Expansion Through the Second Tier

[Gobsmacked]

I totally agree. I think it could a cap of 2 million with a grant of 3. That gives everyone a base salary/ fully professional. Should be restricted to areas at least 100 km away from any existing NRL club.
Conference system.
Qld: Mackay
Cairns
Rockhampton
PNG
Toowoomba
Sunshine Coast
Darwin
NSW: Central Coast
Dobbo
Port Macquarie
Coffs harbour
Tamworth
Bathurst
FIJI
These are big areas that'll never be big enough for an NRL team.

A solid 12 team comp that with local sponsorship opportunities, local tv deals could be almost self sustainable after a few years.
NRL needs to look at this!

And no I didn't include Perth or Adelaide because they should be in the NRL some day along with another team in NZ. NZ system is an entirely different beast.

 

[Gobsmacked]

Sorry 14

 

[Nuke]

Would teams in 2nd Division be excluded from joining the NRL later on, or could they use Div2 as a pathway to the NRL if they were in a good enough position to do so?

 

[MugaB]

Would teams in 2nd Division be excluded from joining the NRL later on, or could they use Div2 as a pathway to the NRL if they were in a good enough position to do so?

I'd say yes, as this would be the perfect breeding ground for any club not directly associated with an existing NRL franchise to show it can be one of them, not thru just winning that comp, but in all aspects of its day to day running of their club... will see more clubs promoted from this area, its a great way to populate clubs in regions that can sustain it, and the better they go, the more chance arlc will hand out a licence...

It will give clubs that have aspirations to climb higher a chance

 

[mongoose]

This is all pie in the sky stuff, especially if reserve grade is coming

 

[Colk]

This is all pie in the sky stuff, especially if reserve grade is coming

Exactly. This competition would only work if it were the de facto second grade.

If there was no reserve grade, first grade squads were down to 25 and people in this competition were completely free to be picked up by any NRL club (transfer and trades etc) then it would work.

 

[AdelaideRLFC]

If there was a national 2nd tier would the clubs in that league be affiliated with NRL teams? Like how Bears are alligned with Roosters for example.

I imagine that once we field a team in the NSW leagues we'll be Melbourne Storm's affiliaite as SA players get drafted through Victoria Lightning currently.

 

[Colk]

If there was a national 2nd tier would the clubs in that league be affiliated with NRL teams? Like how Bears are alligned with Roosters for example.

I imagine that once we field a team in the NSW leagues we'll be Melbourne Storm's affiliaite as SA players get drafted through Victoria Lightning currently.

Depends. I think there would be possibly two ways you could do this:

1. You could have them totally affiliated with an NRL side but base these clubs in smaller regions or regions that won’t ever have a side. Let’s say for example the Dolphins are linked with Central Queensland, Cowboys with Cairns or Darwin etc. The biggest problem with this is the amount of NSW clubs is going to inevitably skew it, so unless you could convince some of those clubs to have their feeder clubs outside of NSW than that would be the hurdle.

2. To operate it like a truly seperate competition, a little bit like a US Minor League. Truncate first grade squads to say like 22-25 with no reserve grade and NRL and these clubs could essentially buy and trade players throughout the season. So, for example if I’m in the back end of a squad and I’m not getting much game time I could release myself from an NRL contract, go play in this competition and get picked up by another NRL club if I play well in this competition. Or conversely, if an NRL club suffers injuries or goes through the rep period, they could pick up players from these competitions for a short or long term period. In order to make this work essentially, you would have to have an NRL salary cap devoted to recruitment from this competition as well protected contracts so players nominally in the best 17 can’t just get traded because they are suddenly taking too much cap space.

 

[Perth Red]

It’s clear that’s not in the nrls plan. There will be a national reserve grade by all looks of it. That being the case it then beggars the question what Do we do with the left overs?

 

[Colk]

It’s clear that’s not in the nrls plan. There will be a national reserve grade by all looks of it. That being the case it then beggars the question what Do we do with the left overs?

You can’t do anything

 

[Perth Red]

You can’t do anything

Well yes you clearly can. You can leave qrl cup as is without reserve grade players, you can restructure into two slightly different state leagues with new nsw comp from Ron Massey cup added to the 4 nsw cup sides plus add in some new clubs or you can develop a new single competition and add some different sides to the best of the rest.

 

[MugaB]

Well yes you clearly can. You can leave qrl cup as is without reserve grade players, you can restructure into two slightly different state leagues with new nsw comp from Ron Massey cup added to the 4 nsw cup sides plus add in some new clubs or you can develop a new single competition and add some different sides to the best of the rest.

I don't think that will happen, lamback had that view too, i actually think they'll substitute the qld NRL teams for norths, newtown, mounties, and wenty, and keep the qld reserve grades teams for Qcup, so nothing changes

 

[Perth Red]

I don't think that will happen, lamback had that view too, i actually think they'll substitute the qld NRL teams for norths, newtown, mounties, and wenty, and keep the qld reserve grades teams for Qcup, so nothing changes

yes that is another option. Though not sure nswrl will allow it.

 

[MugaB]

yes that is another option. Though not sure nswrl will allow it.

I reckon they already have

 

[Perth Red]

I reckon they already have

and accept not having a premier second tier comp in NSW? I doubt it.

 

[RL The greatest game]

I go back to my earlier comment about expansion on these forums and in my opinion we need to augment our junior playing base by large amount, and unless ALL CLUBS get onside with this we will struggle to expand to any great extent.
JUNIOR EXPANSION IS THE FUTURE OF OUR GAME AND WE NEED TO DO A LOT MORE OF IT THAN WE DO NOW

 

[Perth Red]

I go back to my earlier comment about expansion on these forums and in my opinion we need to augment our junior playing base by large amount, and unless ALL CLUBS get onside with this we will struggle to expand to any great extent.
JUNIOR EXPANSION IS THE FUTURE OF OUR GAME AND WE NEED TO DO A LOT MORE OF IT THAN WE DO NOW

Do you mean jnr participation? Or elite Jnr systems?

 

[Iamback]

Well yes you clearly can. You can leave qrl cup as is without reserve grade players, you can restructure into two slightly different state leagues with new nsw comp from Ron Massey cup added to the 4 nsw cup sides plus add in some new clubs or you can develop a new single competition and add some different sides to the best of the rest.

The 2 individual state leagues is the way to go, PNG are comfortable in QCup,
Fiji in Ron Massey Cup. Warriors already have a NSW Cup team but maybe logistics can make running a State Cup team also possible.

 

[Iamback]

I don't think that will happen, lamback had that view too, i actually think they'll substitute the qld NRL teams for norths, newtown, mounties, and wenty, and keep the qld reserve grades teams for Qcup, so nothing changes

Key is what do the Bears do now Roosters are going alone. They will get pumped if they stay in NSW Cup

 

[Perth Red]

Key is what do the Bears do now Roosters are going alone. They will get pumped if they stay in NSW Cup

Same for Newtown, Wentie and Blacktown. I'm guessing magpies will just be rolled in to Tigers reserve grade?
Maybe they'll take them 4 add in some of the strong RM cup clubs, Fiji and maybe look to other areas that may be interested to form a new lower cost NSW cup? Seems regional NSW has largely been excluded from the NSW cup so maybe an opportunity to include some regional clubs?