Expansion of the National Rugby League

The National Rugby League is the top level rugby league competition in Australia and New Zealand. It was formed in 1998 after the merger of the Australian Super League and the Australian Rugby League. Inaugurally containing 20 teams, rationalisation cut this number down to 14 by 2000, before the competition expanded back to 16 in 2007 and 17 in 2023. Debate regarding the expansion of the competition to 18 and even 20 teams is ongoing.

Rationalisation (1998-2000)
The Australian Super league and the ARL combined had 22 teams in 1997. When the NRL was formed in 1998, it was decided that there would only be 20 teams. The Melbourne Storm were the sole expansion team that year, meaning that the NRL had to remove three teams: the WA Reds, the South Queensland Crushers and the Hunter Mariners. In 1999 the Adelaide Rams and the Gold Coast Chargers were removed from the competition, as were the South Sydney Rabbitohs in 2000.

The NRL achieved further reduction in the number teams through mergers of established clubs from Sydney and regional New South Wales. There were three mergers between 1999 and 2000 – The St. George Dragons and Illawarra Steelers formed the St. George Illawarra Dragons, the Western Suburbs Magpies and Balmain Tigers formed Wests Tigers, and the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and North Sydney Bears formed the Northern Eagles. The Northern Eagles dissolved in 2002 and the Sea Eagles returned to the competition the following year.

Return of the Rabbitohs (2002)
The South Sydney Rabbitohs were re-admitted to the competition for the 2002 NRL season after a legal battle with the NRL over their expulsion in the 2000 season, with the help of New Zealand-born Australian actor and Rabbitohs supporter Russell Crowe.

Gold Coast Titans (2007)
The Gold Coast Titans were admitted to the NRL for the 2007 season, beating out bids from the Central Coast Bears and Wellington Orcas.

Dolphins (2023)
On 13 October 2021, Queensland Cup side the Redcliffe Dolphins were granted a license to field an NRL side from the 2023 season to become the NRL's 17th franchise. They beat out bids from other Queensland rivals, the Brisbane Jets and Brisbane Firehawks.

Future expansion
The NRL has repeatedly expressed its intention of further expanding the competition.

On 28 April 2021, it was reported that the NRL was considering an eventual 18-team competition divided into two conferences. The format that was suggested by NRL officials would see the nine Sydney-based clubs compete in one conference and the remaining nine teams in the other, with each team playing each other once and then a second time against the other teams in their respective conference. The intended effect is to strengthen the rivalries between the Sydney-based clubs by guaranteeing they all play each other twice, but it would come with the downside of forcing non-Sydney teams to travel a lot more than Sydney teams.

On 12 March 2023, News Corp reported a 20-team competition, potentially to reach this number before the beginning of the 2032 Summer Olympics in Brisbane, was being considered by the ARL Commission.

Adelaide
Adelaide has not been represented in the NRL since the Adelaide Rams departed following its inaugural season, making it the second-largest city in Australia without a team.

Brisbane
A third Brisbane-based club could follow the Dolphins' entry into the NRL.

The Brisbane Tigers bid for inclusion in the NRL in 2020 under the name "Brisbane Firehawks" - a bid which was defeated by the Dolphins. Following suggestions from the NRL that a fifth Queensland-based team could join the league, the Tigers announced they would again bid for the NRL in May 2023. The bid would be boosted by redevelopments to the club's home ground and intentions to target the south-west corridor between Ipswich and Logan. Should the club be accepted, it would be represented in the NRL under a name other than "Tigers", due to the Wests Tigers already competing in the league.

Fiji
In March 2024, the Cabinet of Fiji approved an endorsement of Rugby League Bid (Fiji) Limited's goal of securing an NRL license. The Cabinet also approved a tax rebate of 200% for sponsors of the bidding consortium.

New Zealand
In March 2021, NRL CEO Andrew Abdo suggested an 18th team could be based in New Zealand to create a rivalry with the New Zealand Warriors.

Southern Orcas
Following the allusion to a potential second New Zealand-based team, a resurrected Wellington Orcas bid was announced by former New Zealand Rugby League chair Andrew Chalmers. The proposed team, potentially under the name ‘Southern Orcas’, would play most home games at Sky Stadium and also take games to Christchurch and Dunedin.

South Island NRL Bid
A South Island NRL bid based in Christchurch is headed by former Canterbury Rugby League chairman Tony Kidd, with the intention of playing a majority of home games at the under-construction Te Kaha stadium, with additional games at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin. The bid is yet to confirm a name for its proposed team.

South Island Kea
Another bid intended to represent the South Island was announced on 14 March 2024, headed by former Rugby New Zealand chief executive David Moffett, with the name for the proposed team revealed to be the South Island Kea. This team would also make use of the Te Kaha stadium.

