"Sydney Orign"

[RoosTah]

If there's one topic that gets brought up a lot here it's the problem of having too many teams in Sydney. But how do you reduce the number of teams without alienating people? There really is no easy answer to this, but one idea I've come across that I quite liked is the notion of having a 4 way "Sydney regions origin series" at the start of the season with Sydney's geographical and club landscape being carved up into North,South, East and West.

Much like interstate origin, it would be about bragging rights being able to go to the area who develops the best players. The format could work like the current 4N series, and player eligability would simply be contingent on where your junior development took place up until the age of 17 (although this could be tinkered with), with the most recent area you were developed by getting your services provided you were there for more than a year.

The reason I like this idea is sydney clubs always talk about who is better at developing talent, and so this would be a way to genuinely test it.

Obviously it'd start off a little bit small, but I reckon the bragging rights would be significant and if you ran it over 10 years and did it really well, you could gradually transition those new "rep" teams into the main NRL competition and relegate all the other Sydney clubs to the NSW cup.

Now, I understand this notion is a little unsettling, as it would involve taking the big NRL teams of sydney and effectively relegating them, but try to look at it this way: our teams would still be there, they'd just be part of something bigger.

Again, rather than the brutal super league approach which alienated fans and damaged the code, this would be a very gradual approach, that would allow for genuine parochialism to build between the new 4 Sydney regions "Origin" teams. The end game would be what we all know is necessary, a rationalised NRL with 4 teams from Sydney and thus great room for growth interstate.

 

[Parra Pride]

It'd be about as popular as City/Country.

relegate all the other Sydney clubs to the NSW cup.

I'll never support anyone in the NRL who aren't the Parramatta Eels, and I reckon there are a lot of fans that would feel the same way about their own clubs.

 

[Twatface Magee]

[youtube]sw6ndZNLYUA[/youtube]

 

[RoosTah]

Great I've already got some douchebag responding with a video of a rapist. Glad you boys are being constructive.

Seriously though, EVERYONE knows that Sydney shouldn't have 8 bloody teams, but no one has any idea of what to do about it that doesn't involve relocations or starting the entire NRL from scratch. This solution may not be perfect, but it would put every sydney fan in the same boat and would be better for the health of the game over the long term.

 

[Obscene Assassin]

Sydney doesn't have 8 teams though. Really the only clubs that are very close together are the Roosters and Rabbitohs. Outside of that you have Manly who control the Northern Beaches where no one else plays. Bulldogs who have the South West region. The Eels which is about to become Sydney's 2nd CBD along with the North West. Penrith who have their own area from about St Marys through to Katoomba. Tigers who have Inner West through to Campbelltown.

They're really the only clubs in the greater Sydney area I would classify.

 

[pHyR3]

i think the issue with over crowding is really to do with the dragons and sharks. Those two and roosters occupy a reasonably close together area.

It would have been best for the roosters to have taken over that area over the past 20 years and become a massive club, as big as souths.

But now it's too late, and we'll be stuck with 9 sydney teams. Hopefully we can still build up crowds to 20k in sydney

 

[Twatface Magee]

Just because Roosters have shit support doesn't mean other teams are in the same boat.
We don't even have a team representing the North of Sydney, so we could potentially have 9 teams.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

There are too many teams in Sydney - is that why they've won 4 of the last 5 premierships?

 

[RoosTah]

There are too many teams in Sydney - is that why they've won 4 of the last 5 premierships?

You've missed the point by about 50km champ. Success on the field isn't an issue, it's about the size of the market.

Some good points made here though - Parramatta is definitely a significant population sink and is virtually a city unto itself now, so support there will always be strong. Meanwhile Souths' averages are up, and for all the crap about the Roosters their crowds were still better than most other Sydney teams too (smack bang in the middle of the 9 this year if you count the Dragons as Sydney).

As for North Sydney - the Eagles have been a defecto North Sydney for a decade now whether you want to believe it or not. But as a club they still alienate a lot of people all the same.

In any case though, as an idea it would be interesting just to see how people would support it, and it would be interesting to watch which region dominated over the others. What's more is that the players would be far more genuinely representative of their areas than the club setup and so you'd have plenty of people invested from the get go.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

You had a point chump?

 

[strong_latte]

I am somewhat partial to this idea I have to admit, but it still has too many practical problems to work. If the NRL was like the AFL and all our Sydney clubs averaged 30k+, then the number of sydney teams would be less of an issue, but I do think that the League looks like it's a little too narrow and council specific in Sydney. South Sydney is probably the most general term, but it represents south Sydney of circa 1908 - an era when south of the CBD was "south Sydney".

It'd be a heck of a job though, and the trouble is you have to eliminate a tonne of history in the process, and people like their tradition and history.

Personally I'm more a market mechanism fan - cut support for failing clubs and let them die so the relocation incentive actually does something.

 

[umina panther]

Congratulations on the worst idea in the history of LU

 

[Obscene Assassin]

If you cut the Sharks, and Balmain Tigers from the comp that would help a lot. Move the Western Suburbs Magpies exclusively back to Campbelltown and that will be a lot better.

 

[alien]

The end game would be what we all know is necessary, a rationalised NRL with 4 teams from Sydney and thus great room for growth interstate.

we dont all agree that is necessary. what about the tens of thousands of fans the game will lose, who might even start to support opposing codes??? is that whats best for the game??? :roll:

 

[strong_latte]

If you cut the Sharks, and Balmain Tigers from the comp that would help a lot. Move the Western Suburbs Magpies exclusively back to Campbelltown and that will be a lot better.

From a regional standpoint balmain is really better off just being amalgamated into Easts juniors set up and basically becoming a part of them. Balmain is really part of the wider eastern region of modern sydney and has more in common with places like randwick than Campbelltown. Of course that does reduce the number of teams, it simply would makes Wests more logically representative of an area without a nearby team.

 

[strong_latte]

we dont all agree that is necessary. what about the tens of thousands of fans the game will lose, who might even start to support opposing codes??? is that whats best for the game??? :roll:

I think most people would concede that 9 teams in one city is just too many, it's just that no one wants THEIR team to be cut. That's why I'm more in favour of just cutting support for poorly run teams and encouraging relocations - it prevents the fans from taking out their rage on the game as a whole as they will know it was their team's board who led them down the path

 

[dangerousdave]

Merge Canturbury with Penrith or Wests

 

[alien]

I think most people would concede that 9 teams in one city is just too many, it's just that no one wants THEIR team to be cut. That's why I'm more in favour of just cutting support for poorly run teams and encouraging relocations - it prevents the fans from taking out their rage on the game as a whole as they will know it was their team's board who led them down the path

i agree that relocations are better than mergers or joint-ventures but i dont believe it has to be reduced to 4 teams in sydney

 

[Loose Cannon]

The North-South-East-West divide isn't that simple. There are 4 clubs considered West including 2 very successful off-field operations, 1 other with ridiculous potential when it comes to juniors, and 1 which the NRL currently has majority vote with the intention of "righting the ship". On the other hand we only have one club in the North. Are South Sydney really South in the modern city? Who are considered East given The Roosters have limited juniors?

It wouldn't be a level playing field.

 

[Bulldog Force]

Merge Canturbury with Penrith or Wests

BF here,

Merge dick with head.