NRL 2025: Peter V’landys’ plea to end player abuse, warning for Rugby Union
ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys has revealed he fears for the welfare of Latrell Mitchell and Reece Walsh, delivered a warning to rugby union, and opened up on the future of State of Origin.
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ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys fears for the welfare of Latrell Mitchell and Reece Walsh and has appealed for fans to celebrate two of the NRL’s most controversial superstars this season.
And V’landys received the backing of South Sydney supercoach Wayne Bennett, who revealed he has seen other big names quit the NRL because of incessant abuse – and hopes Mitchell doesn’t follow that path.
In a wide-ranging interview, V’landys and Bennett – two of the code’s most powerful figures – spoke of the searing pressure on the NRL’s biggest stars ahead of a new premiership dawn in 2025.
V’landys also revealed plans to take State of Origin to New Zealand and took aim at Rugby Australia, rubbishing suggestions the 15-a-side code could poach the NRL’s No.1 player, Penrith maestro Nathan Cleary.
Walsh and Mitchell are set to begin their 2025 campaigns over the next fortnight in pre-season trials and both marquee figures are coming off drama-charged seasons at the Broncos and Souths respectively.
PVL’S PLAYER WELFARE PLEA
During his five-year tenure as ARLC chair, V’landys has shown himself to be a player-first administrator who cares about the welfare of the NRL’s entertainers.
He brokered the record $1.347 billion Collective Bargaining Agreement to reward the code’s stars, such as Broncos whiz-kid Walsh and Rabbitohs matchwinner Mitchell, like never before.
Now V’landys is mindful of the increasing furnace of expectation for the likes of Walsh, Mitchell and Cleary in an age of social-media bullying, where technology has given fans a more dangerous platform to attack NRL stars.
Mitchell has been the victim of racial abuse, while Walsh took to social media last year urging fans to treat him with respect as his status as the NRL’s promotional rock star gathered steam.
With the 2025 premiership just a month away, V’landys says he will do everything possible to ensure Mitchell and Walsh are not driven out of the sport by relentless attacks.
“Absolutely I will,” he said.
“We should sit back and admire just how lucky we are to have these great players.
“Latrell Mitchell is one of the great players in the game and we want him here in our game. We want him at his best. We can’t forget he is human at the end of the day.
“People really take it for granted how good guys like Reece Walsh, Latrell Mitchell, James Tedesco, Kalyn Ponga and the king of them, Nathan Cleary, are. They are our entertainers.
“I think they can be taken for granted how good they are.
“We just expect them to turn up every week and expect them to turn it on and more often than not, they do. Their consistency and ability is remarkable.”
SAVING LATRELL
Bennett is not a man to sugar-coat a bitter pill.
He has put the onus on Mitchell to fire this season, mindful of the murky backdrop of 2024, when South Sydney’s champion fullback was embroiled in the white-substance scandal.
Mitchell was fined $40,000 by Souths and the NRL, with a suspended $80,000 sanction from the Rabbitohs hanging over his head if he reoffends this year.
Bennett is viewed as the coach who cannot only save Latrell, but truly pull him into line. After 50 years at the coalface, the supercoach says he has seen a number of big-name players walk away from the NRL because of savage scrutiny.
It’s why Bennett is tight-lipped when asked about Mitchell. He wants the Rabbitohs ace to do his talking on the field this season.
“You guys make headlines every time they do something, but that’s the territory the great players have to handle,” Bennett
“I’ve seen the media do jobs on players and I know several players who have been driven out of the game because of the adverse publicity that has come their way.
“They will go to England (to Super League) to get away from the NRL.
“But the expectation comes with the territory.
“Right now, I’m happy with Latrell. He has been excellent. He is looking good and he is going very well at training.
“There’s a number of special players in this game and Latrell is in that category of players that makes the game enjoyable and everybody wants to follow them.
“But there is a lot of scrutiny.”
Mitchell, evidently, means business this season.
The 27-year-old has lost around 4-5kg and has demolished a private bar at his home, instead installing a sauna and personal wellness centre, including a gymnasium.
“I do worry about Latrell because he is a very good human being,” V’landys said.