North Sydney Bears
After the Northern Eagles went defunct, the North Sydney Bears have continued to field teams in several grades of the NSW rugby league competitions, and were behind the failed Central Coast Bears bid in the mid-2000s. However, the Bears have expressed their intentions to eventually return the brand to the NRL competition.

On October 27, 2021, the Bears stated their intention to return to the NRL, coinciding with the introduction of a new logo for the club. This franchise, which would have been known simply as 'The Bears', proposed splitting home matches between various regional centres as well as major cities that are otherwise currently without NRL representation, allocating between four and six games at a potentially upgraded North Sydney Oval. In 2024, the Bears announced a proposal for the club's identity to represent Pacific Island nations such as Papua New Guinea. The club has also insisted that, in any form a Bears NRL team takes, it would seek to play between four and six home games at North Sydney Oval and return its colours, logo, and the 'Bears' part of its name.

Papua New Guinea
Rugby league is the most popular sport in Papua New Guinea and the nation is currently represented in the Queensland Cup by the Papua New Guinea Hunters, who joined the competition in 2014 and the won the premiership in 2017.

In February 2021, PNG Prime Minister James Marape declared his hopes of an NRL side in the country by 2025.

Through 2023, a Papua New Guinea bid was viewed as a frontrunner to enter the NRL, in light of an Australian Government plan to invest $600 million over a 10-year period in rugby league and socio-economic programs in the country.

Perth
Since the Western Reds were not included in the NRL’s inaugural season, Perth is the largest Australian city without a team in the competition. Advocates for a Perth-based team have argued it is necessary for the NRL to consider itself a ‘truly national’ competition. The Reds name was revived in 2006 as the WA Reds, competing in the under-18s S.G. Ball Cup with the intention of eventually fielding an NRL side. The team rebranded as the West Coast Pirates in 2012 and continued competing in the S.G. Ball Cup until the COVID-19 pandemic prevented them from being able to compete from 2020 onwards. In April 2021, ARLC commissioner Peter Beattie claimed that Western Australia was "years away" from having an NRL team.

WA businessman Tony Sage, the former owner of A-League club Perth Glory, registered the name West Coast Quokkas in April 2021, as a potential name for a new NRL side in the state.

Former Reds chairman Laurie Puddy has also been invested in reintroducing a Perth-based NRL side. In May 2021, he criticised the NRL’s prioritisation of a second New Zealand team over a Perth team, calling it "immoral". In October, he revealed plans to revive the Reds name. He suggested such a team could be ready to begin competing in 2024, the year after the Dolphins began to play, and could also attract crowds of 20,000 at Perth's HBF Park.

Former first grade sides now in New South Wales Cup have proposed returning to the NRL via a Perth-based franchise. In 2018 the North Sydney Bears explored the possibility of combining with a Perth bid to establish a ‘Western Bears’ franchise. In June 2023, NewsCorp reported that the Newtown Jets were aiming to return to the NRL with a team based in Perth. Alongside this, they would follow a similar model to the one proposed by North Sydney Bears in which they would play a handful of games at their historic home ground of Henson Park. The bid is reported to be supported by the West Australian government and being spearheaded by MP Peter Tinley.

Past bids
Other consortiums and clubs have expressed interest in launching an NRL team in past years. These bids have gone quiet more recently and are considered defunct.

Brisbane Jets
The Brisbane Jets bid was one of three considered by the NRL in 2021. An amalgamation of two other Brisbane-based bids, the Jets sought to tap into the south-west of Brisbane, including with a 20,500-seat stadium in Ipswich.

Brothers Leprechauns
In April 2013, a bid was made to bring Brothers Leprechauns into the NRL, uniting and representing a large base revolving around over 40 Brothers clubs across three states. Bid founder Justin Barlow proposed to base a Brothers NRL team at Corbett Park in Brisbane’s northern suburbs and primarily play out of Suncorp Stadium. The team was also proposed to take a handful of home games each year to regional centres, and would be the pathway for junior rugby league players that come up through a club in the Brothers Confraternity.

The Brothers Confraternity made no expression of interest when the NRL declared its interest in introducing another Brisbane-based side in 2020.

Central Coast Bears
The Central Coast Bears were a proposed team based on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. They were trying to be included in an expanded National Rugby League competition since 2006. The proposed team would have played 11 games in Gosford and one game against Manly at North Sydney Oval, in the annual Heritage Round.

Central Queensland
In April 2009, a consortium from the Central Queensland region declared their intent to launch a bid for an NRL team to be based in Rockhampton. The bid aimed to be a new club by 2013.

South Pacific Cyclones
Following the failed Wellington Orcas bid, the Wellington Rugby League began working on a proposal and business plan for a second New Zealand based team in 2008. They proposed a club that would be based in Wellington and divide their games between the New Zealand capital and other locations in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.