Expansion of the National Rugby League

The National Rugby League is the top level rugby league competition in Australia and New Zealand. It was formed in 1998 after the merger of the Australian Super League and the Australian Rugby League. Inaugurally containing 20 teams, rationalisation reduced this number to 14 by 2000.

The competition expanded back to 16 teams in 2007 and 17 teams in 2023, and will expand to 18 teams in 2027 and 19 teams in 2028.

Debate regarding the expansion of the competition to 20 teams is ongoing.

The Australian Super League and the ARL had 22 teams combined in 1997. When the NRL was formed in 1998, it was decided that there would only be 20 teams.

The Melbourne Storm were an expansion team that year, with the NRL shutting down the Perth Reds, the South Queensland Crushers, and the Hunter Mariners. In 1999, the Adelaide Rams were shut down and the Gold Coast Chargers were removed from the competition, and the South Sydney Rabbitohs were removed from the competition in 2000.

The NRL also had three mergers of established clubs from Sydney and regional New South Wales between 1999 and 2000 – the St. George Dragons and Illawarra Steelers formed the St. George Illawarra Dragons, the Western Suburbs Magpies and Balmain Tigers formed the Wests Tigers, and the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and North Sydney Bears formed the Northern Eagles.

However, the Northern Eagles merger dissolved in 2002, and the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles returned to the competition the following year: the Bears will return to the competition in 2027 as the Perth Bears.

The South Sydney Rabbitohs were re-admitted to the competition for the 2002 NRL season after a legal battle with the NRL over their removal in 2000, with the help of New Zealand-born Australian actor and Rabbitohs supporter Russell Crowe.

The Gold Coast Titans were admitted to the NRL for the 2007 season, beating out bids from the Central Coast Bears and Wellington Orcas.

On 13 October 2021, Queensland Cup side the Redcliffe Dolphins were granted a license to field a team in the NRL from the 2023 season to become the NRL's 17th franchise.^[1]

They beat out bids from other Queensland rivals, the Brisbane Jets and Brisbane Firehawks, in securing the return of a second Brisbane team to the top-flight of rugby league after 26 years.

On 8 May 2025, the ARL Commission formally agreed to the Western Australian Government's revised offer for an NRL franchise to be based in Perth, securing the return of the Bears to the NRL after 28 years and the return of a Western Australian team to the top-flight of rugby league after 30 years. It beat out a previous bid from the consortium known as Western Bears.^[2]

On 12 December 2024, an as yet unnamed team from Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea was confirmed to enter the NRL in 2028, with the assistance of $600 million in Australian government funding.^[3]

The NRL has repeatedly expressed its intention of further expanding the competition.

On 28 April 2021, it was reported that the NRL was considering an eventual 18-team competition divided into two conferences. The format that was suggested by NRL officials would see the nine Sydney-based clubs compete in one conference and the remaining nine teams in the other, with each team playing each other once and then a second time against the other teams in their respective conference. The intended effect is to strengthen the rivalries between the Sydney-based clubs by guaranteeing they all play each other twice, but it would come with the downside of forcing non-Sydney teams to travel a lot more than Sydney teams.^[4]

On 12 March 2023, News Corp reported a 20-team competition, potentially to reach this number before the beginning of the 2032 Summer Olympics in Brisbane, was being considered by the ARL Commission.^[5]

In July 2024, led by Andrew Abdo and the Australian Rugby League Commission’s chairman, Peter V’landys, it was confirmed the plan would be to add three teams to the NRL by 2030, of which two could be based offshore.^[6]

However, on 26 April 2025 - following the inclusion of the Perth-based Bears and its approval by the clubs - the NRL postponed the addition of a 20th team until after the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.^[7]

Adelaide has not been represented in the NRL since the Adelaide Rams were shut down in 1998. With the Perth Bears entering the NRL in 2027, Adelaide becomes the largest city in Australia without a team.

A third Brisbane-based club could follow the Dolphins' entry into the NRL.

