14 Team SL and Merged Championship?

[Gobsmacked]

Which has a detrimental effect on the international game in the UK because we’re jumping from 84 to 140 quota spots next year and we will have utter dross over here. Shite like Joe Stimson, Sylvester Namo, Matt Frawley, Waqa Blake, Franklin Pele, Jayden Okunbor and Roderick Tai have no place in Super League as it is, let alone this watered down crap we’re having forced on us next year.

I really hope that the NRL step in at some point. In Australia we take the cream of Unions crop. You could do the same there, you just need the$$$

 

[siv]

Either that or a French conference of say 4 teams running in conjunction with 10-12 English based clubs super league.

french teams would obviously be Catalan and Toulouse and then 2 from say Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Montpelier and Bordeaux etc.

Just setup the French RL comp or mainland Europe comp properly as a rival to the ESL

 

[siv]

I have been wondering if the NRL were going to try and use their DAZN negotiations to include Super League, if they (NRL) were going to be playing a part in the future of SL

Guaranteed this is the case to keep pushing RL on the international stage

NRL has a habit of shoring up the money then making the changes

 

[siv]

London region needs a 3 or 4 team strategy

I personally hate them using a Broncos monica

 

[Gobsmacked]

I wonder what would happen if the NRL opened a completely new league:
Liverpool
Manchester
Leads
Birmingham
Sheffield
York
London
Toulouse
Catalans
Dublin

Bought all the best players ..
Would all the League fans around England jump on a team? Is it possible for them to evolve past their small tribalism in the same way fans of the Brisbane comp fell in behind the Broncos making the most successful Rugby club in the world!

Wigan ,Saint Helens, Windnes fans fall in behind LIVERPOOL
Oldham, Salford, Rochdale fall in behind MANCHESTER
Huddersfield, Halifax, Wakefield- LEEDS

All the clubs currently, effectively become akin to what the Q cup is to the Broncos , Dolphins , Titans and Cowboys

Making it an actual super league..

I'm sure our resident poms will disagree but the UK is set up completely wrong, a bit like the Sydney teams.

Imagine all those supporters coming under a bigger city banner, they'd be massive.

Wayne Bennett was coaching Mal maninga at Souths Logan Magpies for context.

 

[RL The greatest game]

Just setup the French RL comp or mainland Europe comp properly as a rival to the ESL

I do think that the NRL would get a better return for their investment with the French Rugby League competition, and setting up more junior clubs in London.

 

[Perth Red]

Hopefully a few more French players and PNG players are signed up obviously alongside the English and maybe a few Welsh players.

Artie morgue has shown Theres plenty of talent in France for English clubs to look at.

 

[Perth Red]

I wonder what would happen if the NRL opened a completely new league:
Liverpool
Manchester
Leads
Birmingham
Sheffield
York
London
Toulouse
Catalans
Dublin

Bought all the best players ..
Would all the League fans around England jump on a team? Is it possible for them to evolve past their small tribalism in the same way fans of the Brisbane comp fell in behind the Broncos making the most successful Rugby club in the world!

Wigan ,Saint Helens, Windnes fans fall in behind LIVERPOOL
Oldham, Salford, Rochdale fall in behind MANCHESTER
Huddersfield, Halifax, Wakefield- LEEDS

All the clubs currently, effectively become akin to what the Q cup is to the Broncos , Dolphins , Titans and Cowboys

Making it an actual super league..

I'm sure our resident poms will disagree but the UK is set up completely wrong, a bit like the Sydney teams.

Imagine all those supporters coming under a bigger city banner, they'd be massive.

Wayne Bennett was coaching Mal maninga at Souths Logan Magpies for context.

Not a chance, did you miss 1996 and Maurice Lyndsey’s SL model?

 

[Perth Red]

likely 5 clubs in the running for 3 spots.

london
york
Toulouse
bradford
oldham

if I was a betting man I’d say Toulouse will get the 12th spot based on Img score.
York will get 13th spot.
Bradford or London will get 14th spot.

 

[Taking The Two]

Some serious boozing has been going on here. Professional French leagues, FOUR London clubs, teams dumped in random cities. What utter nonsense.

 

[Perth Red]

Interview with wakey owner

 

[Jonty]

I do think that the NRL would get a better return for their investment with the French Rugby League competition, and setting up more junior clubs in London.

I’ve been advocating for this very same thing for years.

set up a super 10 pro French league with the likes of Catalan and Toulouse in it alongside a couple of current elite 1 clubs like carcassonne, Avignon and villeneuve and 5 expansion teams from cities like Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Montpelier and Bordeaux.

 

[Jonty]

likely 5 clubs in the running for 3 spots.

london
york
Toulouse
bradford
oldham

if I was a betting man I’d say Toulouse will get the 12th spot based on Img score.
York will get 13th spot.
Bradford or London will get 14th spot.

York and Toulouse definitely and then London if they have a serious financial plan and investment behind them and if not then Bradford.

 

[Jonty]

Some serious boozing has been going on here. Professional French leagues, FOUR London clubs, teams dumped in random cities. What utter nonsense.

A professional league in France isn’t nonsense or pie in the sky if there’s money behind it.

neither are more clubs in London as long as they have serious investment.

 

[Jonty]

Artie morgue has shown Theres plenty of talent in France for English clubs to look at.

Absolutely mate, the English clubs just need to take a chance with a few.

sign them as longterm projects starting out in the reserves or loaned out to championship teams for a couple of months or a full season then if they show promise sign them up to the 1st team squad.

 

[Jonty]

I like the idea of scouting these kind of players.

