The Melbourne Storm experiment has limited the NRL's expansion options for decades. The club's creation was on the back of the game losing teams in Brisbane, Newcastle and Perth. Gold Coast was then axed a year or two later. Sydney lost a few teams. It led to a void in SEQ. Storm benefitted from this void by siphoning the best juniors -- with the aid of News Ltd's money -- and attracting bandwagon supporters from SEQ. The club had to spend money it didn't have to sustain onfield success. The result of their sustained on field success -- which came at a cost of extra $100m over 20 years than what all clubs bar Brisbane spent -- an active fanbase of 16k in Melbourne.
Now they're at risk of losing support and juniors from SEQ because we've got the Dolphins and Titans.
Adding Perth will potentially set the Melbourne Storm up for terminal decline. Perth will raid the same junior competitions in Queensland, NSW and NZ. The only way Perth will draw an active fanbase of 16k is through sustained onfield success. It's the model the Perth Wildcats have used for 30 years. The Force and Glory draw similar attendances to the Western Reds in 96 and 97 because they've not had sustained onfield success.
There's just not enough high quality juniors in the game's heartland to keep the Melbourne Storm and a Perth-based team in the top 4 every year.
Then there is not enough juniors for any expansion.
It's absurd thinking that the only way to unlock more juniors the top down approach of plonking a NRL team in an area, whether that Perth, Port Moresby, Wellington or Inala.
It's absurd to suggest that juniors will only play for a team that within 500m of their childhood home.
It's absurd to say that the A-League and Union struggle in Perth so will league, they f**king struggle everywhere.
It's absurd to suggest that we should only expand to somewhere that is RL stronghold.
It's just as absurd as
@Perth Red claiming a WA team will get 20k+ as it is trying to use 1996 (27 years ago) as evidence of Perth not
