Sport Confidential: NRL’s plan for record $2 billion-plus TV rights deal; Phil Gould turns blowtorch on Des Hasler’s Titans
ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys says a record broadcast deal is on the horizon with the NRL eyeing a mega TV rights deal in excess of $2 billion.
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ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys has boldly declared a record broadcast deal is on the horizon with the NRL eyeing a mega TV rights deal in excess of $2 billion.
V’landys is set to begin talks on the code’s next broadcast deal for 2028 and beyond and is aiming to surpass the NRL’s previous TV rights contract.
The NRL’s current five-year broadcast deal, brokered in December 2021, is worth an estimated $2 billion, but the governing body is bullish about setting a new TV rights benchmark for the sport.
The proposed addition of two new franchises in Papua New Guinea and Perth would give the NRL an extra game per round to sell to broadcasters.
Then there’s the potential threat of new streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon and Paramount which the NRL is willing to explore – and possibly sell off products such as State of Origin to grow the broadcast revenue pie.
V’landys has set a mid-year deadline to finalise the next broadcast deal and the ARLC boss is targeting record numbers to take the NRL to another level.
“We will be going to the market for broadcast and we’re very confident we are going to procure record terms out of broadcast,” he said.
“Rugby league is the most watched sport on Kayo and most watched sport around Australia.
“When you add the Pacific and PNG (as a new franchise), it is a very valuable commodity to the broadcaster and we will be maximising the return on that.
“For the next broadcast cycle, we will have either 18 or 19 teams.
“We are trying to finalise what our content looks like and we are going to make a decision in the next two months (on expansion to Perth) and then we will stick to that decision.
“By having a little bit more time and setting the right amount of teams in the competition, it will pay dividends into the future.”
V’landys is also keen to keep growing the international game. The NRL is not only backing more matches on the Test calendar, such as a revival of Kangaroo tours, but is open to buying the UK Super League competition.
“We will continue to invest in international games,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons we have the partnership with Super League to have Wigan and Warrington in Vegas (this year).
“It’s never been done before.”
MADEG ON CARRIGAN
Broncos coach Michael Maguire has broken his silence on his decision not to retain Pat Carrigan as Brisbane’s vice-captain this season.
Former Brisbane coach Kevin Walters had installed Carrigan as his deputy to skipper Adam Reynolds, but under the Maguire regime in 2025, there is no official vice-captain.
Instead, Carrigan is part of a five-man leadership group, also including Kotoni Staggs, Ben Hunt and Payne Haas, that plays a support role to Reynolds.
It remains to be seen who Brisbane’s stand-in captain will be this season if Reynolds is not on the field.
“I have never had a vice-captain,” he said.
“I have had a leadership group that sits underneath the captain.
“I have always seen it as having strong leaders around and with our leadership group, all those players can lead.
“That’s what the team needs, a team of leaders.
“The captain goes and tosses the coin and has a chat to the team at certain times, but they will all have their opportunities as leaders.”
Maguire says Carrigan remains a crucial part of his plans, with the Queensland Origin lock set to move to prop for the premiership opener against the Roosters.
Kobe Hetherington is in line for the No.13 jumper with Carrigan tipped to form a formidable front-row alliance with Haas.
“I have watched Pat for a long time and he has played at the highest level – Origin and internationals,” Maguire said.
“With Payne, a great player himself, I think it is a really good combination.
“The middles do play a different role and our style of how we are going to play … it will suit Patty playing the way he is (at prop).”
GOULD’S TITANS WHACK
NRL powerbroker Phil Gould has turned the blowtorch on Des Hasler’s Titans on the eve of the new 2025 premiership, claiming the Coast “don’t have the fire”.
Bulldogs football boss Gould believes the Titans have the roster to be a finals team and admits he was left stunned by Gold Coast’s dismal 14th-placed finish last year in Hasler’s first season in charge.
The pressure is on Hasler to deliver Gold Coast’s first finals campaign in five years and Gould, one of the code’s sharpest minds and most powerful figures, says there are no excuses for the Titans coach.
“I am perplexed sometimes at why they aren’t doing better,” Gould said in his Channel 9 podcast analysing the 2025 season.
“They were minus 168 (points differential) and conceded 656 points (last year), that’s the area where they have to improve.
“You can’t be conceding over 600 points in a season and think you will get anywhere near finals football.
“They are better than that. They are honestly better than that and they need to improve that part of their game (defence) and their mentality.
“You’d expect a Des Hasler-coached side to do that.
“Whatever it is up there that Des needs to fix, they need to work on it quickly.
“They have talent, but you need to have a system and a structure and a mentality that stands up under pressure.
“Right at the moment, they have the flash, but they don’t have the fire.”
The Titans dropped a bombshell midway through 2023, ruthlessly axing Justin Holbook with the Gold Coast in finals contention in favour of Hasler.
But the Titans went backwards statistically last year, with Hasler winning just eight games compared to Holbrook’s nine with a worse points differential (-168 to -126).
Two-time premiership coach Gould also questioned the Titans’ treatment of star fullback AJ Brimson, who has been moved to centre and five-eighth.
Brimson has been cruelled by injuries in recent years and the Titans have looked at position changes for the former Queensland Origin star to accommodate fullback sensation Keano Kini and custodian-cum-halfback Jayden Campbell.
“I don’t know what they have done with Brimson,” Gould said.
“They have played him in the centres and five-eighth, they have moved him around to accommodate the others, but he is the strength.
“I don’t see them on a day-to-day basis, the coach does, so you have to trust his judgement.
