Yeh your right oikee, it will one day be a 20 team comp, i think Sunny Coast, Ipswitch, Wellington, Central QLD, Adelaide, Central Coast and Perth should all be there. So that would mean getting rid of or merging a few sydney teams. Add a NT team as a maybe for that. Now i think CQ needs a team because i know from experience there is a great talent base here and if you dont have a CQ team then it will be 13 hours drive from SC to Townsville without an NRL team. Now population is a bit of a problem, rocky has about 80,000 people i think with gracemere (a small town 5 mins away) with about 10,000. Also alot of country areas surrounding rocky, also yepoon a coastal town 40 km from rocky has about 20,000. In saying this i think an NRL team could easily get 20,000 such is the passion for RL up here. Another option is mackay whos population is about 80,000 also i think.

Maybe this is an idea, if the NRL gets to 20 teams and there is still a demand for more teams, which there will be, why not have 2 conferences like NBA basketball. What are people's thoughts on this? You could have 1 conference with all QLD and NSW teams and another with all NZ, victoria, SA, WA and NT teams, then have a finals series played between the best 4 of each conference. Another option could be several pools as seen in the Northern Rail Cup in england. I personally like the comp as it is now but expansion is needed and i think more than 20 teams in the 1 group is too much.

Good point jim, the thing that has been a absolute dream for the n.r.l is the fact you can make the top eight, i love this as you saw last year the playoff for the eight was intense. Now if my team just made 8 and had to play the top team, i then know for sure if they get beaten we had no chance that year, one day it might go in a good teams favour. Yes with a conference setup you would still get all the games and have the same intensity but would need to be looked at further down the track.

This last plan should be implemented around 2012 in which i mean expansion, even after 2013 next world cup, but if you tell them that they are in then this gives them all the time they need to do ground work and sponsers. I am looking forward to the day gallop says we are admitting perth and another team, hopefully aderlaide. I know the other areas will miss out but they should be thinking we need to get more players through because there is more teams to enter into. Not take it as a negative, as for rockhampton area jim, yes, but not before someone with a good veiw on what they need to acheive takes hold, get a ground setup near the coast like they have done at blue tongue, and the door would be opened. With shelter and good air flow, can get hot up there.

jim_57:

Druzik:

Well the great news is that the European are doing just that. They have this multi tier system now where team can get promoted up and down and play other teams that are upto their strengths. They get to play about 3 games a year which is good. as far as I am aware the tiers at the moment are

England/France/Wales/Ireland/Scotland

Russia/Lebanon/Serbia

Germany/Italy/Czechs

Estonia/Latvia/Ukraine

These are the home grown countries at the moment. I am not sure how countries like Malta and Greece and Morocco are fittingt into this, but with Serbia playing Morocco just s few weeks ago abviously there is no probelm with them having games agaisnt each other.

Great set-up, does this work on a promotion/relegation system? Does this mean if Russia win they can get into the top tier somehow? or is it only the 3 bottom tiers that relegation/promotion is used for?

So malta, greece and morocco arn't in this system because they dont have domestic comps? is that right?

From what I undersatnd yes that is the case... if russia win then they will promote up to the top5/6 teams and probably the lowest ranked team there, wales or scotland drop dow. Last years European shield winners Serbia got promoted into the Euro med.

I think the Greece/Malta/Portugal/Morocco thing is more that many of the players have massive distances to travel (i.e. australia) and are in the middle of their seasons and are still in a transition rtype phase. Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia don't really have domestic comps as such, but have teams that play regularly and can field competitive sides on their level.

I think in a couple of years time when there are more domestic players in the Maltese and greek etc... local domestic comps, these tournies will expand to 4/5 teams per group making it even more competitive which should be heaps of fun.

BTW have posted the latest dates of the Euro shield and Bowl games in another post.

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Yeh i think it might have to split in to a conference league before too long, the demand for an NRL team is in alot of places and some cant be ignored for too long. I'm thinkin perth needs to be the next team in the NRL just to give it a national feel, i think we will se 17 or more teams in the NRL come 2010/11 and hopefully more after that. Like you said oikee, gallop should give them the go-a-head but not release anything to the media, so that when he does release it to the media the club will have established itself and be ready to start signing players and sponsors etc. I think after the WC the announcment will be made for an expansion, fingers crossed perth and adelaide. In saying that i think perth are in a better position for an NRL team, they have a team in the Jim Beam Cup, Souths are taking games there from 2009 and the western force are having a big crowd capacity square stadium built so i imagine RL could use that.

Yes thats right, perth are no secret, they have a following and want to be back, this is why they are going down the jimmy bean path, to get there players up to standard, so they dont have to buy that many, we know this and gallop knows this, this is why the man is so laid back, there is no reason to shout it from the rooftops. I would say he will annouse this next year maybe after the final round 2009, when there is not much happening, but i would say that perth already know. Aderlaide i dont know, as they have not got the numbers, but having said this they will grow them in a hurry if perth gets a team and they dont.? So likely to see aderlaide around 2018 after next world cup, so this leaves the door open for the next best placed team in either Central Coast or sun coast , maybe not ipswich just yet, they can look at this next time.Or he might just want to include them as well. They have the numbers. And would be able to produce a huge following, probably bigger than the broncos, because they have a one team mantallity in ipswich, having been rejected by brisbane for so many years.

