18th club, whose next?

[MugaB]

You'd have to split the Queensland sides between the two conferences as well, and it'd totally undermine the major benefits of having conferences, i.e. reducing travel time and costs and helping to foster rivalries between teams that share geographical regions.

Adding teams from e.g. PNG, Perth, Adelaide, etc, into the mix would further exacerbate the problem as well.

Realistically conferences won't be feasible in the NRL until you have a relatively even geographical spread of teams across the whole country and NZ, and that won't happen in any of our life times.

It's one of the major issues that's prevented the NFL from expanding to Europe as well BTW. Among other things, the owners realised that adding a single European team would completely f**k the comp's whole conference system, and that they'd need to add a whole European conference at once for it to be feasible.

Most would think keeping the QLD sides in the same "pool" would only increase the popularity of the game, as they would get more home and away fixtures being in that same conference,
like i said before, a blanket cut-off geographical border makes the best sense of a squabbling fanbase who all have visions and versions of which club should be in which camp regarding conferences, there's no way to jump to an easier conference, it purely geographical, and unbias.

On a side note, it could also in future determine eligibility for state of Origin, as eventually the more expansion that gets added onto the comp the more Islanders, Victorians and people from other areas Not from NSW or QLD will be playing the sport, then you'll have a very weak product in state of Origin, being that theres only a limited amount of players to choose from...

The upside is the amount of close to travel games there would be, due to having the close teams scheduled twice a year.
Realistically all the NRL will do is create 2 ladders, not seperate actual conferences, like the NFL do, as they were a merger of two comps past..We dont have that issue.
All thats nessesary is two ladders- one for a North pool and South pool is all thats it, top8 stays as is, beat your pool rivals to land in top4 of your pool, play finals

 

[siv]

To be objective, Perth and NZ and probably SE3 won't be crowd pullers in Sydney either.

Especially Perth because no one leaves that utopia so no expats.

CC Bears solves this problem

 

[AlwaysGreen]

CC Bears solves this problem

I think you're overestimating bears support

 

[Last Week]

I'd love there to be conferences, but there's no point for it in the NRL yet.

It would be fine for the purposes of the draw, but that's it. So long as the season is long enough that each team can play each other at least once, conferences should have no bearing on finals.

 

[siv]

I think you're overestimating bears support

You saw 10k at a RG grand final

Base the team in Gosford with 3 games at NSO and you get a 20k presence from Milsons Pt to Lake Munmorah over 1 mil in population

 

[AlwaysGreen]

You saw 10k at a RG grand final

Base the team in Gosford with 3 games at NSO and you get a 20k presence from Milsons Pt to Lake Munmorah over 1 mil in population

No

 

[Wb1234]

That all Sydney conferences is going to be sweet

 

[Perth Red]

That all Sydney conferences is going to be sweet

Good idea, relegate most Sydney clubs to the nswrl second division conference and a 14 team Superleague’ of big national clubs. Sounds visionary.

 

[Wb1234]

Good idea, relegate most Sydney clubs to the nswrl second division conference and a 14 team Superleague’ of big national clubs. Sounds visionary.

Yep nswrl and super league conferences

Great idea

given the failure of rugby league comps called super league

 

[Wb1234]

He didn't explain shit lol!

Considering the geographical spread of the clubs, the only way that the NRL could restructure the competition into conferences in a fair way would be to evenly split the number of Sydney and Qld clubs between either 2 or 4 conferences, which, for good reason, nobody would agree to, or heavily rationalise Sydney (i.e. relocate 4/5 clubs).

Any other way you try to divide the league would heavily weight the competition in favour of the conference/s with the smallest geographical spread to the point that it'd undermine the legitimacy of competition. Considering the current administration's attitudes they'd probably split the competition into a Sydney + Newcastle conference and the rest in the other conference as well, which would be the worst outcome.

If they really see restructuring the format of the competition as a necessity, then expanding to 20 or 24 teams then splitting the competition down the middle into two tiers with 2 up 2 down P&R makes more sense from the perspective of trying to keep the competition as fair as possible, but P&R would bring a whole host of it's own problems in market like Australia as well.

Personally I don't see the need for conferences or to restructure the competition at all, and I doubt that it'll become a necessity for at least a couple more decades. That's just me though, and the NRL seems to delight in changing shit for the sake of it at the moment.

Assuming no cross pool games how do the Sydney clubs can an advantage against teams In the other conference

anyway someone showed on here the travel would be similar to the current situation anyway

 

[Canard]

Good idea, relegate most Sydney clubs to the nswrl second division conference and a 14 team Superleague’ of big national clubs. Sounds visionary.

And yet that tweet takes you to story about PNG??

So you didn't even bother to read it

 

[Perth Red]

Yep nswrl and super league conferences

Great idea

given the failure of rugby league comps called super league

Didn’t SL have bigger crowds?

 

[Wb1234]

Didn’t SL have bigger crowds?

Dunno never watched it

 

[Perth Red]

And yet that tweet takes you to story about PNG??

So you didn't even bother to read it

I saw the interview days ago when it was actually ‘news‘ lol

 

[Perth Red]

Dunno never watched it

I know youve told us, you were at the scg watching the swans lol

 

[Wb1234]

The arl should never have admitted the broncos

it should have been a merger with the brl where four brisbane clubs joined the arl over time

I know youve told us, you were at the scg watching the swans lol

in 97 I wasn’t attending games due to a severe back injury

I remember lieing in bed depressed about life then the son of a coal miner from Cessnock nsw saved the working man’s game

and here we are

 

[The Great Dane]

Most would think keeping the QLD sides in the same "pool" would only increase the popularity of the game, as they would get more home and away fixtures being in that same conference,

You'd have to split the Queensland clubs as well otherwise you'd end up with one conference weighted towards Queensland, which would cause similar problems as having one weighted towards Sydney.