“That’s first and foremost what I look at. He is a genuinely nice person.
“Sometimes he gets the wrong advice or says the wrong things, but in the main he is a very good person whose heart is in the right place.
“He is a young man and the pressure on him is immense. Any person that has that pressure sometimes makes mistakes and you have to expect that.
“We’re not all perfect.”
REBUILDING REECE
Walsh is Brisbane’s fullback equivalent of Mitchell. The glamour boy endured a horror 2024 campaign marred by a series of injury sagas. He suffered a facial fracture in round 3.
Then came his sickening concussion in State of Origin I, followed by wrist surgery that prematurely ended his season and restricted him to just 14 games.
In the off-season, Walsh inked a mega $5 million contract extension and has hit the ground running in the 2025 pre-season, impressing new Broncos coach Michael Maguire with his fitness testing and overall attitude.
With the NRL on track to surpass $720 million in revenue, V’landys is pushing for the code to break more records in 2025 and he says Walsh is a key plank in their on-field product.
V’landys has struck a rapport with Walsh. In Las Vegas last year for the code’s historic American launch, Walsh walked past V’landys and put a Broncos scarf around his neck, which the ARLC boss passed onto his daughter.
“In terms of a single player, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as popular as Reece,” he said.
“Reece Walsh is an administrator’s dream in regards to marketing of the game. He is bringing in demographics that we never dreamt of getting.
“When he gets the ball, you can see the anticipation in people where they get out of their seats and the attention is glued to him.
“He is one of those players who is charismatic, he is brilliant, a game-breaker and just an excitement machine. He has everything. He is bringing new people into the game.
“There’s a lot of pressure on Reece, so we have to make sure we don’t put too much pressure on him. He is a young man with enormous pressure and expectation and we have to understand that as a game.”
RUGBY THREAT
This masthead exclusively reported last year that former Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan revealed he was contacted by a third-party regarding Cleary’s possible interest in switching codes.
McLennan, the man who poached Roosters young gun Joseph Suaalii for the Wallabies in a $5 million coup, was made aware that as many as six NRL players were keen to defect for the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
Cleary will be 30 when he comes off-contract at the end of 2027. Fresh from clinching his fourth consecutive premiership, Cleary could be forgiven for considering other sporting challenges, but V’landys insists rugby is no threat.
“No, we won’t lose our best players to rugby,” V’landys said.
“I wish Joseph Suaalii all the best because he is a lovely kid and a very good player, but they haven’t got the financial resources to keep poaching our players.
“Rugby union should just worry about their backyard. It makes no sense … why would they pay their own guys less to get someone from rugby league?
“How must it feel for those rugby guys who have been loyal to that code all that time and all of a sudden Rugby Australia wants to target NRL players.
“Nathan Cleary won’t go to rugby. What’s he going to do for half the game? Statistics show they only have 33 minutes of ball in play and we have 59 to 60.
“There’s so many stoppages in rugby union. We have twice as much ball in play so if you’re an athlete, you want to be playing NRL.
“You can’t compare the two sports for entertainment, it’s not even close.
“They should be cultivating their own players, not trying to poach our best talent.”
KIWI ORIGIN
Ever the visionary, V’landys isn’t satisfied solely with his groundbreaking Las Vegas venture. More overseas assignments are on the agenda.
New Zealand is the NRL’s next untapped goldmine.
Aside from a possible 20th NRL franchise in New Zealand’s south, V’landys believes it’s time to take State of Origin across the ditch.
Perth has been locked in as the neutral venue for this year and 2028, but the 2027 Origin calendar has yet to be finalised.
Auckland tourism bosses are keen to bring State of Origin to Eden Park in 2027 and V’landys confirmed the ARL Commission is open to talks with the New Zealand government for a watershed Queensland-NSW clash on Kiwi soil.
“The game is going so well in New Zealand that it would be a lost opportunity not to take Origin to New Zealand,” he said.
“We have committed ourselves for a certain period and after that, the neutral Origin venue is up in the air.
“Once our current commitments are over, we would certainly look at an Origin game in New Zealand.”
Originally published as NRL 2025: Peter V’landys’ plea to end player abuse, warning for Rugby Union
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