ok to start of i live in SA and there are 6 teams in the whole state 4-5 A Grade teams and 6 teams in the under 18's.  Before you get a team in any state people actually need to know what rugby league is half the people i talk to dont know the difference between union and league, also for people to actually understand how the game works they have to stay up to 12:00, 2:00,1:00 in the morning.... whatever time channel nine feels like putting it on   The only people that have the slitest clue about the game are the people who are a bit older and still then all they know are the big namers like wally lewis and langer and a bit of the adelaide rams, for the game to grow people need to be exposed to it and for now nothing is happening in terms of that any time soon that i can see, so in my opinion adelaide is long away from getting a team but..........

Perth is similiar in terms of tv coverage but they have a bit of exposure to rugby union and getting the reds back is definitly a boost in terms of getting to the NRL but again They have 2 AFL teams 1 SOCCER, 1 UNION and 1 NBL a league team i duno if it would have a big supporter base.  SA has 2 AFL,1 NBL team and 1 SOCCER and are Aussie Rules mad.  Theres more oppertunity to get a fan base in SA but everything is much closer in terms of towns and city's on SA you dont have to travel very far to get anywhere. but it's hard to get the "Hoppoati," "bum sniffer" terms and other crap out of peoples heads when they're AFL mad.

As for NT i think they are a much better choice, they are exposed to both Rugby League and AFL 50:50 and they also get the NRL footy Show first so they woudl be more familiar with it more than any of the other affiliates states, they do have a smaller population but i think thats where the ARL and NRL need to be focusing on more than anything else, they have no major codes with a team there so they would have no competition in terms of that.  In my opinion there is no need to expand any further at this moment in time in either QLD or NSW or VIC.  VIC is the strong hold of AFL and they need to get more coverage and more support for the storm before they think of doing that.

 AFL is much futher in terms of a National Comp compared to Rugby League and the NRL i think needs to focuse on doing the same, the comp needs to have more interstate teams not more, in states already holding clubs, there is much more money to be made and much more exposure needs to be done for this to happen though. either NT or WA are the next to add a club from.

But thats just me.

oikee:

England 3 lions, you know something, i think you are dead right, it should have happened 10 year ago, the reason why i say this is because of all the expansion going on at the moment, now heres why i have taken another look at what you have said.= We have so much competition with all codes i really think it is going to end up as heartacke in the end? 

By this i mean if you look at rugby union, they are in the best possible senario, one team one city? This creates a following for the whole city, so what they dont get 50 thousand followers, eventually they might? And the other codes with more than four teams for a big city will struggle, because of the other compititions?  Now saying this i still think it is only a state of who!!!  would have thought that this would happen? Nobody.!

We need to face facts but i still think the game around the heartlands will survive for a bit longer but finally have to merge, or whatever they come up with??

If you are losing fans on the ground then your club suffers? Having said this we dont know what is around the corner,,, maybe this world cup might be the cattalist that we are looking for, who knows, i just love the comp at the moment, you could not drag me away with a backhoe at the moment. It's good and its growing, we need to expand the major cities as in perth and aderlaide and coast to coast, see this is why brisbane does so well, one team one city.

And this is why i relooked at what you have said, but i do think sydney can support 4,, and brisbane 3,, one in middle 2 either side, but you are dead right, but we cant turn back time? We will have to struggle with sydney into the future, and loss support again, well hopefully not by then, we might have kicked up a cog, with greater presense overseas?

The Sydney-based NRL clubs ought to be relegated to the NSW State league.  It'll allow the NRL to allocate a licence to the regions outside of Sydney that need a team, such as: Wollongong, Central Coast, Wellington, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Perth and Adelaide.

