NRL 2023: five off-field issues the league and its bosses face this season

With a new team in the mix and a fresh deal between players and officials on the table, the NRL should be flying into 2023. But for all the blue sky some big storms are brewing.

BITTER PAY WAR FINALLY ENDS

Player strikes. Sponsor boycotts. Cancelled launches. This hot unholy mess was not the runway rugby league needed for a flying start to the 2023 season.

Only now, after months of standoffs and threats, and with mere days until round one kicks off, the NRL and Rugby League Players Association finally seem to have brokered a peace deal.

A new five-year $1.347bn collective bargaining agreement will be signed in days. Not a minute too soon for the 68% of club bosses unhappy at how long the NRL has taken to do it.

The CBA means higher salaries and better health protection for NRL and NRLW players, RLPA autonomy on how injured/retired player funds are managed, and an end to players signing with rival teams a year in advance (ala Dom Young and Stephen Crichton recently).

Does it mean more funding for grassroots growth in the bush, interstate or to young women? We’ll see. At least fans won’t hear much more about the CBA, and can focus on the footy.

DAWN OF THE DOLPHINS

For the first time in 16 years, the NRL has a new team: the Dolphins, based in the Brisbane suburb of Redcliffe and coached by seven-time premiership winner Wayne Bennett.

Despite controversially omitting a home base from their name, the Dolphins hope to draw footy-crazy fans from the 500km belt north of Brisbane to Rockhampton. Easier said than done. The Gold Coast Titans, introduced in 2007 into a similarly league-loving region, have the lowest membership in the NRL and have cracked the finals just four times in 16 seasons.

Has the NRL made the right call