HULL FC chief executive Richie Myler has called for ‘opening’ up of the overseas quota rulings in Super League in order to stop the drain of talent to the NRL.
Currently, Super League clubs can only have seven overseas players in their squads in a bid to not stifle the development of young, English talent.
However, Myler believes that such a restriction on overseas players could have the opposite effect of losing some of the northern hemisphere’s “best talents”.
“I think we have to open the quotas position because in my opinion, you’re going to end up losing some of our best talents,” Myler said on Sky Sports’ The Bench podcast.
“Let’s be honest, the NRL is the pinnacle of our game so why would we not be able to bring more of their talent into our competition to improve it.”
Myler has also explained how Hull boss John Cartwright has foreseen the damage that another one or two NRL sides could do to the Super League competition.
“If they get two new teams in the NRL, John Cartwright said that if he was a head coach of that new team, he would be coming straight over and picking every England player because they can compete at that level, they’re cheaper and they’ll go and do a job over there.
“I know for a fact that players have got it in the contract at other clubs that they’ve got release clauses if an NRL club is interested.”
Myler also reveals how the club “looked at” Castleford Tigers signing Zac Cini, before the former Parramatta Eels and Wests Tigers centre chose The Jungle as his new destination for 2025.
“I still agree that we have seven quota players on a game day but I think we should open it up so the pool’s bigger.
“So, my suggestion would be to have maybe ten quota players, or maybe not a limit on quota players, but only a certain amount can play in a game day.
“We looked at Zac Cini from Castleford, we looked at him when we were going through recruitment.
“Now he’s a talented player but we needed other areas to recruit him but if we have had a couple more spots, we would have brought him in because he’s a really talented player. But you can’t because you can only do seven.”
