Auckland Rugby League is planning for the biggest shake up of the sport since the inception of the Warriors.
The sporting body is aiming to set up a semi-professional competition in the region by 2020 and once successful expand it around the country.
Previous incarnations of professional competitions in New Zealand, the Lion Red Cup (1994-96) and the Bartercard Cup (2000-2007), which were both administered by New Zealand Rugby League, collapsed because of money problems.
AUCKLAND RUGBY LEAGUE
Greg Whaiapu believes a semi professional competition will help keep players in New Zealand
But the ARL believes it can launch as sustainable semi-professional competition.
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"We want to have a quality competition that retains our players here in New Zealand," ARL general manager Greg Whaiapu said.
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"So that they don't go over to Australia, to try their luck in country rugby league or aspiring to be the next NRL star.
"They're going offshore because they feel there's nothing here to hold them.
"Having a semi-professional competition will give them a sense that there's a financial reward potentially for staying here."
Auckland Rugby League is still actively trying to buy the Warriors from Eric Watson, but there are other parties also trying to get the club.
Its bid is different to the others as it sees the NRL club as a part of its big picture plans to revitalise the sport in New Zealand.
If it were to take over ownership, the ARL would pull the Warriors' under-20 team from their current Australian league and have those players play in its new competition instead.
Those players would still have a direct path into the Warriors' NRL team, while also raising the level of their competition.
The Auckland clubs are backing the move and Whaiapu said initially he is looking at just Auckland teams, but would like it to grow into a nationwide league.
However, as Auckland is the dominant force for the code in the country, both in terms of finances and playing stock, expansion wouldn't be rushed.
"It's little steps at first, there's a lot of work to do with the details," Whaiapu said.
"But by the end of next year we'll have an idea of the format we can work with.
"We need to have further discussion with the clubs to get them ready as well, because they're going to have to do a lot of work."
Auckland Rugby League would need to ensure the teams are well resourced and managed. It is able to offer support through the Carlaw Heritage Trust, but don't want this to be a venture making big losses.
As well as the players, Whaiapu feels the new competition would benefit local referees and coaches too.
For a New Zealand referee to break into the NRL, they'd need to move to Australia, while for coaches the gap between local amateur competitions and the NRL and Kiwis is too big for anyone to jump up to right now, which is partly why New Zealand Rugby League has changed its eligibility rules to allow non-New Zealanders to coach the Kiwis.
"Players aspire to be international players and referees aspire to be international referees," Whaiapu said.
"Some of the indications we've got are that our coaches will never become Kiwis coach because we don't have the pathways and we don't have a quality competition that requires referees to be at a high level week in and week out.
"If we start to get a semi professional competition building from the ground up, the quality of our coaching would need to improve alongside the skill base of our players.
"If they're not inline, we're not going to achieve the outcomes we want in terms of a good competition that players within Auckland, and potentially the rest of New Zealand, can aspire to."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/leagu...rugby-league-believes-new-comp-a-game-changer
