Why the sudden 180 on R360, Peter?

21 hours ago 5

Opinion

October 17, 2025 — 4.55pm

Strange days indeed. Most peculiar, Mama. In that interregnum of Big-Time sport that always follows the tide changing between muddied oafs and flannelled fools on the nation’s playing fields, it is to be expected that the spectre of R360 should have garnered so much attention.

What I don’t get is the sudden change in tone from NRL supremo Peter V’landys.

Only a week ago, the ARLC chair was completely dismissive of the upstart rugby competition. ”Any competition that comes out of a cornflakes box, I’m not really concerned about,” V’landys said. “That’s what it is. It’s a completely unprofessional [concept], they’ve got no business plan, and any player that goes is really risking their career.”

No worries, then.

This week, though? Bulk worries.

The NRL was taking it soooooo seriously that it issued a statement warning any player or agent who even looked sideways at R360 would never darken the NRL’s towels again. They mean it, dammit!

Peter V’landys with NRL CEO Andrew Abdo.

Ten-year bans, hard labour, no right of appeal, stay out of Dodge!

What to make of it? I thought you’d never ask. The cornflakes line was completely underdone, the threat of 10-year bans overdone. For, as I noted a couple of weeks ago, it doesn’t matter how ludicrous the concept is, if it really does have a billion dollars behind it, it means that – just like LIV golf – games will take place and players will go.

You think they will be put off by the prospect of a 10-year ban? Yeah, nah. It is not quite an empty threat but, for starters, it appears to on shaky legal ground. At the conclusion of the Super League/ARL case 30 years ago, a lawyer told me that the purport of the judge’s ruling was that “it is quite permissible to open a chocolate shop right beside another chocolate shop.”

Ditto this case, I suspect. The NRL runs a football comp. Who are they to tell players and agents they can’t engage with another comp – at least when they are off contract? How can they say, ‘If you go, you can’t come back’ without it being a classic example of a restraint of trade? An off-contract footballer must be free to sell his wares where he sees fit.

And besides all that, angry fulminations about bans never hold when the player is talented enough. Two decades ago, when Sonny Bill Williams left the Canterbury Bulldogs to go and play rugby in France, there were all sorts of noises about him never being allowed to play NRL again. When he did come back, after being signed by the Roosters, there was so much hoopla that some pundits were claiming 100 million people would tune in. He remains a hugely respected figure in the game.

As you will note, I don’t think R360 will work, and I hope it doesn’t. But it is more than cornflakes box material, and it won’t be stopped by empty threats of 10-year bans!

Steady, Eddie

Sorry, what, Eddie?

For here was the once redoubtable – now just doubtable – Eddie Jones, also on the subject of R360.

“I think we need it, mate,” he told the Times on Sunday.

Really, Eddie, and why would that be?

“You think about what World Series Cricket did.”

I am thinking about. It ushered the game from the all-but-amateur era into the professional era with bells and whistles attached, not to mention Tony Greig sticking his car keys into the pitch every morning before the start of play, and taking it for a burn around the oval. Just like Super League, it got traction because before that, the players weren’t getting remotely close to their market worth, and were being exploited.

Eddie Jones is a believer when it comes to R360.

“It changed the whole game from being a drab game to being an exciting game that people wanted to get involved in.”

A drab game? Does that fairly describe the last World Cup, the Six Nations, the Lions Series, the Wallaby victories in South Africa?

“That’s part of the problem of rugby at the moment. Test match rugby is that.”

Is what, Eddie? By any measure, rugby has never been bigger, globally. Still, go on:

“But we need another level and that’s an entertainment level that brings more fans and more sponsors and more commercialism into the game to allow our more traditional levels of rugby to continue.”

And there it is, folks. See, when they go, it won’t be “I just couldn’t resist the money…TAXI!” It will always be dressed up as, “I am doing this for the good of the game.”

Captain’s knock

As it happens, TFF asked Wallaby skipper Harry Wilson about R360 last Friday at the Cauliflower Club lunch before 500 people at the Fullerton Hotel. The audience had just been wowed by great speeches from former subbies rugby player made-good-in-the-big-city, Premier Chris Minns, who made a toast to the backs, followed by an equally wonderful toast to the forwards by Federal Sports Minister Annika Wells.

