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Western Perth Reds

Nuke

Nuke

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
5,056
PantherJim,

Perth people have VERY short memories. From about 1989 until 1994 inclusive, the NRL (or NSWRL as it was then) brought League to Perth every year. The people of Perth embraced League. It was popular. From about 1993, people were genuinely getting excited at having a team in the national comp. In 1995 (the Reds first season), League was extremely popular. There was no confusion between League and union ... union, basically, didn't exist. In 1996, SuperLeague had it's claws into the Reds, and a lot of people turned their backs on the Reds. That was the turning point. The Reds believed that all the supporters that turned up to their games were 100% Reds fans. Wrong. Most of us were long-time supporters of the likes of St George, Norths, Parra, Newcastle, ect, and the whole SuperLeague thing didn't sit well. Members pulled out (myself and Dad included), crowd figures dropped right off, and Ch9 shoved League back to all hours of the night ... where it's (barely) stayed ever since. In 1997, Ch9 only showed the SuperLeague games, and media support dropped even more than the previous year. I don't know what their crowds were like, because I completely ignored the SuperLeague comp.

When the Reds were cut, League virtually disappeared. Ch9 wasn't going to show the newly-formed NRL, but thankfully Bob Harnett (ch9 sports-reader) is a huge League fan, and coaxed his boss to change his mind.

Since then, only the bad news stories that League seems to produce every year makes it into the headlines and conversations on the street. Other than that, League is forgotten. Union and League are known generically (and frustratingly) as 'rugby' and all players are gay, thugs, arse-prodders (thanks Hoppa!), and / or rapists.

Only die-hard League fans remain. Without the internet, Rugby League Week, Foxtel, Sports Tonight, and Nightline, I reckon there'd be none left. The WARL doesn't appear to do anything. The NRL doesn't seem to care. Union's much more popular now than it's ever been. If this all continues, I can't see the WARL being around in 3 years, and that would be a huge disaster.
 
I

iggy plop

First Grade
Messages
5,293
A brutal but honest assessment of the state of league in Perth. Well written.

I'd love some of the people at the NRL to read that, but my guess is if they did, they wouldn't care anyway. :x :x :(
 
dimitri

dimitri

First Grade
Messages
7,980
iggy plop said:
A brutal but honest assessment of the state of league in Perth. Well written.

I'd love some of the people at the NRL to read that, but my guess is if they did, they wouldn't care anyway. :x :x :(
Click to expand...

thats right

the nrl dont seem to give a f**k about anywhere except nsw

whats the best that central coast get the next license even though there are way too many teams in nsw

:roll:


the nrl need to learn so much from the afl and how they have expanded

they have done everything right

they stuck by brisbane and sydney when they were'nt goin well and have even helped them out with marketing and juniors

what has our governing body done for the likes of

perth
adelaide
gold coast

????

besides killing them not much else


:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
 
I

In-goal

Bench
Messages
3,523
Miss managment has destroyed the game of RL from probabley ever expanding back into W.A. and S.A., truth be told i am outraged that so many wrong decisions were made
 
dimitri

dimitri

First Grade
Messages
7,980
In-goal said:
Miss managment has destroyed the game of RL from probabley ever expanding back into W.A. and S.A., truth be told i am outraged that so many wrong decisions were made
Click to expand...

me too

i am disgusted that the national body has basically killed the game in these areas

:evil: :evil: :evil:
 
Nuke

Nuke

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
5,056
parra_panther said:
Beating Manly at home in 1996... it was a tight match too I think.
Click to expand...

I think it was 11-6. I also think the Reds didn't lose a match for the rest of the season. Now I'm trying to think of that 5-8th's name. That was his first game for the Reds, and he played in all of their remaining wins (in 1996 at least). I have a feeling he then went to Canterbury ... but I may be wrong. Scott something perhaps? Damn, this is gonna bug me for hours now!

That was one of the rare Reds games I went to in 1996 (after they were well-and-truely a SuperLeague team). It may very well have been the last Reds game I ever saw.
 
M

Matt M

Juniors
Messages
707
Personally I think it was far too early to put teams in Adelaide, Perth or Melbourne. None had (and Melbourne still don't have) any worthwhile juniors or strong foundation. Put the money into other things, then bring in an NRL side. I don't want Melbourne to go but they really need a good foundation with juniors and a stronger fan base. If we had put the money from the Reds, Rams and Storm into other things in those states then we could be very confident in having a good side in these places that are basically a guaranteed success. The main thing which annoys me with the Storm though is that there are many places that, if they were started in 98, they would be huge successes today.
 
dimitri

dimitri

First Grade
Messages
7,980
Nuke said:
parra_panther said:
Beating Manly at home in 1996... it was a tight match too I think.
Click to expand...

