18th club, whose next?

[bazza]

If PNG get the 18th spot then Papuans who play in the English system will come back home. Add a Perth team littered with the RFL's best players and it will lower the standard of play in England.

To be fair, the game in England is dying a slow and miserable death like rugby union in Australia. The money on offer from European RU is killing RL in England.

I predict RL will continue to decline in Europe and grow in the Pacific. PNG Hunters and NZ 2 will help the game grow in the Pacific.

think that pathways from outside Australia shouldn't be limited to 1 or 2 clubs
Nothing stopping any of the existing teams in the NRL getting a few English players into their ranks - it worked ok for Canberra a few seasons back

Similarly it would be good for a few NRL clubs to offer scholarships to PNG/Fiji players around 18yo to play in their junior system and study at uni/school. Could be supported by the NRL to spread them around - then by the time they are 20 or so they can either play with their current NRL team, move to another club or go home with some qualifications at least

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

actually think there is some benefit of getting young players from Australia to play a season or 2 in superleague to get experience - especially in the halves

Jake Cliifford is returning to Australia. It'll be interesting to see if it's improved his game. Jackson Hastings is a better player after his stint in the SL.

Pat Richards comes to mind.

 

[bazza]

It'll be interesting to see what happens in European soccer over the next 20 years. The EPL is growing richer every year to the detriment of every other competition. At some point it will have a disastrous impact on the game across Europe.

don't really follow - but I assume that the leagues in places like Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands still get decent support
They also have those Champions league competitions where they still get to go up against bigger teams - though from an outsiders perspective having leagues with teams from a few countries would make sense to me

 

[bazza]

Jake Cliifford is returning to Australia. It'll be interesting to see if it's improved his game. Jackson Hastings is a better player after his stint in the SL.

Pat Richards comes to mind.

probably need a few to go over and come back better for it not to be seen as a "failure" path
or perhaps some sort of loan agreement with the NRL club

 

[Wb1234]

No one’s paying for kayo if your team is on fta every week!

you have no idea what the fox ratings are in melbourne, and agIn perth isn’t melbourne. Rl is stronger here,

no it won’t, but news ltd won’t stand in the way either which is just as important.

I’ve no doubt at all, but that’s where you have to decide: do you want to do what’s best for the game or what’s best for tv at the expense of the game? We have a clear example where afl expanded as they want to grow their game and tv have still paid overs each deal. You seemingly can have both!

You said news ltd will decide

One of the major concerns with another team is the availability of talent, of which Perth has none.

WA : 2 million pure fantasy that they would get 10 percent of the market
Fantasy but that an additional 200k engaged in the sport.

NZ : 5 million people and not even fantasy that they would engage a futher 20 percent of the market
Is an additional 1 million engaged in the sport.

WA : unlikely 200k
NZ: likely 1 million

Even making a steel man argument for Perth, it sits at around 1 fifth the potential of another NZ team.

Doesn't make it become a truly national competition.

It becomes a legitimate INTERNATIONAL competition!

But you don't care about any of that because you want to buy a t shirt and go to 12 games a year.

my biggest fear is we weaken the storm by bringing in Perth

the dolphins are already cutting off the available players to them

Perth would be like Melbourne having to take juniors elsewhere

I’d much rather we delayed Perth and let the storm continue strengthening

once mz2, png and Brisbane 3 start producing so much more players then Perth would be an easy addition they wouldn’t have to worry about players

 

[Wb1234]

We’ll see. I’d suggest gws was warming the soil for an afl club there. they’ll be after the act govt to pay for it like in tassie And they are for gws.

Yep getting governments to pay for sports clubs is a smart thing to do

 

[bazza]

You said news ltd will decide

my biggest fear is we weaken the storm by bringing in Perth

the dolphins are already cutting off the available players to them

Perth would be like Melbourne having to take juniors elsewhere

I’d much rather we delayed Perth and let the storm continue strengthening

once mz2, png and Brisbane 3 start producing so much more players then Perth would be an easy addition they wouldn’t have to worry about players

If the 18th team was in Brisbane, NZ or PNG where would they get their players?
Why wouldn't those players play for Perth (or any other NRL club)?

 

[Wb1234]

If the 18th team was in Brisbane, NZ or PNG where would they get their players?
Why wouldn't those players play for Perth (or any other NRL club)?

Tyranny of distance

Brisbane nz2 or png would obviously be looking locally which wa can’t

 

[flippikat]

Dockers and eagles won’t allow it. Canberra will be club 20 Probably in time for next tv deal in 2032.

Yep. Hard seeing the existing WA clubs OKing a 3rd WA team, and the next two biggest markets that are unrepresented in AFL are Newcastle & Canberra.. Canberra being by far more AFL-leaning.

Besides, the nation's capital is a huge gap in what's supposed to be a national league, right? The extra bonus of it is that the Giants can focus their attention SOLELY on western Sydney.

