There were no senior representatives from News Corp in attendance. However, chairman Lachlan Murdoch, currently in Australia on business, was at the series opener in his private suite.

“There’s no doubt they [NRL] weren’t happy with it, but we 100 per cent stand by it,” English said when contacted on Thursday afternoon.

“It was great journalism, it was really topical, and it provoked some constructive conversations about the future of the game. It’s exactly the sort of journalism we should be doing. If different stakeholders, such as the NRL, didn’t have an issue with what we write, we wouldn’t be doing our job.

“We have disagreements all the time. Rugby league is the second-toughest sport. The toughest sport is rugby league journalism, as you well know. Our relationship remains strong. There is no war. It’s just part of the cut and thrust of what we do. There’s enormous alignment between the two organisations because our audiences overlap so strongly. But we’re a news outlet, and we report it as we see it. There’s no animosity.”

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V’landys, also the CEO of Racing NSW, has a substantial advertising commitment with News Corp that is worth millions of dollars each year.

News Corp’s stakeholder position in rugby league has changed in the past six months after the recent sale of Foxtel to DAZN.

News Corp still holds a minority (6 per cent) equity interest in DAZN but, for the first time in decades, will not have a major seat at the table when broadcast rights negotiations kick off in the coming months for the 2028 NRL season and beyond.

Michael Chammas and Andrew “Joey” Johns dissect the upcoming NRL round, plus the latest footy news, results and analysis. Sign up for the Sin Bin newsletter.