I think it was 11-6. I also think the Reds didn't lose a match for the rest of the season. Now I'm trying to think of that 5-8th's name. That was his first game for the Reds, and he played in all of their remaining wins (in 1996 at least). I have a feeling he then went to Canterbury ... but I may be wrong. Scott something perhaps? Damn, this is gonna bug me for hours now!

That was one of the rare Reds games I went to in 1996 (after they were well-and-truely a SuperLeague team). It may very well have been the last Reds game I ever saw.
Click to expand...

are you talking about scott wilson???
 
choc_soldier

choc_soldier

Coach
Messages
10,387
It was probably Scott Wilson.

And they also had a tall lanky English centre by the name of Barrie Jon Mather at that time.

The Reds, in their 3 years in the ARL / Superleague had a very competitive team.
 
ouwet

ouwet

Bench
Messages
3,842
dimitri said:
Nuke said:
parra_panther said:
Beating Manly at home in 1996... it was a tight match too I think.
Click to expand...

I think it was 11-6. I also think the Reds didn't lose a match for the rest of the season. Now I'm trying to think of that 5-8th's name. That was his first game for the Reds, and he played in all of their remaining wins (in 1996 at least). I have a feeling he then went to Canterbury ... but I may be wrong. Scott something perhaps? Damn, this is gonna bug me for hours now!

That was one of the rare Reds games I went to in 1996 (after they were well-and-truely a SuperLeague team). It may very well have been the last Reds game I ever saw.
Click to expand...

are you talking about scott wilson???
Click to expand...

Scotty Wilson... i think you mean Junkie Wilson :lol:
 
S

Stormwarning[c]

Juniors
Messages
516
dimitri said:
I'd love some of the people at the NRL to read that, but my guess is if they did, they wouldn't care anyway. :x :x :(
Click to expand...

thats right

the nrl dont seem to give a f**k about anywhere except nsw[/quote]

I would have to disagree a little. I think the NRL do give a frick and want the game to expand but with the current set up of having 20 or so bodies running the game is what is killing it.

When you have a governing body that has to go to and get approavel from ervery single club to do anything that IMO is killing the game.

I was very disappointed when the Reds where dropped and depending on who you have heard in speeches it makes it hard for a League fan from Melbourne to understand why they were cut.

I'm of the firm belief that until the NRL are the only governing body of our game it wont matter how much money is put into this or that for advertising the game wont grow at all.

I still have a lot of Red's gear that I have collected and I look forward to the day that they aew back in the comp.
 
A

Alan Shore

First Grade
Messages
9,390
The QRL, ARL, NSWRL, VRL, SARL, WARL etc all need to be stripped right down to being provisional bodies running local competitions, with the NRL being the mother of them all. Basically, abolish them or go close to so Gallop has complete control and expansion is easier. It's endless red tape and bureaucracy to get anything done these days in footy.
 
dimitri

dimitri

First Grade
Messages
7,980
Tamazoid said:
The QRL, ARL, NSWRL, VRL, SARL, WARL etc all need to be stripped right down to being provisional bodies running local competitions, with the NRL being the mother of them all. Basically, abolish them or go close to so Gallop has complete control and expansion is easier. It's endless red tape and bureaucracy to get anything done these days in footy.
Click to expand...

i agree 100%

the nswrl and qrl should have just as much power as the warl, sarl etc


its the arl and nrl who should be running the game
 
I

In-goal

Bench
Messages
3,523
The problem with trying to cut these other boards away is that they are of the old cloth who don't believe they should go.

I think the AFL is the sole governing body in Aussie rules and every one else must answer to them why donsen't RL have that setup?
 
dimitri

dimitri

First Grade
Messages
7,980
because RL has too much political infighting and too many favours for the old boys


the nswrl and qrl (along with the other state associations
) should be taken over by the arl and

the state bodies should be subsidiaries of the arl


kinda like local governments in NSW
 
Nuke

Nuke

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
5,056
I'm almost positive that David Moffat's strategic plan had that as a major 'must do' item ... but, like a lot of that document, nothing became of it.

What a shame it never happened. What a shame to waste all that hope on it. I wonder how much stuff from that document actually has come about.
 
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