alien
Referee
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Ultimately though, for proper expansion we need Sydney to be cut to 5 teams max, and maybe even down to 4.
roosters to perth
Ultimately though, for proper expansion we need Sydney to be cut to 5 teams max, and maybe even down to 4.
6 Sydney teams played each other this last round for a grand total of 30k fans watching. This notion of derbies and crowd boosts in Sydney is a myth. There's a handful of decent crowds (25k plus) a season, rest are no better than stand alone city teams in reality.
As for expansion, I see it as the following:
Firstly, no current teams need to die unless they can not keep up with top grade Rugby League any more. That said - NRL should not slow down progress to support a dwindling team. Expansion means legitimate growth, not chopping and transplanting. Expansion teams should be self supporting without decimating other teams.
Perth - 100% needs to be the 17th team.
Teams 18-20 - ready now. a fairly even call between:
Central Coast : Despite what Sydney haters think, it is a city in it's own right and would compete on numbers with any other new team. It is one of the biggest league supporting populations in Australia unrepresented by a local team, and the failure of Norths move remains an injustice.
Brisbane2 : Seemingly an inevitability for good reason. I am not a fan of a Broncos clone, but a team representing maybe Brisbane South to Ipswich would put forward a good case. In future there is probably scope for even further expansion around Brisbane.
NZ2 : Needs to happen for obvious reasons. Either in Wellington or South Island. To leave room for further expansion I'd avoid creating a wide 'Southern' team.
2 entries in 2017 with 2 more to follow 4-5 years after.
Looking forward... these are obvious next steps but still need work both within the game and out.
Adelaide: Needs to follow what Perth did over the last 10 years. Right now there is no point plonking a team in a city that doesn't give a shit.
Rockhampton/Central QLD : As population grows this will become a stronger option - obviously has the Rugby League support
Brisbane3 : Almost an inevitability.
NZ3 : ^ as above. 3 teams across NZ - Auckland, Wellington, South Island. Need to keep growing the game there before this is a possibility though.
For now, I don't entertain ideas of third world island countries entering top grade NRL. The economic imbalance would be far too much.
The Central Coast is an interesting one though isn't it? 300,000 people, but spread over an area the size of Sydney and they haven't been turning up in numbers to the games we've taken there, so I do wonder about the overall appetite for the game now.
I don't mind conferences but if they go with Sydney and others, the Sydney conference has the advantage of not travelling out of their own city as often as the other non-Sydney conference which is a distinctive advantage. So why not reward the other conference with more chances to make the finals like a 5-3 split... Rediculous concept but a Sydney centric concept just goes to show how unfair it is
but the sydney conference teams would only play the non-sydney conference team during the finals, right? so during the normal season, there is no advantage because they don't play against each other
Would people stop talking about conferences FFS? It's NEVER going to happen. This is NOT America.
The appeal of the conference system is that rivals will play each other twice a year every year.