‘Political move, cash grab’: Debate continues over $600m PNG NRL expansion move

The NRL is set to announce it’s next expansion team but the Papua New Guinea bid continues to leave a bad taste in the mouth.

The NRL is reportedly finally set to announce Papua New Guinea as the competition’s next team with Thursday set to be the big day.

But despite the NRL and PNG government seemingly having their ducks in a row, the questions are still coming in thick and fast about the potential new franchise.

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Word of a $600m deal over 10 years between the Australian government and PNG have been had throughout the year before it was officially announced in September.

Since then, it has appeared a mere formality that a third nation would join the National Rugby League competition, with the biggest question about the confirmation whether it would be the 18th or 19th team.

PNG’s entry is expected to join the competition in 2028.

PNG’s Primer Minister James Marape told the PNG CORE conference earlier in the week: “On Thursday, hopefully, some of you potential sponsors of our NRL team can join me as the NRL completes its process in making a potential announcement of the team,” the AAP reported.

But there are much broader questions that the new NRL franchise appears will have three years to work out around security, player attraction and retention, and a host of other potential issues.

Speaking on LiSTNR’s Footy Talk podcast Nine league journos Danny Weidler and Michael Chammas were at odds over the value of taking the game to PNG.

Will the PNG team succeed? Picture: NRL Imagery

Weidler admitted he was still not excited by the proposition.

“I just don’t feel the PNG arrival into our comp — maybe I will when it happens (but) I’m not excited by it,” Weidler said.

“I feel like it’s a political move — I hate when sport and politics mix. This is all about dollars and cents. I know the game needs it, the money is hard to knock back, I understand that.

“But I don’t see the need for this team to be in the NRL competition at this point.

“I’m all for Perth and I hope that happens. I’d like to see another New Zealand team or another team out of Brisbane, but I’m just not excited about sitting at home on a Saturday afternoon watching PNG vs Cowboys.”

Chammas said while he wasn’t on board originally, he had come around to the idea, particularly when it comes to making rugby league bigger on the international stage.

“It is a political move and it is all about the dollars and cents by you have to think what it brings for the rest of the game,” Chammas said.

“We talk all the time about is bush footy dying, are we providing the clubs with enough resources, the pathways … well if you get the money, then you can invest in those other platforms.”

However, Chammas did concede “there is a very strong possibility that this doesn’t work.

“But there is also a possibility that this is one of the most significant moments in our game.

“We are beginning to untap the Pacific as a game, we’ve made massive inroads into the Pacific over the last five to 10 years and we’ve started to see the inroads rugby league is making in New Zealand as well.”

The fans are definitely there. Picture: NRL Images

But Weidler said the issue is that it “mucks up the fabric of the game and the competition”.

Pressed about it being a “narrow-minded” view, Weidler hit back saying: “I don’t like the reasons this team is being brought in.

“We’re being told it’s being brought in as some kind of weapon against China, and to me that’s gobbledygook,” Weidler added.

The $600m cash injection for PNG has been described as soft diplomacy as Australia tries to slow China’s growing influence in the region.

However, the Sydney Morning Herald reported last week that PNG’s Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko said Australia has not insisted on any formal security agreements, adding the deal “has nothing to do with China”.

Host Adam Peacock interjected asking if the deal would even be discussed without the Australian government funding, to which both men said “no”.

“We should call this team the PNG Dollar Signs, because that’s what they are,” Weidler quipped. “It’s all about the money.

“Call them the Albos. It’s a political team and that’s why I don’t like it — it’s as simple as that.”

Chammas said it’s not only the Australian government that is bringing the money with PNG bringing $200m to the table to build a “mini-city” in Port Moresby to ease safety concerns in the developing nation.

Weidler said another point that “disturbs” him is the mooted tax exemptions for players.

“That for me stuffs up the salary cap,” Weidler said.

“The salary cap is not balanced but if you’re getting tax-free money, you’ve got a double cap straight away.

“How is that fair for let’s say the Raiders who always have an issue bringing players to their club for whatever reason? They’ve got a $12m cap, suddenly PNG have got a $20m cap, which it is in effect if these tax breaks go through. That’s not fair to other teams.

“It mucks up the comp.”

Anthony Albanese and James Marape. Picture: PMO

Chammas: “But sometimes we have to do things for the game that’s in the best interests of the game for the future.”

Weidler: “That’s what I don’t see it as, the best interests of the game. I see it in the best interests of the coffers of the game and I understand it’s an offer that’s too good to refuse but with all those sorts of offers, there’s always a catch.”

Chammas: “We can’t just be so focused on the game domestically. I told you how I sat there in Paris during the Olympics and watched the Sevens and how there were people from all over the world and I’m thinking this is such an inferior product.”

Weidler: “The Sevens?”

Chammas: “Just rugby union in general. To me, league should be what rugby union is and rugby union has been far more global than rugby league ever has been.

“We have fallen away because all we’ve been focused on is club football and Origin. We should have our sights on being the best rugby code in the world in the next 15-20 years.

“And you’re not going to do that by constantly focusing on the NRL. You’ve got to take risks, you’ve got to make some sacrifices and put some noses out of joint.”

But the passionate defence of PNG didn’t sway Weidler.

“I just see this as a political move and a cash grab that won’t result in good things down the track,” Weidler said. “I have real worries about the way it’ll be perceived.”

Asked about what type of player the tax-free incentives would attract, Chammas said: “No one is going there for long-term.”

He added that the players will also likely “be people without families”.

Weidler said he hoped there wouldn’t be a “mercenary” aspect to the recruitment.

“But it may start that way,” Chammas said. “We’ve got four years runway and the most important thing for them is setting up pathways so that in 10 years time they don’t have to rely on the mercenaries to come over and take the money.”

He added that it would take at least 10 years to ensure the bulk of the team are homegrown talents.

Chammas said the “risk is worth the reward”.

The kids are keen. Picture NRL photos

And when asked if it folded in 10 years time, Chammas added: “Who cares, so be it.”

It’s hardly the first questions that have been asked about the PNG issue.

Despite it being the nation’s national sport — the only nation in the world with rugby league as its national game — former swimming champion Leisel Jones told her Triple M The Rush Hour show in June that “From what I heard on the ground and speaking to a lot of people in PNG, I don’t think they want an NRL team there.

“I’ve been hearing a lot that ‘it’s lip service’, that it was a lot of the Australian government just very quickly, just off the cuff deciding that they want to have this team for safety reasons for Australia, but really didn’t think it through,” Jones said at the time.

“There’s are a lot of stats in PNG that — 80 per cent unemployment rates, that’s the big issue. Children are going through to school and ending at year six, that is their education level.

“An NRL team might be an embarrassment on the country because they don’t have any feeder pathways. There is no NRL going through schools, there’s no sport education because they’re finishing at year six.”