In order for this to occur, the NRL would need to become an 18-team competition.  It would allow the NRL to accommodate the aforementioned areas, plus metropolitan Sydney.  The NRL's sydney-based franchised would be seperated by area: one would represent the south-western suburbs, another would represent the north-western suburbs, and the other would represent the eastern suburbs and northern suburbs.  The three franchises would draft their players from the teams in the NSW State league.  For example, the NRL team from the north-western suburbs would draft its players from the Tigers, Eels and Panthers; the one from the south-western suburbs would draft its players from the Sharks, Dragons, Magpies and Bulldogs; the one from the northern/eastern suburbs would draft its players from the Sea Eagles, Bears and Roosters.

The best thing about the aforementioned format is the fact it allow teams like Balmain, Norths and Western Suburbs to play against Cronulla-Sutherland, Parramata, St George.  In this sense, it would allow the NSWRL Premiership of old to come back, and allow the NRL to become Rugby League's equivalent of the Super 14 Rugby Union competition.

Toby Hook:

ok to start of i live in SA and there are 6 teams in the whole state 4-5 A Grade teams and 6 teams in the under 18's.  Before you get a team in any state people actually need to know what rugby league is half the people i talk to dont know the difference between union and league, also for people to actually understand how the game works they have to stay up to 12:00, 2:00,1:00 in the morning.... whatever time channel nine feels like putting it on   The only people that have the slitest clue about the game are the people who are a bit older and still then all they know are the big namers like wally lewis and langer and a bit of the adelaide rams, for the game to grow people need to be exposed to it and for now nothing is happening in terms of that any time soon that i can see, so in my opinion adelaide is long away from getting a team but..........

The Nine Network's poor coverage of the NRL in Adelaide and Perth needs to improve.  A temporary solution would be to multichannel the Friday Night and Sunday Afternoon NRL matches into Adelaide and Perth via the the Nine HD channel.  That way the persons from Perth and Adelaide who have an HD STB would be able to watch Rugby League at prime time.

The Free-To-Air (FTA) Commercial networks will be allowed to multichannel in SD from 2009.  The switchover from analogue to digital is planned for 2011/2013.  This will allow the terrestrial television networks to televise more sport, more often.  Therefore, I think NRL will be televised in prime time viewing slots in all states and territories within the next few years.

 

England 3 Lions:

 and Western Suburbs to play against Cronulla-Sutherland, Parramata, St George.  In this sense, it would allow the NSWRL Premiership of old to come back, and allow the NRL to become Rugby League's equivalent of the Super 14 Rugby Union competition.

Yeh when i think about it it's hard to imagine 25 years down the line we will still have 9 Sydney based teams in the NRL. I think it has to be cut down sooner or later, i still think sydney would need atleast 5 teams, maybe relocate a few to CC etc.

Once you get enough popularity and grass roots in places like wellington, CC, Adelaide and Perth then may be the time to make the cut-back. I think Sunny Coast, CQ and NT could support a RL team as of now but i think in Perth really does need to be the next team to get a franchise, it would make the NRL look so much more 'national', also the WForce are getting a top quality rectangular stadium built in perth so that would be great for RL also. I think the cut-back does need to happen simply because the more time that goes past, the more places will be demanding an NRL team. There will be alot of pissed fans but we have to think of the long term.

England 3 Lions:

Toby Hook:

ok to start of i live in SA and there are 6 teams in the whole state 4-5 A Grade teams and 6 teams in the under 18's.  Before you get a team in any state people actually need to know what rugby league is half the people i talk to dont know the difference between union and league, also for people to actually understand how the game works they have to stay up to 12:00, 2:00,1:00 in the morning.... whatever time channel nine feels like putting it on   The only people that have the slitest clue about the game are the people who are a bit older and still then all they know are the big namers like wally lewis and langer and a bit of the adelaide rams, for the game to grow people need to be exposed to it and for now nothing is happening in terms of that any time soon that i can see, so in my opinion adelaide is long away from getting a team but..........

The Nine Network's poor coverage of the NRL in Adelaide and Perth needs to improve.  A temporary solution would be to multichannel the Friday Night and Sunday Afternoon NRL matches into Adelaide and Perth via the the Nine HD channel.  That way the persons from Perth and Adelaide who have an HD STB would be able to watch Rugby League at prime time.

