Super League coach calls on RFL involvement to combat player exodus to machine-like NRL

Paul Rowley has become the latest Super League head coach to call on the RFL to help clubs combat the ‘machine that is the NRL’ when it comes to retaining players.

St Helens are the latest club to lose a key homegrown talent to the NRL with it being announced recently that captain Matty Lees will sign with the PNG Chiefs for 2028, likely becoming the first of several Super League players that the incoming NRL side sign.

Since the start of the 2026 season, three Leeds Rhinos players in Harry Newman, James McDonnell and Mikolaj Oledzki, as well as Warrington captain George Williams and now Lees, have had NRL moves confirmed for either 2027 or 2028.

However, it’s not a new trend with Morgan Knowles leaving last year whilst the likes of Kai Pearce-Paul, Matty Nicholson and Morgan Smithies have all made the move to the NRL in recent years.

Speaking to the media last week, Paul Rowley paid tribute to Lees and could not fault the club captain for wanting to challenge himself, however, he also noted the huge financial allure of the NRl, particularly in PNG where wages will be tax-free.

Rowley said: “The lure of tax-free money by the bucket load is not one to be sniffed at so it’s a short career and everybody must make the most of it, so we wish him well in that and we hope he reaps the benefits of it.

“That will be two things, one, he’ll be challenging himself in a different competition and a different lifestyle and two, he reaps the financial benefits as well which I’ve no doubt that he will.”

Super League in danger of losing more young players to the NRL unless action is taken

Whilst Super League certainly cannot offer tax-free wages, the salary cap could well do to be raised with the last bump coming in 2020. That took it to £2.1 million and whilst clubs can work around it in some ways with marquee players, it’s still dwarfed by the NRL’s salary cap of around £6.1 million in comparison.

When asked if the player pool of Super League is under threat, Rowley agreed: “100%, especially our younger players as well,” before noting the issues with the salary cap.

He added: “I think more and more will get targeted and it’s getting hard to get everybody in the cap.

“I think other coaches have made a little bit of noise on that as well and I agree with them.”

Wigan Warriors boss Matt Peet, and especially his CEO Kris Radlinski, have made such noises with the reality being that the club are unable to keep all of their homegrown players on such a limited salary cap where there simply are not enough incentives to develop stars of the future, only to then lose them to rival clubs.

Asked if the RFL need to act to combat such issues, Paul Rowley said: “That’s the only way to remedy the problem if the game can afford it otherwise I just accept that players are going to seek their fortune in other parts of the world unfortunately.

“I’m not quite sure whose responsibility or whose shoulders that fall upon but we would struggle to fight against the machine that the NRL is in terms of resource and finance.

“Maybe we need to have a little look about how we can change things up a little bit to retain our best talent.”

With Super League and the RFL in discussions with the NRL over a possible partnership, concerns over a player exodus will likely be one of the big talking points.