The Brisbane Tigers bid for inclusion in the NRL in 2020 under the name "Brisbane Firehawks" - a bid which was defeated by the Dolphins. Following suggestions from the NRL that a fifth Queensland-based team could join the league,^[8] the Tigers announced they would again bid for the NRL in May 2023. The bid would be boosted by redevelopments to the club's home ground and intentions to target the south-west corridor between Ipswich and Logan.^[9] Should the club be accepted, it would be represented in the NRL under a name other than "Tigers", due to the Wests Tigers already competing in the league.

In August 2024, it was confirmed that two of rugby league's most famous teams, Ipswich and Newtown, had joined forces in a $20 million bid to form a historic partnership in the hope of being part of the NRL's expanded competition. Queensland could have a fifth franchise in the NRL, with the two famous clubs - both known as the Jets - combining to lodge a formal submission with a view to being part of a 20-team league.^[10] The team name will simply be called the Jets.

Newtown and Ipswich share the same moniker which they will keep in the name, mirroring that of the Dolphins' decision to not have a region attached to it, and would be joint owners of the NRL franchise. The team would be permanently based in Ipswich. They would train at Ipswich and aim to play at least six home games at Suncorp Stadium.

They would wear Ipswich’s traditional green jersey whenever they play in Queensland, but outside of Queensland, they would have a Newtown Jets-inspired blue kit. There is also the potential to play one home game at either Henson Park or Leichhardt Oval.^[10]

In March 2024, the Cabinet of Fiji approved an endorsement of Rugby League Bid (Fiji) Limited's goal of securing an NRL licence. The Cabinet also approved a tax rebate of 200% for sponsors of the bidding consortium.^[11] Fiji currently have a team in the New South Wales Jersey Flegg Cup, the Kaiviti Silktails.

In March 2021, NRL CEO Andrew Abdo suggested an 18th team could be based in New Zealand to create a rivalry with the New Zealand Warriors.^[12]

Following the allusion to a potential second New Zealand-based team, a resurrected Wellington Orcas bid was announced by former New Zealand Rugby League chair Andrew Chalmers. The proposed team, potentially under the name ‘Southern Orcas’, would play most home games at Sky Stadium and also take games to Christchurch and Dunedin.^[13]

A South Island NRL bid based in Christchurch is headed by former Canterbury Rugby League chairman Tony Kidd, with the intention of playing a majority of home games at the under-construction Te Kaha stadium, with additional games at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin. The bid is yet to confirm a name for its proposed team.^[14]

Another bid intended to represent the South Island was announced on 14 March 2024, headed by former Rugby New Zealand and NRL chief executive David Moffett, with the name for the proposed team revealed to be the South Island Kea. This team would also make use of the Te Kaha stadium.^[15]

Other consortiums and clubs have expressed interest in launching an NRL team in past years. These bids have gone quiet more recently and are considered defunct.

The Brisbane Jets bid was one of three considered by the NRL in 2021. An amalgamation of two other Brisbane-based bids,^[16] the Jets sought to tap into the south-west of Brisbane, including with a 20,500-seat stadium in Ipswich.^[17]

In April 2013, a bid was made to bring Brothers Leprechauns into the NRL, uniting and representing a large base revolving around over 40 Brothers clubs across three states. Bid founder Justin Barlow proposed to base a Brothers NRL team at Corbett Park in Brisbane’s northern suburbs and primarily play out of Suncorp Stadium. The team was also proposed to take a handful of home games each year to regional centres, and would be the pathway for junior rugby league players that come up through a club in the Brothers Confraternity.^[18]

The Brothers Confraternity made no expression of interest when the NRL declared its interest in introducing another Brisbane-based side in 2020.

The Central Coast Bears were a proposed team based on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. They were trying to be included in an expanded National Rugby League competition since 2006.^[19] The proposed team would have played 11 games in Gosford and one game against Manly at North Sydney Oval, in the annual Heritage Round.

In April 2009, a consortium from the Central Queensland region declared their intent to launch a bid for an NRL team to be based in Rockhampton.^[20] The bid aimed to be a new club by 2013.^[21]

Following the failed Wellington Orcas bid, the Wellington Rugby League began working on a proposal and business plan for a second New Zealand based team in 2008. They proposed a club that would be based in Wellington and divide their games between the New Zealand capital and other locations in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.^[22]

• Rugby Football League expansion