After four "all nighters" - three intense negotiations with the ARLC and one with News Corp lawyers – a Fox executive emerged bleary-eyed after a record-breaking deal for rugby league to promulgate a new dawn for the game.

He described the tense negotiations to bring about the new deal as "a cathartic experience" in reference to the Super League war - a conflict that ended 18 years ago.

However, while unresolved tensions remain in some foxholes across rugby league land, there are new boards at News Corporation and the Australian Rugby League Commission.

This five-year deal is free of all the machinations of the past and despite Rupert Murdoch's preference for AFL, there is confidence the game can grow unhampered by the shackles of past enmities.