The Free-To-Air (FTA) Commercial networks will be allowed to multichannel in SD from 2009.  The switchover from analogue to digital is planned for 2011/2013.  This will allow the terrestrial television networks to televise more sport, more often.  Therefore, I think NRL will be televised in prime time viewing slots in all states and territories within the next few years.

 

Agree, Ch9's coverage is pretty piss-poor, still though there would be alot of WA and SA with austar/foxtel and RL is constantly played on FS all over the country.

3Lions , you make alot of sense, but who has got balls enough to do this, they will wait until sydney falls and then try something, which is a shame, because something like this would save them 20 years, and thanks for the report on coverage , yes will be good by 2013, hopefully the game will be even better by then, and people watching wont cringe everytime someone flies in with the prowler tackle. This will be gone i have no doubt about that, you only have to look at the injury rate this weekend to see something needs to be done.

Take the sydney clubs out and watch RL collapse financially I think... people can say what they want but the Sydney clubs are well supported by the fans and much of the revenue comes from them. Relegate these teams bye bye RL in Oz.

Here is an idea... we all talk about expansion etc... but I think the ESL has it right with their Franchise system. It gives clubs opportunities to consolidate when in the top flight but at the same time rewards other lower team if they get their business right to come up. So old teams like Newtown and the bears etc can still have an opportunity to play in the top flight if they get their stuff in order.

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I think if we expand and do it write, then yes the franchise is a must, if we dont then we lose more fans and areas to other sports, good thinking druzik, because some area is going to miss out, and imagine if rockhampton had a chance to make the 18 would be fantastic, and the bears could reform, and yes newtown if they had the team to compete, never say never, hope gallop or someone reads this, makes sense because you cant let everyone in and wellington would go hammer and tongs to then make the 18. Good Point druzik, i know you brought this up before but some times things take rednecks like myself time to sink in,

 oh by the way, i see the n.r.l are looking at outlawing the prowler tackle, they must be reading my blogs, i have bloged on nearly every paper in the country. hehe This means no second or third player diving into a tackle, thats all, nothing that we would consider a loss, just the tackle where the players get peved and the fans get peved off. If you read the cheap shot blog, these sorts of tackles. I did mention on one paper that it would be lovely for the yanks to have been watching our game telecast and have seen this with our commentators going, oh, what a ripper tackle, thats good and fair, yer right, ??

Prowler tackle! First Ive heard that term used. Is this the Wing tackle form round 1?

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Druzik:

Take the sydney clubs out and watch RL collapse financially I think... people can say what they want but the Sydney clubs are well supported by the fans and much of the revenue comes from them. Relegate these teams bye bye RL in Oz.

Here is an idea... we all talk about expansion etc... but I think the ESL has it right with their Franchise system. It gives clubs opportunities to consolidate when in the top flight but at the same time rewards other lower team if they get their business right to come up. So old teams like Newtown and the bears etc can still have an opportunity to play in the top flight if they get their stuff in order.

The vast majority of the the NRL's franchises would reject a system that relegates the cellar-dwellers to a lower division.  This is because they would struggle to make a profit when they were out of the NRL.  But even if there was one, it wouldn't work unless the other football codes had one too.  For example, if the AFL remained as it is, then the Swans could gain a lot of fans when one or two of the Sydney-based NRL clubs were relegated.

The Sydney-based NRL clubs would be the biggest losers of a promotion and relegation system.  If a Sydney-based club was relegated to the NSW Cup, then it wouldn't have the money that is required to recruit marquee players.  The plethora of teams in the Sydney area would mean that the relegated clubs would have a limited talent base to choose from.  The best juniors from the area would be poached by the Sydney-based clubs who were still in the NRL.  Many of the Sydney-based clubs rely on Queensland's large talent base.  If their squads consisted of local talent only, then few of them would be competitive.

