Pundit Jon Wilkin has made a bold claim about the state of Super League with Hull FC CEO Richie Myler offering an alternative solution.
Myler, who assumed the role of CEO at Hull FC following the club’s takeover in the off-season, joined Jon Wilkin and Jenna Brooks on their podcast The Bench.
A common theme of that podcast is to either add to or rid rugby league of certain things by either placing them on the bench, or bringing them off the bench.
This week, Hull FC’s chief has argued that Super League clubs should have more overseas quota spots made available to them as a way to counteract the NRL poaching Super League talent.
Currently, Super League clubs are allowed seven overseas quota players with those players being recognised as players who have not played in Europe for three years before the age of 21.
Typically a quota player will be a player who has arrived from either the NRL or one of their feeder competitions such as the New South Wales or Queensland Cup competition.
Hull FC CEO argues for increase in overseas quota spots
Credit: Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com
Hull FC are currently at the max on their overseas quota spots but recently received dispensation to remove Ligi Sao from their quota after his season-ending injury, something that allowed them to bring in Liam Knight from the NRL.
Speaking on The Bench, Myler argued: “I think we have to open the quotas position because in my opinion, you’re going to end up losing some of our best talents. Let’s be honest, the NRL is the pinnacle of our game so why would we not be able to bring more of their talent into our competition to improve it.”
Recently, Super League has seen the likes of Lewis Dodd and Matty Nicholson head Down Under whilst Kai Pearce-Paul, Morgan Smithies and Will Pryce all departed the year prior. St Helens’ Morgan Knowles has already been confirmed to be leaving the Red Vee for the NRL at the end of the year.
Myler continued: “If they get two new teams in the NRL, John Cartwright said it ‘If I was a head coach of that new team, I’m coming straight and picking every England player’, because they can compete at that level, they’re cheaper and they’ll go and do a job over there.
“I know for a fact that players have got it in the contract at other clubs that they’ve got release clauses if an NRL club is interested.”
Jon Wilkin calls for 10-team Super League amidst player development fears
Credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
It has been confirmed that two new NRL teams will be introduced with Papua New Guinea becoming the competition’s 18th team and plans for a 19th well underway. To counter more player poaching, Myler has argued for an increase in the number of quota players that each Super League side should have, whilst also revealing one man they missed out on.
He said: “I still agree that we have seven quota players on a game day but I think we should open it up so the pool’s bigger. So, my suggestion would be to have maybe ten quota players, or maybe not a limit on quota players, but only a certain amount can play in a game day.
“We looked at Zac Cini from Castleford, we looked at him when we were going through recruitment. Now he’s a talented player but we needed other areas to recruit him but if we had a couple more spots, we would have brought him in because he’s a really talented player. But you can’t because you can only do seven.”
To that, Jon Wilkin put forward the argument that perhaps Super League should be reduced to a ten-team competition, arguing that there is not enough quality generated to sustain 12 clubs.
The Sky Sports pundit said: “I always feel like we are testing the quality of our competition by stretching the playing group too thin. If there’s 10 clubs, I think we’ve got enough players, but the 12 clubs, I don’t think there’s enough players being generated.”
Myler agreed, adding: “The pool of players we can all pick from, and we’re all fighting for, is too small and it’s going to get smaller if we lose more talent to the NRL.
“Theere has to be a change in governance, in the RFL, they have to decide that actually you can have more Australian players or Kiwi players because ultimately if we can’t bring them in and with some clubs not prioritising academies, players will dry up.”
2 Comments
Leave a Reply
Leave a Reply
derrick roberts
March 17, 2025 at 4:40 pm
all teams in all leagues should have a teams and acadameys
Mark Watson
March 17, 2025 at 11:25 pm
London had an exerlent academy. If they’d been given a super league place they’d have kept it going. They got rid tovtry and score points elsewhere. It was producing southern players, eventually london would have had to let players go to othervteams as there were so many youngsters, male and female, wanting to play.