Yeh i'd say we'll see a perth/WA team before the next WC, maybe as soon as 2010. We really need a team over there as there is still a following and A-League, AFL and S14 all have teams based there.

Isn't the NRL already sort of split into 2 team "conferences." Temas in the same group play each other twice where as they play teams in the other group only once?

Perth defo is an expansion area, but only in a few years time, what I want to see is more locals comming in, Not another team full of QLDers and NSWmen... the Force to me is a farce as its what it is and there is not even any attempt to try and bring in any WA juniors.

BTW has anybody seen the latest RU player registration figures for Aus, 66,000 apparently, over 100,000 down from last year (they quoted last year 170,000)!

What are RL player figures in Aus these days. Anyone know?

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I know druzik, league its 100,000 more than last year,, hehee

No its not split druzik, you just get some guy at the beginning of the year with 16 balls and he picks out the ones he wants to play who, this is true, happened this year with the local derbies. I think every team just plays one at home and away against every other team.So 2 more teams mean 2 more weeks extended comp, no big deal. 

Yes the perth team druzik even if it is admitted will not come into the comp until after 2011 Thats the very minamin time because gallop wanted to let them get players up to speed, this is what i have said, perth are always coming back but they needed to build the team. THis is why i said on the other blog its a shame gallop had to show his hand early. Its poker over here at the moment, he has got to learn to keep his mouth shut. We dont want the other codes thinking we are doing well. So they will get now 2 years jimmy beam and 1 year queeny cup practise, which could have been a better 5 year plan, and go look , we have a ripper n.r.l team.Good with the bad. Now they have to buy more players to get started well.

Hmmmmm... look maybe if people are worried about the potential short fall of top line players, should look to some of the Eastern European players filling the gap... even is just for a while while a team establishes itself. There are a few Russian, Serbian and lebanese local players that with a bit of training up could easily cut the mustard in the NRL. Give them a 2-3 year contract. promote it like hell in those countries and then they can go back to their leagues to help build them up... help domestic and international games over there.

Just an idea.

... and also dont shunt the UK or French boys... there is some amazing talent out there. 

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Visa druzik, you know what i would love the government to do, open the door for russian and serbs and tell them anyone who wants to play league bring you your family and allow them dual citenzinship, so they can go back whenever they want to promote as well, why not the world is now a small place and we need heaps for the mining, so if they dont all cut it, then we can at least give them jobs,

Look to tell the truth druzik, we dont need to steal any of the players from over there yet, why because the teams get weakened without the players you have, i can see this from here and if you loooked at the pace of the club challenge then you would understand what i mean, think about what they done, we have never played in those conditions, storm were without a five eight, and the hooker was a makeshift, you seen the intensity and they were just driving it up the middle, could you have imagined that across the park on a dry pitch, and this is only the start of the n.r.l, it gets better , why do you think people are flocking back to the n.r.l over here.

The game has found a new level and the people know it. The game is where it should be, and cant get much better but can get quicker.This is the new area they are headed, we have guys over hear running just outside olimpic times now.

I dont think there would be a player shortage druzik, look at the amount of juniors coming through the ranks, i think you could easily fill another 2 or 3 teams with some of the talent running around in QLD cup, NSW cup, Toyota cup and other smaller comps around australia. I am not against the idea of bringing in foriengers either, i'd say bringing in some young russians, serbians, italians etc. would do a world of good for the home domestic comps when the players head back. Maybe to prevent them overstaying they could make them sign 2 year contracts for NRL clubs and after that they have to spend atleast 1 year back at home.

Now i know this is not possible, ok, but what about if we could get the whole english comp to move over hear and the n.r.l to go over there , rotate.

Talk about exciting, hehe Jim we get to toyota games on fox each week and the competition will go up another notch, so you are right, we will have plenty of players for incresed teams. Who ever thought of this idea is a genious. By 2012 we will have all the players we need for increased teams.

Yeh by 2012 we should have plenty to cover another 2 or 3 NRL teams, and lets not forget the new local talent that would come through.

The local talent gets picked up all the time, you only have to look in the rugby league week to see the amouint of players coming through the local comps, and they are always being watched now. Good for grass roots.

oikee:

Have a look at the welsh team trying to get into the super league, crowd support 350, this is not how to grow, you need crowds of 10 thousand or more before you should even get a look in. Like the sunshine coast are getting?

The Brisbane Premier League (Football) Grand Final would have struggled to attract 10,000 spectators to its Grand Final in 2004.  The Queensland Roar attract fairly large crowds to their home matches.  Therefore, if Football Federation Australia (FFA) used your formula, then Brisbane would not have an A-League franchise.