We had also been graced by a great chat from Wallaroos captain Siokapesi Palu and winger Desiree Miller about the just completed Women’s World Rugby Cup in England. Harry took the stage to thunderous applause, in recognition for the great year the Wallabies have had. Now this is not an exact transcript of his remarks on R360 – because I was not recording – but it was certainly the thrust.

Wallabies skipper Harry Wilson says he won’t be signing with R360.

Fitz: “So, what about R360?”

Harry: “Yeah, they’re out there.”

Fitz: “Knocking on doors?”

Harry: “I guess so, yes, knocking on doors.“

Fitz: “Signing them up in carparks at midnight?”

Harry: [Jocularly.] “No doubt.”

Fitz: “Will we lose some Wallabies to it?”

Harry: “Maybe one or two, but not many.”

Fitz: “And what about you? Will you stay loyal?“

Harry: [Seriously shocked at the very suggestion.] ”Me??? Of course not! I am living my dream of playing for the Wallabies. I didn’t start playing rugby to earn millions. I will stay with the Wallabies.”

He blew the room away. And when I mentioned to a Wallaby who will remain nameless – let’s just call him Nick Champion de Crespigny – how impressive I found Wilson, he replied: “Harry is a true Australian captain and is so passionate to represent Australia, and we love following him because of this. I definitely am truly proud to be playing for my country and it was the motivating factor for me coming back from France.”

RAH!

What they said

David Warner on which team’s style will dominate the Ashes: ”The Australian way because we’re playing for the Ashes and they’re playing for a moral victory. There’s your headline.” You put the kettle on Dave, and I shall inform the front page.

The great Ariarne Titmus, on Thursday: “I am here to announce that I’ve made the decision to retire from competitive swimming. A tough one, a really tough one, but one that I’m really happy with. I’ve always loved swimming. It’s been my passion since I was a little girl. But I guess I’ve taken this time away from the sport and realised some things in my life that have always been important to me are just a little bit more important to me now than swimming and that’s OK. Here we are.”

Ariarne Titmus with family members in Brisbane on Friday.

Tiger Woods on X: ”After experiencing pain and lack of mobility in my back, I consulted with Doctor and Surgeons to have tests taken. The scans determined that I had a collapsed disk in L4/5, disc fragments and a compromised spinal canal. I opted to have my disc replaced yesterday.” If that ain’t necessarily the formal end of his career, he can at least see it from here.

Premier Chris Minns in his brilliant address to the Cauliflower Club on Friday: “Brisbane ... the city vying to host the second-best Olympic Games ever. Queensland’s got an unfair reputation as a sunny place for shady characters ... I for one, think it’s a great thing that Queensland is the land of the second chance, and I can’t wait to see Ezra Mam light the Olympic flame in September 2032.” Slayed ’em.

Supercars champion Will Brown on a hairy moment during the Bathurst 1000: “I just pooped in my pants.”

St Kilda player Jack Higgins: “I have bought a house in East Brighton, so I am mortgaged to the hilt. It’s awesome. I worked hard for it but if I was 16 or 17 and Jack Higgins was living in Caulfield, saying I had bought a house in Brighton East, I would have thought I had won Tattslotto.” I would have said if at 16 or 17 Jack Higgins was talking about Jack Higgins in the third person, he was up himself. But that might be just me.

International cricket umpire Rod Tucker: “Joel Wilson was a very good umpire, just his decision-making was below par. He paid the price for that. In the end, he’s a great human being. Everything else on the umpiring side of things, he’s fantastic. Just his decision-making wasn’t up to standard.” Sorry, what? “He was a great umpire bar his decision-making” is like being a great pilot bar his flying ability.

Venezuelan tennis player Goncalo Oliveira, 30, who competes on the ATP Challenger Tour, claimed he tested positive for a banned methamphetamine due to kissing a woman at a bar, who’d just consumed a pill. “[The kiss] made me feel euphoria, agitation, confidence to socialize and, in the moment, a feeling of energy and joy.”

PNG prime minister James Marape on the newly named PNG Chiefs: “Everyone felt ‘Chiefs’ was more appropriate on the basis that we are a sovereign nation of many tribes – about 850 languages, 1000 tribes. It wasn’t my pick - I wanted Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. I wrote the name down, but my name came 12th in the ranking.”

Peter V’landys on the NRL’s health: “The game has never been in a better position on the field and off the field. The figures will speak for themselves.” Great, Peter. So why does the taxpayer continue to have to fork out hundreds of millions of dollars for your stadiums? Any chance your lot could pay their own way?