Rugby league great Matty Johns believes the NRL should think outside the box when they eventually expand to 18 teams.
With The Dolphins recently being announced as the 17th team, NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said it’s a stepping stone until the natural progression to 18 sides, although no expansion will occur for another handful of years.
When that time does come to add another franchise, Johns believes the NRL should look to a completely new market.
“They’re talking about an 18th team,” Johns said on SEN 1170 Morning Glory.
“Obviously, they can’t rush into it, but you can’t stay at 17 teams, 18 is the number.
“I think in some way, shape or form it (the 18th team) should be a Pacific nation side.
“It allows you to shore up that crucial area, it’s one of the heartlands of the game now as far as recruitment is concerned.”
With Johns’ theoretical team representing a number of Pacific nations, he picked one country that the team should be primarily based out of.
“The nation that has got miles of money as far as oil money is concerned is Papua New Guinea,” Johns said.
“There’s been talk that they’ll build a great stadium.
“The logistical issue would be that they’ve got health issues in the country, but I’ll say this, how many countries in the world could you say that rugby league has turned the country around? It totally swung everything.”
If Papua New Guinea isn’t logistically possible, Johns floated the idea of basing the team out of either Darwin or New Zealand to minimise travel problems.
“You could base the side if you had to in Darwin, and go there for the home games,” Johns said.
“Think of the side you could get out of Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Cook Islands.
“You could even have a Pacific nations side based in Wellington that’s based around that was representative of the Pacific.”
While there’s no timeline of the addition of a 17th team, many believe it could come following the next broadcast deal which is set to be renegotiated for the 2028 season.
Listen to the full chat here.