The NRL may be forced to move the grand final in 2028 due to a scheduling clash with Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Sydney.
The head of the Vatican is expected to be in Sydney on the October long weekend in two years’ time and hold a papal Mass on the same day as the NRL grand final.
The Pope’s public address is most likely to take place at Royal Randwick racecourse and the NRL grand final is played further west at Accor Stadium in the Sydney Olympic Park precinct.
However, the scale of the occasions and the pressure they will place on the city’s transport network, policing and other resources has raised questions about whether it is practical for them to be staged within hours of each other.
The clash of the two major events has been the subject of talks between the NSW government and the NRL, which both declined to comment on Tuesday.
It has left the NRL facing its most significant scheduling shift in decades aside from the pandemic-affected seasons of 2020 and 2021.
Moving the grand final forward by a week is one option, which would return it to September, when it was traditionally played in the pre-NRL era.
That would also require the competition to begin a week ahead of usual, resulting in potentially the earliest start to a season since the year of the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
The NRL would also lose its desired Sunday night grand final spot followed by a Monday public holiday as daylight savings kicks off in NSW.
With the NRL yet to agree a deal for the grand final venue beyond this year, another alternative is relocating the decider interstate in 2028.
Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, which hosted the 2021 grand final due to COVID restrictions in Sydney, would be the leading candidate.
It is due to undergo an extensive upgrade in the lead-up to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics but the Queensland government hopes to have that completed in time for next year’s Rugby World Cup.
The Victorian government and the Melbourne Storm have also pushed in the past for the NRL to take a grand final to the MCG.
This masthead revealed in August 2025 that Royal Randwick was being discussed as the venue for the first papal Mass in Australia in 20 years.
A crowd of 400,000 descended on the eastern suburbs racetrack in 2008 as Pope Benedict XVI appeared at World Youth Day.
A papal Mass was also held in 1986 at Randwick, fronted by Pope John Paul II, who returned to the racecourse in 1995 to mark the beatification of Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first saint.
The Pope’s visit over the 2028 long weekend is to coincide with the Catholic Church’s International Eucharistic Congress, which is being organised by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.
The $1.5 million Epsom Handicap, which is run on the Saturday of the October long weekend, would have to be shifted if the papal Mass goes ahead there.
The flagship race of the spring, the $20 million The Everest, falls in mid-October.
Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV came to Australia several times before becoming the pontiff, delivering a mass at Sydney’s Collaroy Beach after World Youth Day in 2008 and visiting St Augustine’s College at Brookvale in 2008 and 2009.
A spokesperson for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney said the Pope’s tour was still to be locked in.
Once confirmed, an official announcement is likely to be made by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who invited the Pope to Australia when attending his inauguration Mass at St Peter’s Basilica last year.
Chris Barrett is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former South-East Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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