“They have a strong forward pack. If the Titans perform to their potential, it’s potentially a top-eight side, but I’ve been saying that for a few years now.”
ROOSTER’S NRL LIFELINE
Brandon Smith has attracted interest from the Super League and at least three NRL rivals as the unwanted Roosters rake fights to save his career.
Smith has been given permission to leave by the Roosters at season’s end after a hugely disappointing three seasons at Bondi in which the former Storm star never really settled.
The 28-year-old has the option to head overseas to resurrect his career in England but his preference is to stay in the NRL.
Smith’s manager Stan Martin confirmed the former Kiwi Test hooker, recovering from a knee reconstruction, has fielded expressions of interest to play on in the NRL in 2026.
“We’ve had expressions of interest from three or four clubs,” Martin said.
“Brandon is focusing on his injury rehab at the moment.
“He has been told by the Roosters he’s not required, his contract expires this year, so we’re on the lookout for a new club for him.
“I’ve sent an email to clubs saying we’re looking for expressions of interest in Brandon.
“I’ve had three inquiries. I won’t name the clubs out of respect to the process.
“We haven’t talked money. I’ve asked a few clubs how much they thought he was worth and he is going to take a ‘haircut’ (pay cut) from where is he now, it just depends how big the haircut is, whether it’s a shaved head or a crew cut.
“Where he ends up now I have no clue. There’s three NRL clubs and England is interested, but we’ll pursue the Australian clubs before we look to the Super League.”
Smith is viewed in some quarters as a problem child. He has burnt bridges with some clubs – he left Wayne Bennett furious after allegedly reneging on a verbal agreement with the Dolphins – but Martin is adamant the ex-Storm premiership winner has more to offer.
“At this point in time, I don’t have a formal offer for him,” he said.
“Brandon is going through his rehabilitation so at this point I want him to get his knee right.
“If nothing comes up in the NRL, we won’t have a choice but to go to England, but he wants to stay in the NRL if he can.”
NRLW’S EXPANSION COUP
ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys has revealed rugby league could launch a massive poaching raid on rugby union to help deliver an 18-team NRLW competition.
The NRL is set to have a 19-team league by 2028, with Perth’s Western Bears slated to join Papua New Guinea, and major expansion is also coming to the NRLW.
The NRLW has increased from 10 teams last year to 12 in 2025 with the rebirth of the Warriors and admission of the Bulldogs, but a major expansion drive is on the agenda.
While it may be some time before the women’s competition has the talent depth to sustain an 18-team league, V’landys says adding a further six teams is a longer-term strategic target.
“We are very keen to expand the (NRLW) game,” he said.
“There is a deal we have done with the RLPA and there is a certain amount of money in the CBA and naturally they don’t want that to be diluted.
“Our two state authorities (QRL and NSWRL) we have to consult with to make sure there is sufficient players that are coming through the pathways and we don’t rush it.
“But it’s always been our plan to go to 18 teams, to have as many women teams as men’s teams and we think we can do it sooner rather than later.
“There’s some analysis to be done and we have to work with the two state authorities, we don’t want to destroy their competitions.
“But there is another sport, it’s called union or something, they have a lot of (female) players so maybe we can source some of them from there.”
BRONCOS LIVING LARGE
Former Broncos coach Kevin Walters has revealed he raised concerns about the club’s biggest stars living away from Brisbane.
It is understood Brisbane’s post-review last season included feedback about how to improve the club’s training standards amid fears some Broncos players were travelling too far for training.
A handful of the Broncos’ big guns live outside of Brisbane. Queensland Origin star Pat Carrigan lives on the Gold Coast, as does Jesse Arthars, while fullback sensation Reece Walsh is based in the Gold Coast hinterland.
Driving from the Gold Coast to Brisbane represents a 170km round trip. Even before Walters was appointed coach, concerns were raised about the impact of travel from the Gold Coast for Broncos players.
In his new podcast Inside Ball, Walters says he tried to address the residency issue, but concedes it’s difficult to have hard-and-fast rules about telling players where to live.
“All the work the Broncos do is physical, so sitting in the car for so long (is an issue),” Walters said.
“I had some discussions with the players around that, guys that were living out of Brisbane.
“Some of the players for personal reasons need to live where they live, which you have to respect.
“In a perfect world, they all live in Brisbane, but it can’t happen that way.
“Even in Sydney, I know guys who live in Penrith and played at Cronulla, Kurt Capewell did that.
“The elite players can lock in and do it (perform). They can’t always be in Brisbane.”
SUPER LEAGUE STOUSH
The infamous Super League war is set for another explosive chapter when John Ribot and Ben Ikin go head-to-head next month.
The Queensland Rugby League’s annual Ross Livermore Memorial Lecture shapes as one of the spiciest in decades with Ribot and Ikin to appear as guests speakers
Ribot, of course, was the despised boss of Super League between 1995-97, while current QRL chief executive Ikin was then a player aligned with the rival ARL competition.
Legendary Queensland broadcaster John McCoy, who called Super League games for Fox Sports in 1997, will be MC at the lecture.
The official welcome will be given by QRL History Committee chair, Steve Ricketts, who reported on the Super League war as chief league writer of The Courier-Mail.
The 2025 Lecture will be held on Saturday, March 15 at the QRL offices in Castlemaine Street, Milton.
Doors will open at 9.45am with official proceedings to begin at 10.20am.
Entry to the lecture is free, but those interested in attending are asked to contact the QRL via email rugbyleague@qrl.com.au or phone (07) 3367 6000 for catering purposes.
The event will be live streamed via www.qrl.com.au
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