St Helens legend Jon Wilkin has become a prominent figure on rugby league broadcasts since his retirement, with the former back rower not afraid to voice his opinions on the state of the sport.
Once again he has spoken his true feelings on where the game is headed, this time explaining his thoughts on the lack of leadership at the sport’s top level, believing that Super League club owners are governed by their own self interest and do not care about the sport’s potential.
The recent decision whereby clubs voted to expand the top division to 14 teams was met with a 9-2 swing, with Wigan Warriors abstaining and both Hull clubs voting against, but were in favour of the league growing ahead of 2027.
Wilkin believes this selfishness from clubs is what is holding the game back, with clubs that refuse to improve having as much power as the ones who want the game to move forward.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ The Bench podcast, he said: “There’s 12 teams, so 12 votes. Huddersfield are not going to vote for less teams because they are at risk, Castleford aren’t, Salford aren’t. What I’m saying is there’s a lot of reasons why a lot of these clubs wouldn’t. That’s three out of 12.. It’s not hard to get the vote through.”
The Super League pundit explained that he finds it so ironic that the sport’s key decision makers can’t take lessons from the values of the sport, teamwork, leadership etc. to build and grow the game, instead it is run by clubs who only look out for themselves.
He said: “Every team I’ve played in, there’s an element of self-sacrifice. You are selfless, you do things for each other, and that’s the problem. We’ve got clubs who have independent needs, and we’ll do whatever they can to get what they need, and that’s not a team. That’s the difference.
“I’ve not played on a team where every single individual member is just doing stuff they need to be successful. And it’s weird that we’re in professional sport yet our sport learns very little from the sport that we’re in. All of the lesson on how to collaborate, how to get on and how to be part of a team.”
Wilkin believes that the game needs to stop resting on it’s history and try break into new territory that will advance the game, like they do in Australia.
He said: “We are proud of our history, but history can hold you back as well. Everybody’s a stakeholder, everybody’s got their view, everybody’s not happy. It’s such a British way. It’s like inertia by decision paralysis. ‘You can’t do this, they’ll be upset’. ‘You can’t do that, they’ll be upset’. Whereas the thing what the NRL will do, really strong leadership go, we’re just doing this. ‘We’re going to have a franchise in Perth’, and everybody goes ‘cool, you know?’ Whereas over here, ‘we’re going to have a team in London, no we’re not’. That’s the difference.”
