Perth Red
Post Whore
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Because it’s rugba league. Can’t grow the game so just move the pieces around lol
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Because it’s rugba league. Can’t grow the game so just move the pieces around lol
It would be one thing to move the sharks or dragons to Adelaide but quite another to move a club that doesn’t even exist in the NRL.
If there is a Pirate plank long enough to take him ether,I'm all for it.
If rebranding the Wests Tigers as Western Sydney Magpies stops the infighting thats holding them back then let's do it.
That doesn't stop the infighting... if anything it makes it worse... besides you only brought that up so you can advocate for another team in seq, which so happens to have the same branding as being the tigers
South Queensland Sabres...When it comes to the NRL’s great expansion debate, the sport faces a fundamental philosophical question that must be answered before the 18th team gets a licence.
Does rugby league in Australia want to get larger by breaking new ground in vacant markets or is it better to make the sport stronger in an under-represented heartland area like Brisbane.
Shane Edwards certainly thinks the latter is the way to go.
he former Broncos chief executive is heading up the Brisbane Tigers bid to become the next team when the NRL decides to expand, likely to be sometime in the next 3-5 years.
As is often the case when the league is looking to build its base, various options have been floated from new teams in previous rebel outposts like Adelaide and Perth, another team in Melbourne or New Zealand, a perennial candidate in the Central Coast or a Pasifika team based out of Cairns that would potentially encompass Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa
Brisbane Tigers tried to get into the big league a couple of years ago when they launched a bid under the Firehawks brand which lost out to Redcliffe’s Dolphins proposal.
“There’s been a fair bit of speculation for several months out in the marketplace about where teams should be located. We wanted to show the NRL that we have committed to implementing things we said we would do in our 17th team bid,” he said, pointing to their high-performance and community centre, pathways set-up and youth mentoring programs.
“If you divide Brisbane by the river and a lot of Brisbanites do with a bit of friendly rivalry about which side of the river you live on, there’s 600,000 more people on the south side of Brisbane and both NRL teams at the moment are based on the north side of the river. And our next closest team is 71km away in the Titans.
“We went through the draw this year and there’s nine weekends when neither the Broncos or the Dolphins are playing at Suncorp Stadium in a 27-round competition. That’s a third of the season so we would fit nicely in there. When they said there’s going to be a second team in the Brisbane area they said that there’d be a game at Suncorp every week. That just doesn’t eventuate because of the complexities of the draw, but a third one would certainly assist that.”
“If the NRL saw fit to allocate us the 18th licence we can do a similar role on the south side, which includes Logan, through Ipswich and we would be comfortable to talk to Toowoomba about working with them.”
No professional sporting outfit can survive, especially an expansion team, in the crowded Australian landscape without serious financial clout but Edwards said that would not be a problem.
“We can compete in all terms with the Broncos and the Dolphins in regards to cash assets and capital. We’ve got Easts Leagues Club, which is one of the most profitable in Queensland and provides great funding,” he said.
“We just want to let everyone know that we’re a club that’s 90 years old this year. We’ve been in nine of the last 30 state league grand finals. We’ve got great tradition, a strong financial base behind this and we’ve got great pathways in place.”
Edwards said he didn’t have a problem with the NRL trying to set up teams in AFL markets like Perth or Adelaide … down the track.
“Look at the AFL, they’re doing that but at what cost? They’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars in Sydney with two teams and one in Brisbane plus the Gold Coast. They’re still contributing to those regions.
“I just see that generating income to put more money back into development (in a traditional area) is a better way to do it than putting money into a club that needs funding for a number of years in either Perth or Adelaide who don’t have the infrastructure.
“You look at Melbourne Storm, for instance. Most of their players are still coming out of Queensland and NSW and I saw the other day their Friday night game was on Gem down there, not even on the main television channel.
“I think the Dolphins has shown south-east Queensland can definitely support another team. We’re underrepresented in the NRL at the moment, and the funds that would be generated would be significant and they can be put back into the development of the game and those other regions.
“As long as we’re No.18, we’re happy.”
It’s hard to get an accurate gauge on how significant the AFL threat is to the NRL in South-East Queensland but Edwards said “it’s very real”.
Edwards said they could be ready for entry into the NRL at the drop of a hat whether it’s fast-tracked in 2025 or ‘26, or held back later to coincide with the next broadcast rights deal.
And for the time being, they are in regular dialogue with the NRL and are ready and waiting for the bid process to officially be declared open.
The ARL Commission will ultimately decide on the best bid based on merit but there will be plenty of debate, before, during and after the process on whether the NRL needs to build from its existing base in an area like Brisbane’s south-west or explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations in Perth and Adelaide.
It’s going to be an epic trek either way.
The philosophical question the NRL must answer to decide expansion race
Brisbane's new bid team is ambitious in its plan to gain entry into the NRL.www.theroar.com.au
Perth as team 18.
Good question - and I'd add the question "Would a successful Brisbane Easts bid encourage more Qld Cup Brisbane clubs to lobby the NRL to add THEM?"
I wonder if it's a case of Easts saying to Ipswich "we'll play a game or two each season in Ipswich, and maybe add green to our colours if you endorse us"?
I'd be wary of a joint bid, given the issues of our current joint venture clubs, but an agreement where Ipswich/Western Corridor doesn't bid against Easts, in return for something (games? Adding a color? Feeder arrangements?) may be beneficial.
It wont happen anyway, not until team 20, Pasifika and Perth are next, and SEQ needs to let the dolphins breathe
Its honestly like two different cities. Most people stick to the side they live on and rarely cross over, unless its for work or they are using the Bruce/M1 highways. South side is bigger and more spread out. It has way more immigrants too. League and the Broncos are strong all over though, it's not like Sydney where East and North have stronger Union/AFL followings.
