St Helens forward Alex Walmsley has had his say on Super League moving to 14 teams whilst outlining the club’s expectations for 2026.
Saints, who are reeling from the loss of captain Matty Lees to a knee injury that will rule him out for around three months, will travel to face Warrington Wolves on Friday night at a sold-out Halliwell Jones Stadium.
One trend will be broken in that game either way with Warrington having won the last seven meetings, whilst St Helens have won their last twelve Super League season openers.
For Walmsley, he’s hopeful that Saints can get the job done and he spoke to Talksport about the club’s fresh perspective following an off-season of change.
He explained: “It’s almost like new beginnings, I think, bringing in Paul Rowley who brings an exciting brand of a league, something different to how we’ve played over the last five or six years.
“I think as a squad and as a club we needed a bit of a shake-up, but along with that we brought in some new players as well, who bring a wealth of Super League and NRL experience, Jackson Hastings, Nene Macdonald, Jacob Host, David Klemmer.
“We’ve got some really exciting players who have come on board this year, and hopefully they can offer us a different dimension.”
Walmsley then admitted: “It’s been, for our standard, quite a tough couple of years, where we’ve finished and how we’ve ended the year, so hopefully this sort of new shake-up and new beginnings offers a new, exciting way of playing, and hopefully we can reap some really good results and rewards off the back of that.”
St Helens man reacts to Matty Lees’ injury blow
One thing that St Helens will have to contend with in their search for ‘good results and rewards’, at least in the first few months, is the absence of Matty Lees following his knee injury.
For Walmsley, he explained that it’s not about replacing Lees with an individual but instead having the forward pack rally around and each do their bit.
The England international said: “You can’t replace people like Leesy, all you do is ring around the rest of the squad and do your best to fill in that void as best you can, but like I said, we’ve got a squad here that’s full of NRL and Super League experience.
“Obviously Leesy’s disappointment is someone else’s opportunity, someone’s going to come in tomorrow night and fill that job, and we as a squad need to make sure that we respond and do our best without having Leesy there.”
As for Super League’s move to 14 teams, it was something that Walmsley praised as he labelled the promoted trio of York Knights, Bradford Bulls and Toulouse Olympique as ‘exciting’.
He explained: “Obviously, York, for the first time, are coming to Super League. They bring something new and different to our sport. Bradford, who was such a successful team from the 90s and early 2000s so to have them back in Super League is, again, exciting for the game, and Toulouse as well, offers another trip to France.
“It’s back to normal, 26 rounds, plus the Magic weekend round, making it 27. It’s a bit fairer in terms of how the loop fixtures go. On Magic weekend, I get to go to Everton and play at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, which, from a personal point of view, I was there last year for the Ashes game and that was incredible, so I’m really excited for that.”
He was also very vocal on the fact that there are two French sides in Super League, noting how it can allow the sport to grow to new places whilst also offering fans another new destinaton.
Walmsley said: “One thing you can say about the Catalans and the Toulouse away trips, obviously it offers a new experience for fans, Toulouse were in there a couple of years ago, and from a players’ opportunity and experience, it’s a brilliant place to go to and play rugby.
“As a sport we’re trying to grow, 2025 was a record-breaking year for Super League, we had more people watching on Sky, biggest crowds in our history, so in 2026 we’re looking to build on that, and having a team like Toulouse and York coming in and offering something new is obviously a big part of that. We’ll see some new fans watch our sport, and hopefully it’ll help it keep growing.”
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