Goodbye Bears, CQ and PNG?

[rednblack]

Agree 100%. The Tigers should also be playing games at Homebush instead of the SFS. Rabbitohs should go back to the SFS permanently.

Exactly... What makes Homebush "south"? Penrith are more suited to Homebush than the Rabbitohs!

 

[RedVee]

Completely agree! Sounds cheap and temporary. People would still call them "wests", fine, but please have SOME degree of professionalism.

WTF?

It's up to them, surely, as long as they meet the NRLs guidelines (if there are any) ???

I couldn't care if they named the club "the arm-swinging chimpanzees" - if they and their fans are ok with it, it should be good enough for the rest of us.

 

[bobmar28]

Wiki is wrong. Footscray were clearly recognised as the Bulldogs for atleast the last fifty years. All their logos had the Bulldog in it for decades before Canterbury but at the end of the day who cares. I know which Bulldogs I would rather what and it is not the Melbourne version.

You're also not reading what I said before commenting. "According to Wikipedia Canterbury had the name Bulldogs since 1978". I'm pretty sure that's right.
These comments seem to get a life of their own based on a comment by someone 3 pages ago and some offensive comments by Bunniesman.

 

[Perth Red]

Not sure I agree with Lockyer's thinking that we need to give struggling clubs another 5 years to get their act together but good that he is backing us:

"Perth could be a good growth area for the game. It's long been the city I thought the NRL should expand to. It will happen one day."

http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/...t-if-nrl-expands/story-fn6ck6i3-1226118453903

 

[bobmar28]

Not sure I agree with Lockyer's thinking that we need to give struggling clubs another 5 years to get their act together but good that he is backing us:

"Perth could be a good growth area for the game. It's long been the city I thought the NRL should expand to. It will happen one day."

http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/...t-if-nrl-expands/story-fn6ck6i3-1226118453903

One day? It's way overdue.

 

[Red&BlackBear]

One day? It's way overdue.

Well they've had a team before, so I don't know exactly how it's overdue. Hopefully next time the league takes care of them a bit better. However considering how neglectful the game has been in growing it's roots in Victoria, I can't honestly see the NRL assisting W.A. that much. It really all falls on the Reds bid to make sure they can prove that they will be a sustainable entity. Which I'm sure they will, still I think the NRL has to make sure they are there to help them out when they need it. Otherwise history will repeat itself.

 

[Bluebags1908]

I don't know how the Tigers were allowed to be called 'Wests' after they merged when we were already a national comp for over a decade. And it sounds so amateurish to have an abbreviated nickname as your official name. They should be 'West Sydney'. 'Sydney' should be 'East Sydney.

How much easier would it be to market a big game between 'West Sydney' and 'East Sydney' than a meaningless one between 'Sydney' and 'Wests'.

Sydney Roosters territory covers the Sydney CBD, and they play out of the Sydney Football Stadium, so they are right to call themselves Sydney.

Wests Tigers calling themselves 'West Sydney' would confuse with Parramatta, Penrith and Canterbury-Bankstwon which are also in West Sydney.

 

[sharko]

Well they've had a team before, so I don't know exactly how it's overdue. Hopefully next time the league takes care of them a bit better. However considering how neglectful the game has been in growing it's roots in Victoria, I can't honestly see the NRL assisting W.A. that much. It really all falls on the Reds bid to make sure they can prove that they will be a sustainable entity. Which I'm sure they will, still I think the NRL has to make sure they are there to help them out when they need it. Otherwise history will repeat itself.

Their management was arablle and their attempts at junior development were negligible..they were happy to have fly in fly out players from the eastern States and hand outs from the league..if they were a compotent entity they would have been kept.
What the NRL do not need is another basket case like the Titans who have their hand out for money all the time and mislead the NRL as to their crowd figures.

 

[Scarves]

For an apparent National competition there are simply too many teams in Sydney. Additionally I believe that 16 teams is the magic number for the NRL. In the early 90's the game was roaring along with 16 teams. Today the game is roaring again with 16 teams. So in regard to Sydney teams and the math of 16 teams the smart money would be to work on that math and not plump for an extra game per round at the expense of quality.

I believe in expansion but I don't believe in expanding the comp from 16 to 18 teams, and that comment is considering what I can see within our game at present. I also don't believe in expansion just for the sake of seeing some new fresh livery running around on a football team. Our comp is a great one and our comp is fairly even when compared to the AFL. The AFL wish their comp was as even as ours and what they're doing at present is causing many in their game concern. We should start learning from their folly.

 

[NRL-TGG]

We should start learning from their folly.

The NRL should and expand smartly.

