NRL NRL 2025 General Recruitment Thread

[Viking]

I heard from someone who has seen R360 in Europe. As of a month ago, they had about 80 men signed up. The best union players won't go until after the next RWC hence the League boys getting offers. A lot of female players are signing though as it's a full time pro gig for them which is something that neither code can offer women elsewhere.

R360 plan make it a bigger version of the sevens circuit style, with all 12 teams travelling to each location and making it a festival week with concerts and other forms of entertainment coinciding with the games.

It's hard to imagine how it succeeds to be honest. It's obviously timed to fill the squads with RWC players but logistically, it would be a nightmare. They'll be taking 300 plus players and at least the same amount of staff to each location, some of which have no appetite for rugby as shown by the small crowds at a number of the sevens comps. Imagine playing in a bigger version of the magic round, 16 times in a season along with the travel and different time zones etc......the players will burn out for sure.

I heard that Lomax stands to make 3 million for the first shortened season. That's almost double what the Top 14 clubs are paying stars.

 

[Canonball]

I heard from someone who has seen R360 in Europe. As of a month ago, they had about 80 men signed up. The best union players won't go until after the next RWC hence the League boys getting offers. A lot of female players are signing though as it's a full time pro gig for them which is something that neither code can offer women elsewhere.

R360 plan make it a bigger version of the sevens circuit style, with all 12 teams travelling to each location and making it a festival week with concerts and other forms of entertainment coinciding with the games.

It's hard to imagine how it succeeds to be honest. It's obviously timed to fill the squads with RWC players but logistically, it would be a nightmare. They'll be taking 300 plus players and at least the same amount of staff to each location, some of which have no appetite for rugby as shown by the small crowds at a number of the sevens comps. Imagine playing in a bigger version of the magic round, 16 times in a season along with the travel and different time zones etc......the players will burn out for sure.

I heard that Lomax stands to make 3 million for the first shortened season. That's almost double what the Top 14 clubs are paying stars.

I think whoever is behind it is vastly over-estimating the game's global appeal too - a lot of union's international appeal comes via tradition and nationalism, that's clearly not going to transfer to the New York Coneheads, or the Madrid Ruckus... I can't see it working either.

 

[JaggedJ]

Struggling to see how it will make a profit.

Short term they might not care, but long term there's got to be a limit to how much money they'll sink.

Haas would be an interesting test case if it happens. 3 mil per season for someone who will play what position? Centre? No8?

Doesn't seem suited to either. It's as if they're chasing names/headlines more than anything else.

 

[Viking]

I think whoever is behind it is vastly over-estimating the game's global appeal too - a lot of union's international appeal comes via tradition and nationalism, that's clearly not going to transfer to the New York Coneheads, or the Madrid Ruckus... I can't see it working either.

Yeah that's a good point, the novelty might make up for the lack of tribalism, what happens when the novelty wears off? And even if they got the players, where does the quality staff come from for 12 new teams?

The money's there though, it's bankrolled by some US outfits and surely they've done their due diligence. If the comp loses 10s, or even 100s of millions getting off the ground, the US backers will get bored of it.

 

[JustLikeStartingOver]

damn, i suppose it has to be that much to forego a whole year on your NRL contract.

 

[Viking]

I didn't hear about the Zac Lomax money from the person i know who talked to R360 but from a rugby coach via an agent so yeah.....Lomax isn't worth that IMO.

Edit: news.com.au reporting 3 mil for two years. That sounds more like it.

 

[CWC]

So is it a Saudi or US company bankrolling this?
Saudis are trying to buy WB/Discovery too, and there's still money to be made with movies/streaming/merch
But for R360, 80 players? That's 2 teams
They expect league fans to watch league stars playing union?
This thing will be a joke, if it's run by an US firm they'll end it after flopping for 1-2 seasons with some CEOs getting fired, or if run by Saudis some prince's pride will be hurt and he'll terminate it to stop eternal embarrassment

It's crazy but it's totally in line with the likes of Disney managing to half Star Wars' box office in 4 years and never released a film again, losing $100-200M per Marvel flops since 2023, Paramount spending 400M+ on latest Mission Impossible to lose hundreds of millions or WB announcing Henry Cavill's fired (6 weeks after announcing his return), DC studio CEO announcing DCEU is finished/rebooted, with 4 MORE FILMS still on the slate to be released, each ended up losing $200M+ that year

You can't underestimate the stupidity of big corps