Reserve grade is a branding issue as much as anything else.
We have a great second tier, with almost thirty clubs across three nations. We don't have to kill that to succeed.
First tier:
-NRL Premiership
Second tier:
-NRL Championship (North)
Current QLD Cup + allow the Cows, Donks and Tits to run their own branded clubs in it. Let Redcliffe use 'Redcliffe' at all levels.
-NRL Championship (South)
Current NSW Cup + some NSW country clubs, eventually add Melbourne, Christchurch & Wellington) Aim for 16-18 clubs in time.
Not a perfect solution but it keeps both sides happy to a degree, there's enough money in the game to support it. Importantly it means we're not losing historic clubs and key regional pathways for short-term solutions.
It also allows expansion clubs to come up through the ranks and for failed clubs to drop down if it's ever needed.
Won’t work.
At the end of the day it’s still the Q Cup sides that feed all the way down to Cyril Connell Cup and in respect to most regional Q Cup clubs; they have entire local comps (with local clubs and junior clubs) that feed into their junior squads pathways. IE Jets with Ipswich Rugby League, Cutters with Mackay District Rugby League, Pride with FNQ Rugby League and so on and so forth.
Adding Broncos, Titans and Cowboys to Q-Cup or lipstick on a pig NRL Championship North whilst the Blackhawks, Wynnums, Tweeds etc of this world exist doesn’t change the fact that the pathways come from those Q Cup sides. Then what? They develop them, pay for them, but the reserve grade sides under Broncos Titans Cowboys brands benefit for their lack of efforts or care?
Unless those 3 NRL clubs invest all the way down in Mal Meninga and Cyril Connell then this NRL championship aka Q Cup with lipstick is redundant. Because if those 3 clubs do streamline their own branded reserves and pathways then instead of having 2 or 3 different Q Cup clubs and those clubs regional RL competitions leading into their NRL club then they’d potentially only have 1. It limits them and in turn limits the output of those Q Cup clubs.
Its all synergetic relationships. People are really over thinking this. It’s working, why change it? Who pays for the change?