Bennett says rebel league ‘won’t happen’

Joel Gould | November 7, 2022

Wayne Bennett says a mooted breakaway rebel league outside of NRL jurisdiction “won’t happen” and predicts the 17 clubs, Rugby League Players Association (RLPA) and NRL hierarchy will eventually smoke the peace pipe.

Bennett, speaking at the Dolphins historic first day of pre-season training, has been following the negotiations between the NRL, RLPA and clubs over the salary cap for 2023 and the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which is yet to be struck.

NRL club officials have voiced their concerns in recent weeks that they still don’t know what the salary cap figure for 2023 will be while talks between the NRL and RLPA about a new CBA are ongoing and led to RLPA boss Clint Newton boss telling AAP that a fair resolution should not be delayed any longer.

The frustrations have led to Penrith CEO Brian Fletcher telling News Corp that a breakaway league had been mooted as a last resort.

Bennett knows what a breakaway league looks like. He was a key figure in the Super League war where Brisbane were an integral part of the new competition, but he said talk of another episode was wide of the mark.

“That’s rubbish,” Bennett said.

“I only heard three months ago that the CBA was on again. Every time they have the CBA, there’s drama. But at the end of the day, we will get it all together and there will be one competition next year. They will sort it all out.”

Dolphins CEO Terry Reader said he expected a resolution on the 2023 salary cap figure, likely to be between $10m and $11m plus concessions, to be imminent.

“There is a working committee that is working on that with the NRL in more detail. As a group, we get together and talk about what’s happening, where we are going and what’s going,” Reader said.

“Nothing has changed and we are looking forward to getting to the end of those negotiations, hopefully with a good result for the clubs, players and the NRL.”

Whatever the cap turns out to be, Reader said the Dolphins still had money in the kitty to spend.

“We’ve been working off a cap and we haven’t spent our whole cap which has been well publicised,” Reader said.

“There’s been no complaints from our club. We continue on and we are happy with the squad we have put together. There is still a lot of time before we run on the field in March.”