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Figure caption,St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus on the NRL's proposal to Super League and the appointment of Kevin Walters as head coach next season
- Published33 minutes ago
St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus says the NRL and Super League should be working together to help grow rugby league as a global sport - instead of one organisation taking over from the other.
Super League confirmed earlier in the month that it had received an investment offer from the Australian Rugby League Commission, which plans to help grow the European competition's revenue.
Talks have been ongoing over a deal between the two parties since last year, but McManus said the "whole issue has been gone about in the wrong way".
"It's a case of the NRL, the most successful rugby club competition in the world, looking to acquire or rescue a target that's not functioning," he told BBC Radio Merseyside.
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"I look at it very differently. I look at the fact that Australia in club competition rugby league is one of the great successes in world sport.
"But it's reached a stage where Australia by its definition is a prisoner of its own geography, it's a prisoner of its own economy.
"Its broadcast deal has just reached incredible levels of value, but where is the growth there?"
McManus said rugby league in Europe is the "antithesis" of what Australia has achieved with the sport but that change was possible.
"We're a sport that hasn't necessarily been run very well for too long, but there is incredible growth potential here," he said.
"This is not a matter of picking at a carcass, taking over a weak sport.
"Both sides should be looking at this as how do we combine to make rugby league as a sport globally one that can really grow and strengthen.
"Certainly in terms of growth in Europe, it's got unlimited potential, so how do we work together to exploit that?"
In a statement, Rhodri Jones, managing director of the Rugby Football League (RFL), said: "We are genuinely interested in exploring a mutually beneficial and financially fair partnership with the NRL, which we firmly believe would unlock the significant added value benefit of creating a single global entity for the sport."
BBC Sport has contacted the NRL for comment.
Image source, SWPIX.COMImage caption, Eamonn McManus says rugby league needs to "start again for the benefit of the sport in its entirety"
While McManus admitted rugby league was "never going to be soccer", he insisted it should not be the "minority sport" it is today.
"We're one which should be of real appeal to the nation in its entirety and one that is capable of great strengthening of the two combined as a partnership," he said last week, prior to St Helens' win against Castleford Tigers on Saturday.
"This isn't a partnership of equals. I understand Australia is way ahead in terms of its appeal to the sporting nation there, relative to here.
"But it's one that if we do combine as opposed to absorbing one by the other, then it can be a force to be reckoned with in world sport.
"So I think we need a different mindset before we get into what the sport is valued at and what money should be pumped into it and what's acceptable to clubs."
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'Walters appointment is compelling'
Image source, SWPIX.comImage caption, Kevin Walters won the State of Origin series twice with Queensland in 2016 and 2017
One major development which may help boost the European game is St Helens' appointment of Australia head coach Kevin Walters as their new boss for next season.
McManus described landing a coach with the pedigree of the 58-year-old, who has Brisbane Broncos and Queensland on his CV, as "pretty compelling for us".
"I'm personally very excited as is the club, as is the game of rugby league and Super League in the UK," he said.
"Kevin Walters is currently the head coach of the greatest rugby nation of either code in the world.
"So for him to leave that position and want to come to St Helens as our head coach is a major statement for us and by him."
Walters may have a big job on his hands with the prospect of taking over off the back of a season in which St Helens could fail to reach the Super League play-offs for the first time ever.
He will also become the fourth boss Saints will have had in the space of a year, including current interim coach Eamon O'Carroll.
"We need stability followed by success and that's why a person of his calibre and experience is in our opinion essential at this point in time," McManus said.