Just because we have a history of poor expansion in the 90s and the AFL is doing it poorly now doesn't mean we shouldn't expand. Expanding to 18 teams in the right areas and doing it smartly is the key to greater success for the NRL.

 

[Cockadoodledoo]

Im sure this has been asked before but anyway. Will the second brisbane team actually strengthen rugby league or will it just weaken an already strong team?

You would think the self called 'Capital of Rugby League' with a population of over 2 million could support 2 teams..

 

[Perth Red]

Their management was arablle and their attempts at junior development were negligible..they were happy to have fly in fly out players from the eastern States and hand outs from the league..if they were a compotent entity they would have been kept.
What the NRL do not need is another basket case like the Titans who have their hand out for money all the time and mislead the NRL as to their crowd figures.

They say ignorance is bliss, is it?

 

[dimitri]

Their management was arablle and their attempts at junior development were negligible..they were happy to have fly in fly out players from the eastern States and hand outs from the league..if they were a compotent entity they would have been kept.
What the NRL do not need is another basket case like the Titans who have their hand out for money all the time and mislead the NRL as to their crowd figures.

WTF?

how were they meant to develop juniors in their 3 turbulent years of existence

even with everything going on, they managed to blood juniors before the storm did - (no offence to storm fans at all)

crazy comment - :crazy:

 

[Perth Red]

WTF?

how were they meant to develop juniors in their 3 turbulent years of existence

even with everything going on, they managed to blood juniors before the storm did - (no offence to storm fans at all)

crazy comment - :crazy:

as I said he is talking complete rubbish, the jnr model they had was outstanding, they brought over a couple of dozen decent jnrs to strengthen the local league and had good programmes in place. It was the real strength of the club being run by the WARL, like now. Sad thing was it was never given time to bare fruit as we all know what happened.

 

[betcats]

as I said he is talking complete rubbish, the jnr model they had was outstanding, they brought over a couple of dozen decent jnrs to strengthen the local league and had good programmes in place. It was the real strength of the club being run by the WARL, like now. Sad thing was it was never given time to bare fruit as we all know what happened.

This could be a stupid question, i seem to be full of those re this subject, but anyway here goes. Does the WA reds or the WARL have a plan to increase junior participation in WA if they are givien a license?

 

[Perth Red]

This could be a stupid question, i seem to be full of those re this subject, but anyway here goes. Does the WA reds or the WARL have a plan to increase junior participation in WA if they are givien a license?

Absolutely! In fact it has already started and for the last 3 years has been a key focus. Initiatives so far include:

Linking High schools with WARL clubs in their region with a new Year9 school comp
An elite jnr academy for under 16's
An SG Ball team that has played two seasons and is preparing for year 3
A primary schools carnival program

We have around 1500 registered jnr's at the moment, an increase of around 20% in the last couple of years. With an NRL team and some decent development funding I can see that comfortably reaching 4-5000. RU had around 1000 5 years ago, the Western Force coming in and increased funding to the WARU saw an increase to over 3500 jnrs now.

The fact that the Reds will be a part of the WARL is probably the biggest strength of our bid from a RL development point of view and will ensure we do not end up with a scenario like they have had in Melbourne. of course we need to get the game on TV at a decent time so the kids can see their heroes and want to be like them.

 

[betcats]

Absolutely! In fact it has already started and for the last 3 years has been a key focus. Initiatives so far include:

Linking High schools with WARL clubs in their region with a new Year9 school comp
An elite jnr academy for under 16's
An SG Ball team that has played two seasons and is preparing for year 3
A primary schools carnival program

We have around 1500 registered jnr's at the moment, an increase of around 20% in the last couple of years. With an NRL team and some decent development funding I can see that comfortably reaching 4-5000. RU had around 1000 5 years ago, the Western Force coming in and increased funding to the WARU saw an increase to over 3500 jnrs now.

The fact that the Reds will be a part of the WARL is probably the biggest strength of our bid from a RL development point of view and will ensure we do not end up with a scenario like they have had in Melbourne. of course we need to get the game on TV at a decent time so the kids can see their heroes and want to be like them.

Cheers, I didnt know there was a WA sg ball team, how competitive have they been so far?

 

[Perth Red]

Still on a steep learning curve and the travel is hard for the kids but they are doing ok (they tell me the worse part is the 2 hour time difference as they normally kick off around 10amish over East so it is closer to 8am for their body clocks!). First year was tough, last year we were stronger and managed to get our first away win against Penrith and this year we will have a much bigger WA contingency as our first jnr elite academy players reach SG ball age. So far we have had 2 SG Ball players signed up by NRL clubs and playing Toyota cup.

if your interested I encourage you, and anyone else that wants to follow the development of RL in WA, to join the WA Red Army supporters group. It's free and we have a monthly newsletter with all the latest news and gossip form over here.

