BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Catalans coach Steve McNamara has slammed the RFL and the other Super League clubs for making the Dragons foot their £850,000 travel bill to France this season, and says some clubs want them out of the competition.
In 2025 Catalans are being forced to pay for the expenses for all the other 11 clubs and RFL officials when they travel to the Dragons’ home ground in Perpignan.
McNamara, a former England and Bradford Bulls boss, believes the new charge of around £850,000 is “non-sensical” and “unfair”.
“I think the club has been really balanced in terms of its approach and their responses to that,” he told rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads.
“Purely from a coaching point of view, I find it nonsensical, bizarre. I don’t think it’s right. I think the additional pressure being put on our club by the other clubs is enormous.
“For us to practically double what is already a huge, huge travel bill of our own, to then have that doubled overnight is incredibly tough and I think we as a team need to respond to that on the field. I just don’t think it’s right.
“But I’m biased, I’m the coach of Catalans Dragons, but I just don’t understand it. What we’ve brought in for 20 years into the Super League from a very, very tough start there to progressing to every player and staff who have been involved in that progression has been great.
“And so to have this imposed on us… it was bad enough when we won the Challenge Cup and it was brought in for the Challenge Cup games and now it’s been doubled.
“This is an incredibly tough period for us financially… It’s very short-sighted.”
The Dragons entered Super League in 2006. They won their first Challenge Cup in 2018 and reached grand finals in both 2021 and 2023.
The 53-year-old believes attitudes towards the French side have changed as it has become more competitive over the past two decades.
“It seems like Catalans were everyone’s favourite second club for a number of years whilst we were ok,” McNamara said.
“It was a great trip to France but we weren’t really challenging. We won the Challenge Cup in 2018, we then get tariffs put on us for the Challenge Cup from then on.
“We then become really competitive, challenge for grand finals and threaten other teams, and then suddenly we’re not everyone’s favourite second club now we’re quite clearly there’s an agenda from some areas there for us not be in the competition.
“I found that attitude abysmal. I don’t understand it.
“I hear the reasons from other club members and other club owners, and whatever it may be and they’ve got their reasons there, but I don’t believe those reasons.
“I don’t understand those reasons and I think the only way for us this year to help our club with this financial burden is to go out there and perform our very best on the field.”
