What is the limit?

[Gozilo]

It is almost certain that the NRL are going to expand, where to and when?, nobody knows, but how big does the NRL want to get?

How many teams can the NRL really cope with? 16, 18, 20?
Can the NRL adopt NFL style divisions/conferences? Qld, NSW, rest?
Where will the money come from?
Is there enough quality players to field more teams?
Do we have coaches and staff?
Who will answer my questions?

 

[Deacon]

it'll go to 18 eventually and stay there. The 16 we have now plus a second Brisbane team and a WA side.

Id like to see a NFL conference set up but it wont happen, though the draw will run like it does.

The NSW Sides consisting of Knights, Sea Eagles, Eels, Panthers, Dogs, Tigers, Dragons, Sharks, Roosters and Rabbitohs will play each other twice, both Home and Away(18 Rounds worth) and play the interstate sides just once. These teams are Broncos, Brisbane 2, Cowboys, Titans, Storm, Raiders
Perth and Warriors(8 rounds worth). Total comp 26 rounds, obviously the scenario is reversed for the interstate sides.

This will mean a balanced fair draw, Origin and Test/City Country will be stand alone.

Shame it wont happen for 5-10 years but this is how a professional organisation should run a competition

 

[docbrown]

Perth, Central Coast, South-West Brisbane/South Queensland, NZ2 - to take it to a 20 team competition within 10 years.

Queensland Division: Cowboys, Titans, Broncos, Brisbane II
NSW Regional Division: Knights, Bears, Raiders, Dragons
Southern Division: Warriors, Storm, Pirates, NZII
Western Sydney Division: Eels, Panthers, Bulldogs, Tigers
Eastern Sydney Division: Rabbitohs, Sea Eagles, Roosters, Sharks

Win your division, get an automatic home final etc

Adelaide, Central Queensland, NZ3, PNG - to be assessed after that.

 

[HowHigh]

18 for the near future

I think the finals should be cut down to a top 5.. 8 of 16 seems too much especially when teams have made it into the finals with a losing record so a top 8 of 18 sounds better to me.



Would love to see the league grow to 20+ and conferences/divisons

 

[Quidgybo]

I don't think the NRL can go much past 18 teams and dramatically grow without expansion outside Australia and New Zealand. I wouldn't be surprised to see more ambitious Super League teams wanting in and bites of interest from America. When we're ready. In the meantime just keep knocking the ball out of the park domestically and internationally with what we've got and ensure that remains strong.

Leigh.

 

[Diesel]

Perth, Central Coast, South-West Brisbane/South Queensland, NZ2 - to take it to a 20 team competition within 10 years.

Queensland Division: Cowboys, Titans, Broncos, Brisbane II
NSW Regional Division: Knights, Bears, Raiders, Dragons
Southern Division: Warriors, Storm, Pirates, NZII
Western Sydney Division: Eels, Panthers, Bulldogs, Tigers
Eastern Sydney Division: Rabbitohs, Sea Eagles, Roosters, Sharks

Win your division, get an automatic home final etc

Adelaide, Central Queensland, NZ3, PNG - to be assessed after that.

This has merit. Adelaide I'm in 2 minds but if the game can afford it then go for it. Somewhere down the track in the next 15-20 years Sydney will drop 2 teams so this is where NZ3, CQ or Adelaide will benefit

 

[Perth Red]

18 in 2015
20 in 2020
22 in 2030

 

[BDR]

Eventually I think 20 is a good number to aim for, maybe by about 2025. Would like to see another Brisbane team, WA, Adelaide and either CQ, PNG or Central Coast to take the other one.

I don't think we can sustain more than 18 within the next decade though

 

[Perth Red]

nonsense, the game has the money and the playing stocks to expand tomorrow if it chooses to. We've barely tapped the PI and PNG playing talent, we can poach RU players and SL is showing there is a significant talent there that could play NRL.

 

[Kirky]

Adelaide I'm in 2 minds but if the game can afford it then go for it. Somewhere down the track in the next 15-20 years Sydney will drop 2 teams so this is where NZ3, CQ or Adelaide will benefit

I was a big pusher for an Adelaide side, but with the Olympic Dam project not going ahead, there's no urgency to expand there anymore. If it had gone ahead, we would have been mental to not put a team in the city of churches. All of the wealth of the Pilbara would fit in Olympic Dam several times, and the place would've been overrun with NZders and Sth Africans, just as Perth is now. Not to mention wealth.

Even without the project, I feel Adelaide should be higher on the list of priorities. It's a city of over 1 million people. Putting teams in heartland areas isn't expansion, it's consolidation. You don't grow the participation pool by putting a team on the CC.

 

[Danish]

I think 20 is probably sustainable by adding Perth, 2nd brisbane, NZ2, and Central Coast.

We could then have an 18 round comp in which all teams play each other once (alternating home and away each year) with 3 standalone rep weekends throughout the season to push it out to a 21 week competition. Each rep weekend would include 1st grade and U20s state of origin, as well as a pacific 4 nations of NZ, PNG, Tonga, and Samoa. This would mean even on the "bye" weeks we'd still have 4 games of league to televise and not simply be handing the AFL a free weekend.

 

[st george dragons]

Didn't we have 20 teams in the comp in the mid 1990's? But that was in the midst of the pre-Super League War though. I do see the comp eventually going back to a 20 team comp, but will take a while.

I say an 18 team comp could work easily by the end of this decade. And a 20 team comp to run smoothly in the 2020's decade.

I don't know which teams will go in first, but i would like to see a team from Perth, Adelaide, Gosford and a second Brisbane team in there eventually. I'm not sure how i feel about having a team from Central Qld / another from N.Z. / or PNG in the NRL yet.

 

[The Eagle]

Conferences are geniused

My team the 49ers have the easiest division in the league and should never miss the play-offs as a storied glamour club

Under your structure Brisbane, Nq and Melbourne would be shoe ins every year, pass

 

[Gozilo]

The major problem at the current time is that the NRL are operating under the perception that they need to make money otherwise there is no point in making a new club.

Perth, the NRL would ideally like a team there to make TV rights more expensive and make saturday have 3 live to air games (5:30 in sydney, 7:30 in sydney/qld and 7:30 perth which is 9:30 eastern time). Their biggest concern is the lack of players that want to move west and fly in and out every 2 weeks, lack of juniors that have NRL potential and lack of money in WA rugby league.