Kickoffs, squads, penalty zone: NRL musing 4 major rule changes for next season

The NRL’s top stakeholders are thrashing out key details for as many as four rule changes heading into the 2026 season, including expanded matchday squads, a huge kickoff change, and a readjustment of the penalty vs. six again zone.

The competition’s commanders have been speaking to all 17 clubs, as well as expansion outfit the Perth Bears, and the RLPA about implementing these four changes as soon as the beginning of the upcoming season.

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There are some big changes on the table, too, not least the kickoff rule swap. Under these proposed tweaks, the scoring team would instead see the scoring team kick off. It’s not as simple as one team takes the ball, though; the team that has just conceded will have the decision to either kick the ball or they can choose to receive the ball when play is restarted.

The biggest concern around the NRL’s kickoff at the moment is that a clearly better team can simply march down the field with the returned possession they get on the kickoff after scoring and rack up some really big scorelines in games.

It’s been done in the past, kind of: In the 1997 Super League, the scoring teams had to kick off.

Also proposed is a larger squad, with matchday lists to increase from 17 to 19. Interchanges will remain capped at eight.

The NRL also wants to scratch out an attacking player being penalised by a seven-tackle set should they drop the ball in the act of attempting to score a try over the tryline. The change would instead give the defending team the usual six tackles from the 20 metre mark.

And finally, set restarts instead of penalties will be awarded from outside the 20m line of the attacking team, to speed up play. Full penalties will still be awarded inside the 20-metre mark, the NRL says, just like how they were handed out inside 40 metres through the 2025 season. Further back, penalties were awarded inside the 40-metre zone of the team in possession from 2022.

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Rugby league’s top brass and NRL representatives will now be speaking to stakeholders to see if any or all of these changes should be implemented. The Sporting Base understands if any (or all) get the green light, then they’ll be rolled out for the first time during the season’s launch in Las Vegas. That two-match early weekend will be played on March 1.

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It’s interesting to see a huge swathe of rule changes proposed before the 2026 campaign, mainly considering 2025 actually saw nothing change for the game. The NRL may have regretted that, though, considering what we’re seeing now.

Pre-season trials begin Feb. 7 with Bulldogs vs. Cowboys and Dragons vs. Newcastle in a double header at Kogarah.