Super League and NRL salary cap gulf laid bare as clubs face bleak overseas recruitment prospects

Super League clubs hoping to delve into the overseas transfer market this year face a harder task than ever before as the financial clout of the NRL continues to expand.

The grim discrepancy between the salary caps of Super League and the NRL has been laid bare, figures that perfectly illustrate the difficulty facing clubs that are looking to bring in overseas stars for the 2023 season.

As it stands, the Super League has a base salary cap of £2.1 million for its top 25 players an average salary of . Though there are eight dispensations that permit further spending, including the marquee player rule, club trained allowances and new talent pool rulings, for most clubs, finding the money to simply spend the salary cap is problematic.

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With a reduction in the TV deal clubs now receive distribution of around £1.5m per year, meaning they have to find £600,000 to spend up to cap before even considering the use of the dispensations in place.

By comparison, an increase the NRL salary cap is currently being negotiated and is expected to rise from its current figure of $9.4m (£5.3m) over 30 contracted players to $11m (£6.2m) for next year. It means that from next year, the average NRL salary for top 30 players could be $366,666 a year, which translates to

It means that on average, players in the NRL will earn two and a half times more than they will in Super League. For further context, if Super League clubs were to pay any player the average NRL salary, they would occupy one of their two marquee player spots, which are capped at £150,000 on the salary cap. If some of the richer clubs in the competition wished to sign two marquee players, they