Join up at www.warzone.net.au

 

[RLlover]

To say that the CQ bid is not a region is just plain silly
I strongly believe that this is important for the IC to get right for the future of theis great game
Perth is a cert for one expansion spot

Then there is lots of competition for the second place
The Brisbane Bombers should not be conciderd as it will not expand into new areas and is aimed to weaken the broncos Also is every body aware that there is a limit on big moatch games at Suncorpe stadium. Who will miss out on games REDS ROAR Broncos ????? Ipswich and the Bombers dont have a stadium

PNG are still a long way off and should try in the QLD cup again

NZ is just getting its house inorder Give the Worriers some time PLZ

that just leaves the CCB and CQ bids that have any crediability
CCB have a stadium and support however are still in NSW and very close to the sharks who are struggling

CQ have a great support base and the promice of a new stadium

The anwser is clear for the last team Bring in CCB and move the sharks to CQ. Then you could have the CQ sharks play all their away games against Sydney teams at Shark Park Everybody is happy :crazy:

 

[Goddo]

To say that the CQ bid is not a region is just plain silly
I strongly believe that this is important for the IC to get right for the future of theis great game
Perth is a cert for one expansion spot

True, Perth will be in.

Then there is lots of competition for the second place
The Brisbane Bombers should not be conciderd as it will not expand into new areas and is aimed to weaken the broncos Also is every body aware that there is a limit on big moatch games at Suncorpe stadium. Who will miss out on games REDS ROAR Broncos ????? Ipswich and the Bombers dont have a stadium

False, the Qld Gov have raised the big "match" crowd definition to 25 35,000 crowds (which pushes the number down from 25 to around 8 for this year so far). Suncorp will be fine to hoast another 30k averaging club.

Western Corridor intend on having their own stadium before 2022, so they will only be temporary tenants. (They have to wait for Stadiums Queensland to build the new Cowboys Stadium which is their current top priority, and for the 2017 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast).

With regards to support, any new Brisbane based side will be viable - they will get big away support for any Queensland rival, and the bigger Sydney clubs. They will pick up their own supporter base fairly easily once established. Remember the Crushers were averaging around 22k in the 90s - which would be second best today. There is also plenty of corporate support which makes any such side very viable.

PNG are still a long way off and should try in the QLD cup again

True, PNG is not a shot - Gallop has said as much in an interview, and they are aiming for 2017 and beyond for NRL entry - so 2 TV deals away at the soonest.

NZ is just getting its house inorder Give the Worriers some time PLZ

The NZ 2 club will be up to the NZRL to get going with a private partnership. RL is actually doing really well in NZ at the moment, but they are not organised enough to be a chance this time around.

that just leaves the CCB and CQ bids that have any crediability
CCB have a stadium and support however are still in NSW and very close to the sharks who are struggling

CQ have a great support base and the promice of a new stadium

There is around 60,000 people in Rockhampton. The nearest population centres are 100kms away and are 50,000 or less. It is also a regional side, which holds little interest for broadcasters looking for big Metro ratings.

A 20,000 seat stadium in Rockhampton will be a white elephant (and also the smallest ground in the NRL). The Ipswich bid has recieved the same stadiums promise as Central Queensland, and both will be on the backburner for the next few years while Stadiums Queensland have a couple of other projects on the go. This makes CQ homeless - which along with its small population pretty much kills the bid, despite strong community support and financial backing.

The anwser is clear for the last team Bring in CCB and move the sharks to CQ. Then you could have the CQ sharks play all their away games against Sydney teams at Shark Park Everybody is happy :crazy:

You want the Bears, but you also recognise the problem with such a club - you try to shuffle a current Sydney side interstate.

You are right, there is a gap in the spread of teams with North Sydney - Central Coast region, but there are already 10 teams in NSW, some are struggling. There is little to no demand from TV for more NSW sides too.

Its not really expansion, more a reordering. Something will happen to change the situation in Sydney, and the bears will be part of that:

Manly are privately owned, and have major stadium issues - they have already flirted with the Sunshine Coast.
The Sharks will have $10M of their debt wiped out, but will still be $4M in debt, and won't see any further revenue from the development until around 2015. Not out of the woods yet.
Penrith are reliant on their gaming revenue. New state laws will help them a bit.
Souths are privately owned, but have turned the club around big time.
Roosters have big finanial backing in Politis, but who knows what the future holds without him.
Newcastle, Parramatta, St George, Canterbury and Wests are all secure.
Maybe Manly will reloate or Cronulla will fold, opening the North Shore-CC for the Bears.