It's just not feasible to create a fair and equal conference system in the NRL with the current geographical spread of clubs. Is what it is, and there's no way of addressing it without either relocating clubs or expanding massively, neither of which is realistic in the foreseeable future.

Assuming no cross pool games how do the Sydney clubs can an advantage against teams In the other conference

anyway someone showed on here the travel would be similar to the current situation anyway

Are you serious?! Like genuinely?

A Sydney conference would instantly break the players market and salary cap, because given the choice a majority of players are going to choose to play in the conference where they can drive to every away game and sleep in their own bed after it, over the one where they have to fly all over the joint and spend significant amounts of time away from their families. So any team in the non-Sydney conference will have to pay a premium to attract most players.

The teams in the Sydney conference will be afforded a whole host of commercial advantages, like being guaranteed significantly more away supporters at every game, and cross promotional activity being significantly easier for them.

You'd guarantee a Sydney club in every GF unless a convoluted finals system was created, which would severely impact the sport outside of Sydney and further cement the stereotype of the N in NRL standing for NSW, which is another problem with a Sydney conference in of it's self.

That's just a handful of examples as well. We'd be here forever if we tried to point out all the issues with it.

BTW, the person who "showed" that travel would be similar is just straight up wrong, and I don't care about the imaginary, fan fiction, "perfect" conference system that they've made up in their head, that wouldn't ever be considered by the people in power, and nobody serious would ever adopt even if it was, and that would fail to address a whole host of the other issues with a Sydney conference anyway.

 

[blue bags]

Strong push for the Bear's
Make a comeback

 

[Wb1234]

You'd have to split the Queensland clubs as well otherwise you'd end up with one conference weighted towards Queensland, which would cause similar problems as having one weighted towards Sydney.

It's just not feasible to create a fair and equal conference system in the NRL with the current geographical spread of clubs. Is what it is, and there's no way of addressing it without either relocating clubs or expanding massively, neither of which is realistic in the foreseeable future.

Are you serious?! Like genuinely?

A Sydney conference would instantly break the players market and salary cap, because given the choice a majority of players are going to choose to play in the conference where they can drive to every away game and sleep in their own bed after it, over the one where they have to fly all over the joint and spend significant amounts of time away from their families. So any team in the non-Sydney conference will have to pay a premium to attract most players.

The teams in the Sydney conference will be afforded a whole host of commercial advantages, like being guaranteed significantly more away supporters at every game, and cross promotional activity being significantly easier for them.

You'd guarantee a Sydney club in every GF unless a convoluted finals system was created, which would severely impact the sport outside of Sydney and further cement the stereotype of the N in NRL standing for NSW, which is another problem with a Sydney conference in of it's self.

That's just a handful of examples as well. We'd be here forever if we tried to point out all the issues with it.

BTW, the person who "showed" that travel would be similar is just straight up wrong, and I don't care about the imaginary, fan fiction, "perfect" conference system that they've made up in their head, that wouldn't ever be considered by the people in power, and nobody serious would ever adopt even if it was, and that would fail to address a whole host of the other issues with a Sydney conference anyway.

Top five system in each conference

guaranteed one Sydney team and one other team in the gf each year

also both brisbane (or melb or nz) and Sydney get rewarded with a home grand final for top of your conference

conferences may not get up but that’s the arlc long term goal they get to 20

You'd have to split the Queensland clubs as well otherwise you'd end up with one conference weighted towards Queensland, which would cause similar problems as having one weighted towards Sydney.

It's just not feasible to create a fair and equal conference system in the NRL with the current geographical spread of clubs. Is what it is, and there's no way of addressing it without either relocating clubs or expanding massively, neither of which is realistic in the foreseeable future.

Are you serious?! Like genuinely?

A Sydney conference would instantly break the players market and salary cap, because given the choice a majority of players are going to choose to play in the conference where they can drive to every away game and sleep in their own bed after it, over the one where they have to fly all over the joint and spend significant amounts of time away from their families. So any team in the non-Sydney conference will have to pay a premium to attract most players.

The teams in the Sydney conference will be afforded a whole host of commercial advantages, like being guaranteed significantly more away supporters at every game, and cross promotional activity being significantly easier for them.

You'd guarantee a Sydney club in every GF unless a convoluted finals system was created, which would severely impact the sport outside of Sydney and further cement the stereotype of the N in NRL standing for NSW, which is another problem with a Sydney conference in of it's self.

That's just a handful of examples as well. We'd be here forever if we tried to point out all the issues with it.

BTW, the person who "showed" that travel would be similar is just straight up wrong, and I don't care about the imaginary, fan fiction, "perfect" conference system that they've made up in their head, that wouldn't ever be considered by the people in power, and nobody serious would ever adopt even if it was, and that would fail to address a whole host of the other issues with a Sydney conference anyway.

 

[siv]

The US Conference system fails when it comes to finals

I prefer a pool system but with Top 8 finals system

In a 20 team pool system you can play 28 rounds

18 rounds home / away and 10 rounds of cross pool games home / away over 2 seasons

With a Top 8 but I am happy for the Wildcard concept for teams 7 v 10 and 8 v 9 the week before or midweek if 20 teams

Though I prefer 18 teams two 9 team pools with a Top 8 finals

18 home & away rounds and 7 cross pool rounds home & away over 2 years.

With bye teams playing each other for 2 cross pool rounds

And of course Sydney pool and Regional pool