NOT much progress seems to be made in the longstanding story of the NRL wanting to take a controlling stake in Rugby League in the northern hemisphere.

The story has been ongoing for the last 18 months and was turbo-charged when Wigan and Warrington club owners met the NRL’s leading lights in Las Vegas in 2025.

Since then there has been a lot of talk but not much action.

The NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo came to England three weeks ago to meet the RFL’s leading officials, but he seemingly didn’t table any proposal.

It now seems that further talks may be held in just less than two weeks’ time when RFL Chairman Nigel Wood may be invited to join Abdo and Peter V’landys at the NRL’s Magic Weekend in Brisbane.

But it seems extraordinary to me that the NRL hasn’t set out its clear objectives in wanting to take a stake in our competition.

One theory I’ve heard recently is that the NRL is waiting for the broadcast deal to be finalised between RL Commercial and one of the bidders for the broadcasting rights.

It will then make a far more enticing offer with the aim of detaching a majority of the Super League clubs away from the RFL in order to create its own competition.

That seems to me to be a conspiracy theory too far but of course it’s not impossible.

Another theory is that the NRL leaders are having second thoughts after discovering that the cost of the undertaking will be far greater than they originally anticipated and that the NRL clubs are not keen to see huge amounts of money invested in the northern hemisphere.

If there is going to be an agreement between the governing bodies it will surely have to come to a head later this month, when of course we could find ourselves with an Australian, Tony Mestrov, being appointed as the new chief executive of the RFL.

If that comes about it would pose some interesting questions.