Prix victory at his home track, Silverstone.
New Zealand Tennis: The delightfully named Lulu Sun has given the battling organisation a new figurehead to attract a brighter future.