NRL opens season with storylines to clear rugby league’s clouds

Like a kid grinning through a new year’s school photos with two black eyes, men’s rugby league returns this week for its 115th season. Typically, there is as much conflict off the field as on, with players suiting up for new clubs against old ones, old rivalries resuming and fresh feuds between coaches and clubs in headlines and on sidelines. And before NRL stadium turnstiles can spin, the doors of the courts will be busy with numerous outstanding legal cases involving former and current players, not named in this article, still to be resolved.

But the NRL knows that when you are going through hell it pays to just keep going. Hence, the feel-good stories: the $500,000 fighting fund for flood victims for starters. Then there’s Canberra’s Harley Smith-Shields receiving a hamstring donation from older brother Jesse to save his career and Roosters coach Trent Robinson signing until 2028. League’s fastest man, Tolu Koula – he runs the 100m in 10.58s largely thanks to parents who both represented Tonga at three Olympics – has signed a three-year deal with Manly.

Heartening too was the stance of two of the NRL’s oldest and family-minded clubs, South Sydney and Canterbury-Bankstown, in banning betting promotions from all apparel and match-day promotions in an attempt to nullify its effect on young frans and vulnerable communities. This goes in direct defiance of the NRL who made $40m from gambling last financial year and a code vocal in their desire to cash in on the legalisation of sports betting in the US, where what was a $500bn -a-year black market is now potentially up for grabs.

Smarter still, the NRL crashes through this crossfire fusillade of yin-yang flim-flam with clever TV scheduling. While rugby union and football