Australia's 2026 Rugby League World Cup squad is about to become the highest-paid team in the tournament's history, and it isn't particularly close. Each Kangaroo player will pocket a flat $40,000 for this year's campaign, dwarfing the $850-per-game rate handed to players from every other competing nation.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported these numbers as the Kangaroos are the favourites on the field.
Now, they're the runaway leader of it too, courtesy of an agreement between the ARL Commission and the Rugby League Players' Association.
The arrangement ensures Australia's stars are rewarded after grinding through a full NRL season.
The World Cup was meant to be held in France last year; however, financial troubles led the ARLC to take on hosting duties and look after its own players in the process.
To secure the tournament, the ARLC paid the International Rugby League for hosting rights, with a local organising committee handling the logistics, from flights, accommodation, meals, and match payments for every nation bar Australia.
That $850-a-game rate also applies to athletes competing in the women's and wheelchair tournaments.
The format will see teams contest three pool matches before the top four advance to the semi-finals, with the winners meeting in the grand final.
For non-Australian players, reaching that decider lifts their match payments to $4250 which is less than a tenth of what the Kangaroos will bank regardless of how deep they go.
While the 2022 World Cup numbers weren't reported, in 2017, it was reported that the Australian Kangaroos players earned $20,000.
Each member of that squad also received an additional $50,000 that year after they won the World Cup.
The Australian federal government has thrown its financial weight behind the 2026 Rugby League World Cup, injecting $12.4 million into an event that will span three nations, five weeks, and three simultaneous tournaments.
This includes the women's competition, where the Jillaroos will defend a title they claimed dominantly.
The tournament is no small undertaking. There will be ten men's teams, eight women's sides, and eight wheelchair squads.
While nothing prevents other governing bodies from topping up their players' pay, most are in no position to do so.
England's governing body, the Rugby Football League, remains in a legal dispute with the IRL over allegedly unpaid fees from hosting the 2022 World Cup.
For perspective, the $850 World Cup match is minuscule compared to the $30,000 NSW and Queensland players earn for a single State of Origin appearance, as agreed in the NRL's collective bargaining agreement.
The same CBA also covers other representative figures.
In the Pacific Championships, all players earn $3000 per game, while All-Star players receive $7000 each.
Lifting World Cup payments is expected to be high on the agenda when the next round of CBA negotiations begins.
The talks follow the ARLC's signing of a record-breaking $5.3 billion, seven-year broadcast deal set to kick off in 2028.
It could potentially reshape how the game's biggest international tournament rewards its players in years to come.