Hull FC's trialist rugby union convert makes intriguing Championship switch

Championship outfit Hunslet have secured the services of Hull FC rugby union trialist Jack Rampton on a two-week loan deal.

www.loverugbyleague.com

lots of raw talent in union 7’s.

 

[Taking The Two]

A professional league in France isn’t nonsense or pie in the sky if there’s money behind it.

neither are more clubs in London as long as they have serious investment.

Both are as pie in the sky as they physically could be.

There’s no money in France, nor is there the scope to go professional. It would be a money pit soon overran by overseas players and a loss making exercise. We cannot get a TV deal as it is, we almost certainly wouldn’t get one for tiny towns playing each other. The idea of randomly dumping clubs across the country is redundant too when there is such little interest in the sport nationally.

London doesn’t need 4 clubs. Again, it would be a loss making idea, all clubs would be poorly supported and would fall away eventually. Broncos have a core support of a few hundred max, when Skolars were going in L1 90% of their “fanbase” was Broncos fans who watched Skolars as a second club, as many Broncos academy players would make their way there permanently or on dual-reg. There isn’t the interest for four clubs, there’s barely the interest for one at the moment.

 

[Jonty]

Both are as pie in the sky as they physically could be.

There’s no money in France, nor is there the scope to go professional. It would be a money pit soon overran by overseas players and a loss making exercise. We cannot get a TV deal as it is, we almost certainly wouldn’t get one for tiny towns playing each other. The idea of randomly dumping clubs across the country is redundant too when there is such little interest in the sport nationally.

London doesn’t need 4 clubs. Again, it would be a loss making idea, all clubs would be poorly supported and would fall away eventually. Broncos have a core support of a few hundred max, when Skolars were going in L1 90% of their “fanbase” was Broncos fans who watched Skolars as a second club, as many Broncos academy players would make their way there permanently or on dual-reg. There isn’t the interest for four clubs, there’s barely the interest for one at the moment.

Of course it would need NRL investment.

they are the only ones who could potentially get such a league of the ground in France or fund teams in London or other UK cities.

 

[Taking The Two]

Of course it would need NRL investment.

they are the only ones who could potentially get such a league of the ground in France or fund teams in London or other UK cities.

The NRL aren’t stupid. They wouldn’t touch a French league. It’s a non-starter and one that wouldn’t be close to profitable and not even one that would be in the long-term. Why do you think they want a piece of Super League and not Super XIII? It’s not a viable competition or market for a full-time league.

Equally, there’s one London team that some Australians are said to be investing in (though it remains who they are, whether they’re still interested and a time frame), not four. It’s not viable and wouldn’t be something they’d even consider for decades but that would only come with a successful, profitable Super League and a successful, profitable Broncos, which is highly unlikely on both counts for some time.

 

[BODISGOD]

I wonder what would happen if the NRL opened a completely new league:
Liverpool
Manchester
Leads
Birmingham
Sheffield
York
London
Toulouse
Catalans
Dublin

Bought all the best players ..
Would all the League fans around England jump on a team? Is it possible for them to evolve past their small tribalism in the same way fans of the Brisbane comp fell in behind the Broncos making the most successful Rugby club in the world!

Wigan ,Saint Helens, Windnes fans fall in behind LIVERPOOL
Oldham, Salford, Rochdale fall in behind MANCHESTER
Huddersfield, Halifax, Wakefield- LEEDS

All the clubs currently, effectively become akin to what the Q cup is to the Broncos , Dolphins , Titans and Cowboys

Making it an actual super league..

I'm sure our resident poms will disagree but the UK is set up completely wrong, a bit like the Sydney teams.

Imagine all those supporters coming under a bigger city banner, they'd be massive.

Wayne Bennett was coaching Mal maninga at Souths Logan Magpies for context.

The strength of English rugby league is the local rivalries. That’s the same as the AFL or NRL. It engages fan interest far beyond if you had franchises. People cite American sports but the NFL took 40 years before it was a really stable league and got lucky in terms of being the perfect tv sport.

The key piece is to use that strength to expand in a logical manner and avoid too much selfishness. There’s a balance to that and of course this does lead to some suboptimal decisions at times. But the record of expansion in all sports is that it is hard, far harder than many fans make out.

You can’t ditch Catalan Dragons but I do think this narrative that some owners are all insular because they are somewhat critical is a bit much. There does have to be a review of relative success of the Dragons both in terms of on the pitch (including the French international team) and financially to see if it could be done better.

If you added in another 2 Dragons teams into SL over the last couple of decades the game would be even more broke than it is now. I’d also be confident in saying that if Perth and Adelaide had stuck in Super League / NRL beyond the point they did that the NRL’s finances would have been a total mess by the mid 2000s.

Interesting that you mention Dublin. I was at the Wigan c Leeds Charity Shield game played Dublin in 1995. Iirc the attendance was about 6,000 at the RDS which is where Leinster Rugby play now. It was very much a showjumping stadium then that wasn’t really suited to field sports but they pushed it hard. It’s getting another upgrade now to about 23,000 and is far more suited to it than it would be now. Maurice Lindsey looked at every market under the sun in the 1990s and concluded that it wouldn’t work. I might be biased but I’d say it would have a much better chance now. Leinster are almost like the Brisbane Broncos in that they are a big fish in a city that could take more professional rugby but the provincial set up means it is very unlikely to happen. I’d get why London or Toulouse would be more appealing growth markets with more work put in though. Also the League of Ireland football has had a real renaissance in terms of attendances since COVID-19 so there is more competition now between football, rugby and GAA.

I do think you should look at franchises but slowly and deliberately in sports that don’t have a wall of capital behind them.