Adelaide Rams

[Foreign Legion]

 

[Walter sobchak]

Perth were cut because they had massive debts. They had to pay for clubs flying across the continent and had to pay for their own travels etc. They lost almost all public support and the grassroots league died pretty rapidly in the space of a couple of years. They were costing news millions to keep afloat and were dropped basically on the spot.

Crushers because the Broncos wanted Brisbane to themselves and pressured the newly formed NRL to make them do this. Adelaide because of reduction of teams in the deal.

What a arsehole move by the broncos. Fair enough about Perth costing millions to keep afloat though.

What about the Rams? Didn’t they have to pay clubs to fly to Adelaide also?

 

[King hit]

Bring back the Hunter Mariners also

Haha is there a bigger waste of space in the history of any sport then this. Heard that executives and players needed body guards to walk the streets because they got death threats, rocks pelted at them, got spat at.

What imbecile thought that patriotic novocastrians would abandon the Knights in favour of something that was there to destroy them. Crazy stuff

 

[Walter sobchak]

Bring back the Hunter Mariners also

The hunter region is too small to support 2 NRL team. Surely?

 

[Mr Angry]

SAExit...

Would work a treat, not subsidised by the rest of country..

Whats a dead person in a barrell between states.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

And sign up a top notch cross code afl player to bring in the fans.

Izzy available?

 

[Walter sobchak]

Izzy available?

Izzy worth the hassle?

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Izzy worth the hassle?

He's ex-AFL.

Would bring in the fans for curiosity ; -)

 

[Perth Red]

Perth were cut because they had massive debts. They had to pay for clubs flying across the continent and had to pay for their own travels etc. They lost almost all public support and the grassroots league died pretty rapidly in the space of a couple of years. They were costing news millions to keep afloat and were dropped basically on the spot.

Crushers because the Broncos wanted Brisbane to themselves and pressured the newly formed NRL to make them do this. Adelaide because of reduction of teams in the deal.

only partly true, all clubs were losing ridiculous amounts of money during that period and were being propped up by news ltd or arl. Perth were no different in that regard, Cowboys and storm still needed millions of news ltd $’s to stay afloat post SL so perth was no different to them. It had a lot more to do with the “peace” treaty and protecting as many of the heartland teams as possible, they had 22 clubs and wanted to get to 14-16 eventually. It was easier to cull the newbies than take the long term vision and cull some of the 14 nswrl clubs.

Adelaide was interesting in that they survived that initial cull only to be lost the following year,

 

[siv]

only partly true, all clubs were losing ridiculous amounts of money during that period and were being propped up by news ltd or arl. Perth were no different in that regard, Cowboys and storm still needed millions of news ltd $’s to stay afloat post SL so perth was no different to them. It had a lot more to do with the “peace” treaty and protecting as many of the heartland teams as possible, they had 22 clubs and wanted to get to 14-16 eventually. It was easier to cull the newbies than take the long term vision and cull some of the 14 nswrl clubs.

Adelaide was interesting in that they survived that initial cull only to be lost the following year,

Only clubs protected were clubs who jumped to SL bar Perth who were sacrificed for Melbourne as both ARL since 1920s and News wanted Melbourne setup

Hunter wasnt allowed to stay due to its conflict with Knights

While Adelaide was the fall guy so that the Broncos could have a 20 year monopoly on SE Qld by the death Gold Coast after the Crushers went. Lots of tit for tat back then

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Hope all the SA folks down there are ok with the heat and fires.

 

[Perth Red]

Only clubs protected were clubs who jumped to SL bar Perth who were sacrificed for Melbourne as both ARL since 1920s and News wanted Melbourne setup

Hunter wasnt allowed to stay due to its conflict with Knights

While Adelaide was the fall guy so that the Broncos could have a 20 year monopoly on SE Qld by the death Gold Coast after the Crushers went. Lots of tit for tat back then

not one of the 12 Sydney club lost it’s place in the rememerge of the comps and the initial culling at end of 1997. I’d love to know how Adelaide managed to survive that first cull. Where they news owned or independently owned in 1997?

 

[King hit]

not one of the 12 Sydney club lost it’s place in the rememerge of the comps and the initial culling at end of 1997. I’d love to know how Adelaide managed to survive that first cull. Where they news owned or independently owned in 1997?

Yes they were something news limited came up with

 

[Perth Red]

Yes they were something news limited came up with

I heard the biggest decision point around Perth was driven by the ARL who were mighty pssed at them bailing and wanted their pound of flesh. Coupled with News desire to move assets to Melbourne and the challenges the club had with home ground and travel not surprised really we got the chop. I guess with Adelaide News had just set them up so hung on to them until the next rationalise discussions when they had to give something up to get NSWRL to give some up to get the league down to a manageable amount. Such shrt sightedness set the game back 50 years.

 

[carcharias]

Shane on the left was a great soccer player as a kid.
He was also in my footy team in our teens until he went to the dragons.
He was a goal kicking centre.
Great player and a bloody top bloke.

 

[Travitoh]

Hope all the SA folks down there are ok with the heat and fires.

Same goes for everyone in NSW and around the country.

 

[siv]

not one of the 12 Sydney club lost it’s place in the rememerge of the comps and the initial culling at end of 1997. I’d love to know how Adelaide managed to survive that first cull. Where they news owned or independently owned in 1997?

One of the issues in the SL war was that News Ltd didnt have enough clubs to run a comp

Brisbane, Canberra, Auckland, Perth, Nth Qld, Penrith, Cronulla and finally Canterbury. So they created two new clubs Mariners to oppose the Knights and Adelaide to bring their comp up to 10 teams with the missing national capital. As the SL War was about selling Foxtel pay tv subscriptons.

While in 95 the ARL / QRL setup the Crushers to reduce the power of the Broncos.

So in the peace deal the first two clubs gone were Crushers at the request of News owned Broncos and Mariners at the request of the ARL run Newcastle.

One of the key peace deals was for News Ltd to reduce its ownership of clubs. It had jumped from 1 to 6. While the ARL had taken over the running of the Gold Coast. So the next two targets were Adelaide and Gold Coast one from each side still directly owned/managed by News and the ARL.

 

[Nuke]

I don't suspect Newcastle needed to do any requests to get rid of the Mariners, it would have been pure logic.

The pure hatred the Hunter region had for the Mariners, coupled with the very minimal support would have been enough reason for anyone to clearly see from an outsider's point of view.

 

[Foreign Legion]

I dont know a, but a Mariners V Knights game sounds like the ultimate grudge match... just like Israel v Palestine

 

[Perth Red]

I dont know a, but a Mariners V Knights game sounds like the ultimate grudge match... just like Israel v Palestine

Not sure anyone cared enough about the Mariners to make it a grudge match? Having said that they did get 3 crowds of 7K which for the time wasnt bad. I wonder who decided to go watch them rather than the Knights?

On the Rams, 5 crowds over 15k in 1997 showed their potential. I suspect, like the Reds at the WACA, that playing on an oval really didnt help them build on the early success.