East North Sydney Rooster Bears?

[adamkungl]

Piss-take title.

But.

The club should think long term about the sub-NRL partnership with Bears and the advantages it could bring to not only our club but Sydney Rugby League.
I'm proposing a "merger" between the lower levels of the clubs.

Bears run our NSW Cup squad long-term, and we combine the Eastern Suburbs and North Sydney junior regions.
Manly has never given the area adequate attention due to the rivalry and bitterness, North Sydney is the only Sydney region without a direct NRL pathway, and we have the smallest official boundaries in Sydney.

The NRL side obviously makes no changes to name, mascot, colours, or administration. But provides a long term commitment to the North Shore with marketing, school visits, fan days, and 1 premiership or trial game at NSO per year.

While the SFS is out of action, this has increased opportunity. Our crowds will take a hit at the SCG. We may as well leverage that by taking some games to NSO until our new stadium is built. We can gain new fans, especially young fans, which will pay off in future.

We don't really lose anything - our first grade team stays as is. Uur junior area is tiny, we haven't run our own NSW Cup in ages anyway.
Bears gain an increased commitment to Rugby League north of the river through the increased promotion provided by an NRL club committed long term. They give their juniors a true NRL pathway and their top squad thrives from being our reserve squad.

And if the chance for the Bears to ever relocate out of Sydney with an NRL licence arises, the partnership can end.

Thoughts?

 

[Valheru]

I like it and would also attempt to consolidate CC at the same time.

4 SCG, 4 NSO, 3 CC and 1 Adelaide whilst SFS redevelopment takes place sounds good to me.

 

[Headless Chook]

With all the traffic the SCG turf will have to withstand from 3 codes it may well pan out we take some games to NSO at the expense of the cricket ground.

It’s only going to take a couple of players going down with season ending injuries from tripping in potholes before the questions and concerns are raised about overuse. I assume the Club is locked into playing at the SCG while the redevelopment is happening, whether that be a complete rebuild or a refurbishment. But say if the surface isn’t up to standard then can we opt out? I’m guessing the answer would probably be no.

I like the idea of partnering the Bears in a more long term scenario with mutual benefits and the prospect of watching games at a ground suitable for league has to better for the club and its supporters.

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

I really like the Norths merger idea a lot for both short and long term. There’s still a lot of disenfranchised league fans in North Sydney. One of my mates is born and bred Norths but now a Roosters fan. Has Roosters gear and totally bought into the ‘I hate Souffs’ mentality. He’s stoked his old club is linking with us too. If we treat the merger respectfully as Adam has proposed, we’ll gain more fans like my mate. I think we have more in common with NSydney than Souffs did as well. Both affluent and educated areas for starters. I’d be happy to play Titans and Cows at NSO regularly as we never pull a decent crowd with them anyway. Great long term idea, Adam. Besides, we can argue we’ve already relocated/merged when the NRL eventually decides to kick out a couple of Sydney clubs LOL

 

[adamkungl]

I doubt the NRL will seriously "criteria" anyone, I don't think there's a real concern there.
The only criteria will be "sort your shit out". The next time a club comes to the NRL looking for a saviour, it will be the end of them in Sydney.

But we don't want to find ourselves homeless, and with our crowds and memberships typically in the lower half of Sydney clubs we can always do more.

North Shore is truly an ignored area of Sydney, written off for 2 decades as a lost cause.
Just putting the clubs face up in the area, in schools, at North Sydney Oval and around the local business community could result in some really easy gains.

Good for us, good for the Bears, good for Rugby League.

 

[TheFrog]

But we don't want to find ourselves homeless, and with our crowds and memberships typically in the lower half of Sydney clubs we can always do more.

The Roosters are safe as long as Politis draws breath.