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Only those clubs have severed ties... there is still affiliations going with the storm and falcons, jets and sharks, dolphins and capras, kodi nikorima and Anthony Milford were playing in CQ this whole time, before last weeks loss
Raiders cut ties with mounties as well.
nah its perfectly sensible, base a foreign team in a tourist town of 150k people with no infrastructure in place for an NRL club and that's already part of another NRL's club region. What doesnt make sense?
Doesnt sound like Cowboys are abandoning those areas after all!
www.cowboys.com.au
Comparing a loser deadbeat like Scott drinkwater (from terrigal not penrith), to QLD coach Billy Slater probably the best human on planet earth, is blasphemous
Just throwing money at them... yep they are the real deal y'allDoesnt sound like Cowboys are abandoning those areas after all!
“An increased financial commitment to both the Cutters and Pride will provide both clubs with greater ability to develop and more importantly retain local products as well as attract talent as opposed to relying on the possibility of our NRL squad members dropping back, which becomes more unpredictable as the season wears on.
“On top of the introduction of women’s academies in both Mackay and Cairns, the Cowboys have committed to increased focus and resources for junior development in both regions, which will ultimately provide greater opportunities to feed into our NRL system.”
Cowboys feeder club update
The North Queensland Toyota Cowboys have overhauled the feeder club allocation system for the 2023 season.
because NS playing in Perth is not want Perth wants. A perth club owning the license and adopting the Bears brand is not what NS want. Here in lies the problem!
Isaac McCarthy
No Cookies | The Cairns Post
www.cairnspost.com.au
March 27, 2023 - 7:00AM
The Cairns Post
Cairns mayor spruiks economic benefits of hosting Pacifika team as 18th entry into NRL comp
Some eyes in Cairns are lighting up with dollar signs at the thought of the Far North hosting the NRL’s 18th team, but one politician is still calling it a flight of fancy.
The possibility of the Cairns’ sporting future as part of an expanded NRL competition is under active consideration by Cairns Regional Council, as the organisation prepares to meet on Wednesday to discuss upgrades to Barlow Park.
The NRL recently signalled its ambitions to grow the competition to 20 teams and long-time proponents for the big game in FNQ, such as Cairns mayor Bob Manning, were tickled by the thought of Cairns at least hosting team 18.
Cr Manning has swung his city behind the possibility but others are still calling it a flight of fancy without key infrastructure.
The mayor confirmed councillors held the first discussion about necessary infrastructure in response to news earlier this month of the NRL’s plans to expand into a 20-team competition over the next decade.
“We talked about that,” Cr Manning said. “A team couldn’t be based here without a stadium. You don’t get an NRL team using Barlow or the Showgrounds. We’re thinking about what we need to do to measure this up … but we need a lot more information and at some point we’re going to require a formal offer.”
The outgoing mayor would no doubt like to play a role in facilitating such an outcome before his retirement in 2024, but he said his vision that involves a Papua New Guinea or Pacific Islands team home-basing in Cairns would first need to be driven by those nations.
“There are a lot of interest involved here – local, state and federal government as well as international,” Cr Manning said. “The spirit of rugby league in Cairns is strong. Council would be happy to be a part of this process but we need to be humble because this is about getting the Pacific Islands and PNG into the NRL. They need to make the decision and council will facilitate to make this less daunting for them.”
Cr Manning said the benefits of any NRL team home-basing in Cairns would bring enormous economic and social development to the region.
“We’re talking about the highest level of league being played here. This could bring youth development, the introduction of PNG into the NBL, the establishment of a women’s league team in PNG … it certainly would involve the case for developing more infrastructure,” he said. “It would take us into other markets. The wealth that would spread between Cairns and Pacific Island nations, the amount of business that will go through this city into the Pacific, would be great for us.”
Cr Manning was confident a team based in Cairns would bring crowds in excess of 10,000 people for key games.
“I have no doubt a Pasifika team would be competitive, therefore they will draw crowds eventually,” he said.
Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch, however, said the idea was unrealistic without a multipurpose stadium to host a team, and blamed the council for leaving the Far North in a disadvantageous position during opportune times. With a business case, he said it was possible the federal government would allocate its share of funding for a multipurpose facility in the near future.
“Of course we could make this happen, but we’ve got to have somewhere for them to play … we could get this done pretty quickly, but we need a decision by the council as to where to put (a stadium),” Mr Entsch said. “We’re the largest regional city in Queensland but we don’t have a stadium. That’s because we haven’t put a case in for it. There’s a lot of money available for the Olympics … the timing couldn’t be better.”
Division 3 councillor Cathy Zeiger confirmed the NRL’s announcement had energised discussion at the council.
“We are having regular discussions on a master plan for a sports precinct,” Cr Zeiger said.
“There’s definitely been a spike in discussion on what we’d build and where we’d get the money from and how it would be operated going forward, but we can’t do anything until we hear a bit more.”
I was loath to post this, It's little more than preliminary pie-in-the-sky and I can see it being seized upon by the dots-on-a-map brigade as a done deal but, in the interests of transparency...
Thats an interesting take away lol
The NRL can write anything into their franchise agreement e.g. no relocations or control of the club reverts to the NRL. The NRL has all the power to set the terms of their reentry.