 

[bazza]

Tyranny of distance

Brisbane nz2 or png would obviously be looking locally which wa can’t

the Western Reds managed to field a decent standard team in a 20 team comp
they were actually better than the North and South Queensland sides that started the same year

 

[Wb1234]

the Western Reds managed to field a decent standard team in a 20 team comp
they were actually better than the North and South Queensland sides that started the same year

No storm back then

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

think that pathways from outside Australia shouldn't be limited to 1 or 2 clubs
Nothing stopping any of the existing teams in the NRL getting a few English players into their ranks - it worked ok for Canberra a few seasons back

Similarly it would be good for a few NRL clubs to offer scholarships to PNG/Fiji players around 18yo to play in their junior system and study at uni/school. Could be supported by the NRL to spread them around - then by the time they are 20 or so they can either play with their current NRL team, move to another club or go home with some qualifications at least

I was thinking about the commercial aspect of the game with regards to NZ2. A game in New Zealand every week will help our sport develop a larger profile in that country.

PNG Hunters will provide much needed attention to the South Pacific countries that are often ignored.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

the Western Reds managed to field a decent standard team in a 20 team comp
they were actually better than the North and South Queensland sides that started the same year

Reds drew abysmal attendances despite having a strong roster. Just 13k in their debut season. Less than 9k in 1996 and 1997. What they drew is in line with the Perth Glory and Western Force over the last few years.

 

[bazza]

PNG Hunters will provide much needed attention to the South Pacific countries that are often ignored.

Why would players from Fiji/Tonga/Samoa prefer to play for a PNG based team instead of one in Aus/NZ?

 

[bazza]

Reds drew abysmal attendances despite having a strong roster. Just 13k in their debut season. Less than 9k in 1996 and 1997. What they drew is in line with the Perth Glory and Western Force over the last few years.

Reds home crowds in 1995 were the 8th highest in the 20 team comp - though the lowest of the 4 new teams

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Yep. Hard seeing the existing WA clubs OKing a 3rd WA team, and the next two biggest markets that are unrepresented in AFL are Newcastle & Canberra.. Canberra being by far more AFL-leaning.

Besides, the nation's capital is a huge gap in what's supposed to be a national league, right? The extra bonus of it is that the Giants can focus their attention SOLELY on western Sydney.

Canberra is out of the equation for an AwFuL team.

The dark horse option of the group has some good numbers behind it but also one big, big, orange problem.

The ACT is the biggest region in the country without its own team, almost doubling the population of Hobart - and you can connect it with nearby regional areas like the Riverina, which has a proud footy heritage.

There are plenty of footy fans, with Manuka Oval crowds typically larger for GWS games than what the club gets in its home of Sydney, while Canberra’s economy is also larger than Tasmania’s.

But the Giants are also the problem. Gillon McLachlan has previously said Canberra is their territory, with a 10-year, $28.5 million deal between the ACT and GWS signed just last year ensuring more home games there.

Giving Canberra its own team would then mean splintering the already small Giants fanbase, as well as taking away a source of their funding. Taking one step back with the AFL’s most troubled club - given Gold Coast is at least driving strong participation growth - to try and take one step forward may be less than ideal.

The AFL may also feel it’s already getting something out of the ACT market with the Giants, and doesn’t need to try and squeeze more out of the region when there are other options on the table.

Glaring void left to fill as dark horse emerges: State of Play for AFL’s 20th team

Glaring void left to fill as dark horse emerges: State of Play for AFL’s 20th team

www.foxsports.com.au

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Why would players from Fiji/Tonga/Samoa prefer to play for a PNG based team instead of one in Aus/NZ?

They wouldn't choose them over Australia or New Zealand, but it would provide an opportunity to players overlooked by the other clubs. It will also show them the game is serious about the South Pacific. Ideally, a "Pasifika" team would be based in NZ. We could end up with PNG Hunters and Pasifika/NZ if we had a more forward thinking administration.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Reds home crowds in 1995 were the 8th highest in the 20 team comp - though the lowest of the 4 new teams

Cowboys only picked up 2 wins but averaged 21,670 to their home games.

The fact the Reds could only draw 13k in their debut season with a strong roster shows there's limited potential in Perth. The only way they could hope to draw 16k or more is if they sit inside the top four every year like the Storm. That's not going to happen.

Rugby League Tables / Attendances 1995

Rugby League Tables - NRL Stats & Tables

afltables.com

 

[Brian potter]

It'll be interesting to see what happens in European soccer over the next 20 years. The EPL is growing richer every year to the detriment of every other competition. At some point it will have a disastrous impact on the game across Europe.

I would say it will be more interesting to see what happens to the domestic game in England rather than Europe as the gulf between the premier league and the championship and lower leagues is growing wider and wider every year.

hell the gulf between the teams at the top of the premier league and mid-table is widening year on year. I think we’ll start to see more clubs going out of business in the lower leagues including teams from the championship is this money gulf continues to grow.

Also don’t be surprised to see the super league project rear it’s greedy head again in the next few years as I think that project isn’t going to go away anytime soon.

 

[Bukowski]

Reds home crowds in 1995 were the 8th highest in the 20 team comp - though the lowest of the 4 new teams

Most crowds were low during suprrleague years. Only the reds crowds get talked about by the donkey.