Look at the facts... Australia and NZ IS international league. The steps are in process so that the lesser nations play more tests and tournaments against each other. But they'll always struggle to compete with the best. The reason half the RLIF board is made up of the ARL is because Australia is the only country where rugby league can claim to be a national sport. Maybe to some extent in NZ but it is waaaay to far behind Rugby it's not even comparable.
Origin works and is a massive money spinner because people care about it, and it fits in right in the highlight of the NRL season. International league just doesn't have that interest and there just isn't money available to help other countries develop and improve at grassroots level. That's not the ARL's job. Other countries have to fund themselves and the RLIF can help them out but in the end it comes down the the lesser nations and often the resources just aren't there.
That furthers on with your last point. Countries like Australia and NZ have the strength based on their domestic competitions to put money back into their national sides and into the game at grassroots level. Other countries simply don't have the popularity of the sport or the economy to do that.
For a start, I don't agree that international league is New Zealand and Australia. England defeated New Zealand last year, and have consistently competed with them ever since I've watched the game. I also don't believe it needs to stay as such. Why was France so successful back in its halcyon days? Why was a test series against the Kumuls for a team like New Zealand or Great Britain a genuine obstacle? These nations HAVE been strong in the past. You talk of resources, Papua New Guinea has always been economically a poor nation with an immense also dispersed passion in rugby league. I can look at football and look at pitiful nations like Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal who have all been competitive on the world stage. Football is marketed very cleverly on an international scale. Rugby league is not.
As far as Origin being a money spinner because people care about it - why is that? Go back to the late 70s and interstate league was crashing down with continual NSW dominance because of the absurdity of residency rather than origin itself. Origin was gimmicked and marketed brilliantly. To say international rugby league can't achieve that is short sighted. We have a great live product.
The true question is, how do we get the bottom three of the top five back to some sort of regular competitiveness? What would make a damn fine start would be to apply the same hype, the same fervent passion in strategic thought process, to international league as they did for Origin. The second step would be to stop representatives on the international board from having an insular self protected view of their own backyard.
