The NRL should just buy a few clubs and invest heavily in them:
York
London
New castle
Sheffield
Bradford
Toulouse
Bring these clubs up to par and into SL you have a strong 18 team comp with a good geographical spread .
pump some money into pathways and infrastructure and enter one of those clubs into SL every 2 years, with a little sweetener to SL to guarantee entry ( maybe a million pound)
The comp will grow, the broadcast will grow and the clubs you bought will be worth more.
Well, I'm allowed to dream lol