Prometheus
Juniors
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Mal Meninga wrote in The Sunday Mail on March 24-
The quality of the football and the closeness of this year's competition in the opening rounds should act as a cautionary note for the game's administrators not to rush into the idea of expanding the competition.
It is a trap the game fell into once - the league blowing out from 16 teams to 20 in 1995 before the outbreak of the Super League war.
Put simply the game - just like in 1995 - does not have the depth of talent to carry an additional two teams for an 18-club competition.
I was wondering whether people here agreed with that.
The Eels are the only team that has not made the finals in the past three seasons and every team has played finals footy within the last four seasons. It is a long way from the game of the nineties when there were teams who hadn't made the finals for a decade or more and weren't expected to for years to come.
Could the competition remain this competitive with the talent pool stretched to accommodate 18 teams?
Would more teams stop players defecting to the ESL and rugby union?
Would a temporary loss in competitiveness be worth the cost if leads to more juniors playing the game in non-traditional regions? (Melbourne blooded their first Victorian born and bred player last year and WA are already producing NRL players from their junior competition)
The quality of the football and the closeness of this year's competition in the opening rounds should act as a cautionary note for the game's administrators not to rush into the idea of expanding the competition.
It is a trap the game fell into once - the league blowing out from 16 teams to 20 in 1995 before the outbreak of the Super League war.
Put simply the game - just like in 1995 - does not have the depth of talent to carry an additional two teams for an 18-club competition.
I was wondering whether people here agreed with that.
The Eels are the only team that has not made the finals in the past three seasons and every team has played finals footy within the last four seasons. It is a long way from the game of the nineties when there were teams who hadn't made the finals for a decade or more and weren't expected to for years to come.
Could the competition remain this competitive with the talent pool stretched to accommodate 18 teams?
Would more teams stop players defecting to the ESL and rugby union?
Would a temporary loss in competitiveness be worth the cost if leads to more juniors playing the game in non-traditional regions? (Melbourne blooded their first Victorian born and bred player last year and WA are already producing NRL players from their junior competition)