NRL boss responds after Panthers coach Ivan Cleary calls for change over 'unfair' detail

Andrew Abdo has revealed the NRL is considering shortening the men's season by multiple rounds as the league focuses on adding more teams and reducing player workload. The NRL is working on expanding the competition to 20 sides in the next decade, with Perth the favourites to enter as an 18th team in 2027, before it's anticipated that a Papua New Guinea side will join the competition in 2028 and a 20th franchise early next decade.

While the composition of the tournament remains up for debate - for things such as how many teams will qualify for finals and the structure of the fixture list - Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has led the push for the regular season to be shortened to 19 games, so each side versus just once. There have also been multiple suggestions floated to help improve players' workloads as a result of the huge casualty list in 2024, including a potential midseason break and the introduction of a several-week representative event that would revolve around State of Origin as the marquee event.

And Cleary hopes the expansion plan will result in a complete format restructure as he believes the current system is 'unfair', with some teams facing multiple traditional top eight clubs twice, while others get softer draws. “I feel like as we talk about expansion, I think that’s part of this (reducing the number of matches each team plays),” Cleary told SEN 1170 Breakfast on Tuesday. “If we expand to, let’s say 20 teams, I think 19 rounds should be it, you should play every team once.

“I feel like that’s something we’ve lost in the game, I feel like it’s a little unfair at times the draw, I don’t know if unfair is the right word, it’s just imbalanced the draw. I reckon around about 20 games, I think would be about right, I feel like that’s still plenty of games, you still get Origin in there somewhere.

“They can use the Women’s game as it grows for the broadcasters as well, that would grow the girls’ profile and get a different fan base. That’s kind of where I see it, around 20 (rounds).”

Following Cleary's comments Abdo confirmed that the idea of a shorter competition is something the NRL is seriously considering. "Expansion gives us more options," Abdo said at the NRLW launch. "As you add and think about expanding with more teams, you can think quite strategically around what the structure of the competition looks like. And it's possible there may be less rounds going forward.

"For us it's about the quality of the competition and the quality of the whole season structure. The pre-season, the premiership, the finals series, State of Origin and the international game, which is incredibly important to the commission as well."

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NRL broadcasters expected to influence competition structure

Abdo also revealed that the season structure of both the men's and women's competition is currently front of mind as the league looks to grow both games. "The beauty of expansion is we will have options," Abdo said.

"We're planning now for something happening in 2027 and 2028, which means we can get very organised and think about both the men's and women's competitions. (We can consider) what's the right time of year, what is the right number of games and what's the right configuration."

However, NRL broadcasters will almost certainly have a large say around season structure, with the next TV rights deal set to come up for grabs in 2028. NRL clubs have played at least 24 games in a season since 1998. It was then upped to 26 in 2000 and 2001 when there were only 14 clubs.

But a 19-game season for each club in a 20-team competition would still allow for 190 regular-season matches, just two fewer than the 192 played as recently as 2022. Other options such as wildcard finals rounds could also be considered by the NRL as a way of adding extra knockout games and in turn keeping more clubs in finals contention.

with AAP