One, the Rugby Football League is considering central contracting to stop players heading to the NRL and to rugby union. In other words, the governing body in England is entering the player market, in direct competition with NRL teams. How long before they actually try to poach an Australian NRL star? Secondly, Wigan owner Ian Lenagan has said the Super League heavyweights might kick off their 2018 season in Australia against Warrington. That would put a professional rugby league game up against NRL pre-season trials in an Australia city and given the time of year – early February – allow Super League to capitalise on the anticipation of NRL fans about the new season. Super League could tap into the government funding that the NRL now courts so voraciously. Salford Quays could undercut League Central with a state government anxious to attract a league game. Technically, the NRL is the governing body of rugby league in Australia and would have to sanction any game. But in practice, if Super League are getting nothing from the NRL, why would they bother asking permission?

The World Cup has shown there is a business model for "alternative" rugby league in Australia that works fine without a dollar from Sydney. Rugby league has been boxed in in the UK. Participation is reportedly down 10 per cent in the last 12 months and 40 per cent in the last 12 years. Sailing, shooting, angling and weightlifting have more practitioners. So the RFL have taken the bold decision to include a team from Canada in the third tier this year. They are expected to bounce straight up to Super League by 2019. More North American franchises have been sought and it wasn't so long ago the West Coast Pirates discussed joining the British game after being repeatedly frustrated in their bid for NRL (re)-entry. British officials have also previously considered opening a sponsorship office in Sydney; the viewing numbers on Fox Sports might be smallish but that perimeter advertising is worth something. Remember when an Auckland pub (Park In The Bar) advertised at Brookvale Oval? The NRL is arguably the biggest rugby club competition in the world yet it has no sponsors that I can think of who do not operate in Australia. Compare that with other major TV sports globally – where clubs are not just sponsored but owned by foreigners because of the competition's international profile driven by savvy TV deals.

Other sports look outward. The NRL fights amongst itself. When an executive of the 2025 World Cup in America called Fox Soccer Plus to speak to the person who deals with that contract (the station is the NRL's US rights holder), no one had the foggiest who it was. The only thing preventing Super League from trying to take sponsors off the NRL is diplomacy – the niceties expected of national governing bodies towards each other. But if the NRL won't even make the World Club Challenge a compulsory event, why should these niceties continue? The last time the WCC was played in Australia there were trials at the same time and no-one bothered to print a programme. Super League has limited resources but there are surely millionaires like Wolfpack owner David Argyle in the southern hemisphere who are watching the Toronto experiment closely. If you are involved in consortia in Central Queensland, Wellington or PNG and keep getting stone-walled by the NRL, why wouldn't you consider playing in England – a month away, a month at home like the Canucks? What follows from that is television and sponsorship income from a rugby league-crazy market and suddenly the Brits aren't so isolated anymore, not so down-at-heel. Money-grabs, petty politics and player industrial action look like leaving the NRL as inward-looking as ever over the next few years