NRL NRL Expansion

[Shogun]

What an all around terrible idea.

Partnership with super rugby team that's on the verge of collapse - check.

Playing out of a terrible stadium that they'd battle to get a quarter full - check.

Trying to muscle in on a city that's riding a Warriors wave - check.

Reckon they might need to check the guys backing this for CTE.

I never said anything about some partnership. If Perth Rugby are on the verge of collapse, I could not care less. Rugby's not 1 of my sporting interests.

For their 1 game last year they got 20k. I understand they wouldn't get 20k for every game esp if they're loosing but hard to believe they wouldn't get 5k 25%.

If Perth had their own team chances are they'd ride that team.

All that said I'm not burning inside for a Perth team, I don't care that much and you're against it which is totally fine by me.

 

[WA Warrior]

I never said anything about some partnership. If Perth Rugby are on the verge of collapse, I could not care less. Rugby's not 1 of my sporting interests.

For their 1 game last year they got 20k. I understand they wouldn't get 20k for every game esp if they're loosing but hard to believe they wouldn't get 5k 25%.

If Perth had their own team chances are they'd ride that team.

All that said I'm not burning inside for a Perth team, I don't care that much and you're against it which is totally fine by me.

I believe he’s talking about the new Mana Pasifika bid that would be based in Auckland.

 

[Matiunz]

If it wasn't for the evil News Corp & the weak as wet paper ARL we'd have 20 teams. 10 in Sydney and 10 outside and there wouldn't be this PNG nonsense where the government of gigantic Alcatraz are giving them $60m every year for 10 years.

As for a team in Perth, Sth Sydney's the only club without a home ground. Crowe would probably bite my head off for the suggestion. Alternatively they could take over Henson Park. It's less than 7klm from Redfern and they claim it can hold 30k, which is hard to believe looking at it on google maps.

Superleague missed a golden opportunity to relationise Sydney if done properly- no way should they have 10 teams, maybe 7 max if you were including the satellites like Wollongong and Gosford.
I’ve played at Henson park and there’s no way it has 30,000 Capacity, I’d estimate 15k max. Souths should just got to Allianz Henson is a bit of a shithole in reality worse than liechardt and smack bang in dense suburbia of Newtown/Marrickville there’s not a lot of space

 

[wizard of Tauranga]

For all the negatives about a pacific team it has some good features:

- It represents a huge player base so would have a lot of players interested. More so than PNG or Perth
- given the above I believe it will be more competitive. Not a powerhouse but consistently above bottom 4 level.
- it expands the game into more countries than Perth or SI. You could say it’s a South Pacific competition involving 6 countries if you include representing Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga.
- it would strengthen the pacific test teams and give pathways for coaching, support staff and improve infrastructure
- I don’t accept the union comparison. Union is on a downward spiral and their pacific team was a rushed attempt to bolster team numbers after South Africa left. As a growing sport with the salary cap, the league version would be in a much better position.
- the pacific islands and Eden park is closer than Perth and safer than Port Moresby as a new team destination.
- I think Auckland can handle 2 teams and doing it via a pacific team is a smart way to distinguish it and not cannibalise existing Warriors support to much. Many would support both. Auckland has the population for 2 teams, more so than Christchurch.
- if they can tie in Hawaii as a part of the representation it’s a sneaky back door into the US. Huge potential for growth and corporate support…

Of course there’s still the lots of challenging issues and I don’t think it will go anywhere but I wouldn’t write it off straight away.

 

[tajhay]

It represents a huge player base so would have a lot of players interested. More so than PNG or Perth

More than PNG? Where are you basing that information on? Everywhere ive looked, the PNG base would be atleast double even if all the pacific islands were combined.

I like the idea of a combined Pacific islands team (Tonga, Samoa, Fiji) playing. PNG went about it the right way via establishing the Hunters. Fiji did well with in starting up the Silktails. They have moved to pathways program and now compete in U21 Jersey Flegg. Been to a few of their games and they are very raw. Ideally a combined PI team is established via NSW cup to see how viable they really are. A proper combined PI team should have homegrown talents as their foundation and they need a bit of time in the lower comps for that development to really come through else they will flounder.

 

[BangBro's (still banging)]

I'm against the Pacific team in auckland, I think Christchurch as a city in this country is on the up.

They have the new stadium, they have the local talent, it's a no brainer.

 

[wizard of Tauranga]

More than PNG? Where are you basing that information on? Everywhere ive looked, the PNG base would be atleast double even if all the pacific islands were combined.

Players? At a lower level there may be more PNG players but at elite NRL level, 45% of current NRL players identify as Pacifica.