Clubs like the Canberra Raiders would fold, as they are one of the lower ranked teams who do not have a strong, dedicated support base.  If they were relegated to a lower division, then a lot of their fans would forget about them and adopt the ACT Brumbies as their favourite side.  The coldness and remoteness of Canberra makes it difficult for the Raiders to recruit and keep star players.

The promotion and relegiation system you're referring to is compulsory for all professional leagues in Europe.  It's not compulsory in Australia and the United States.  The most successful sporting leagues in the world, the NFL and the AFL, are from the US and Australia respectively.  Therefore, why would you want to use the Euroepean system?

England 3 Lions:

Druzik:

Take the sydney clubs out and watch RL collapse financially I think... people can say what they want but the Sydney clubs are well supported by the fans and much of the revenue comes from them. Relegate these teams bye bye RL in Oz.

Here is an idea... we all talk about expansion etc... but I think the ESL has it right with their Franchise system. It gives clubs opportunities to consolidate when in the top flight but at the same time rewards other lower team if they get their business right to come up. So old teams like Newtown and the bears etc can still have an opportunity to play in the top flight if they get their stuff in order.

The vast majority of the the NRL's franchises would reject a system that relegates the cellar-dwellers to a lower division.  This is because they would struggle to make a profit when they were out of the NRL.  But even if there was one, it wouldn't work unless the other football codes had one too.  For example, if the AFL remained as it is, then the Swans could gain a lot of fans when one or two of the Sydney-based NRL clubs were relegated.

The Sydney-based NRL clubs would be the biggest losers of a promotion and relegation system.  If a Sydney-based club was relegated to the NSW Cup, then it wouldn't have the money that is required to recruit marquee players.  The plethora of teams in the Sydney area would mean that the relegated clubs would have a limited talent base to choose from.  The best juniors from the area would be poached by the Sydney-based clubs who were still in the NRL.  Many of the Sydney-based clubs rely on Queensland's large talent base.  If their squads consisted of local talent only, then few of them would be competitive.

Clubs like the Canberra Raiders would fold, as they are one of the lower ranked teams who do not have a strong, dedicated support base.  If they were relegated to a lower division, then a lot of their fans would forget about them and adopt the ACT Brumbies as their favourite side.  The coldness and remoteness of Canberra makes it difficult for the Raiders to recruit and keep star players.

The promotion and relegiation system you're referring to is compulsory for all professional leagues in Europe.  It's not compulsory in Australia and the United States.  The most successful sporting leagues in the world, the NFL and the AFL, are from the US and Australia respectively.  Therefore, why would you want to use the Euroepean system?

Fair enough.

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Alright back on NRL expansion, i think we need 18 teams in the NRL by 2010, i have been keenly watching QLD and toyota cup aswell as tracking squads for NSW cup and i have to say each QLD, NSW and Toyota cup team have several players that are up to the NRL, take tim moltzen for example, he has showed great signs for the tigers in the first 2 games but once benji comes back he will be put straight back to the bench or toyota or NSW cup. Now i think we have a massive player overflow happening and we need to get 2 more teams to get more player in the big time. In saying, however, local talent wiull be developed wherever a new NRL team is placed and emphasis needs to be put on developing local talent. Still though if this continues, and i think it will, we will soon see the standard of the NSW and QLD cups rise dramatically. Recently for example big dave taylor played for the CQ comets at browne park, the comets got the win and it was great to see some local talent not abandoning the comets like they usually do to play a south based QLD cup team.

More importantly, how is the Melbourne team going in the toyota cup... is it full of victorians?

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1 win, 1 draw. I havn't seen them play as yet and it's hard to find much on them but according to wikipedia there are only 7 victorians in the squad :( pretty dissapointing but lets hope with the wave of support the storm are gaining some kids will start playing league.

jim_57:

there are only 7 victorians in the squad :(

Better than none, and remember, its about getting the quality, I am impressed that there already are 7 victorians potentially upto NRL level.

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