He does have a point though. Having lived in the Sunshine State for 4 years, you'd be surprised at the ideas some of the people in the media and the greater public have about our game up there.
They see a Sydney club pulling 12 or 15k against a mid-table team while the Broncos pull 40k against a top of the table side and they go "Look at how crap Sydneysiders are- let's merge all the Sydney teams and turn them into franchises like the Broncos because that will make the game better."
Alot of said people have never seen Sydney outside of their TV screens.
Well some people have seen Sydney, some people have travelled, and attended sporting events on the other side of the world, even lived in other cities and temporarily supported other games and other clubs elsewhere.
Sydney is not different from anywhere else. The people who live there are still people. They are not another species.
Its not about merging, or anything. Its about simple maths, and one sumarising line....this one: If after 100 years, all you have is 10-15k averages, bankrupt clubs, and people accusing you of dying every time you cough, then what have you really got?
A romantic notion of football, fit for the period directly following a catastrophe, or somewhere pre 2000, not a modern day "success-stamped" competition.
I am not saying that clubs need to be merged, or anyone moved....finances will determine (or have already determined) that. Its simple maths.
Pull your head out of the sand. Is sydney so diverse and different across 10 separate parts that you need 10 teams! Wake up. Eventually - or more aptly for the more "real" among you -
sooner rather than later - league in sydney WILL need to be rationalised.
Rugby league obviously does not have the far-and-wide support that afl enjoys in melbourne, or soccer does in other countries for instance, and by the time it did reach those levels clubs would be broke anyway.
(note to all: i am talking about paying customers who attend week in week out, which is lets face it, the BEST WAY for the game to retain more of the money it generates.)
One day soon, even if clubs need to be dragged kicking and screaming to the gallows, with few fans to look on, they will be dragged. By the realities of the modern financial landscape.
People in Brisbane look at sydney rugby league and ask why no one told you the 1970's are over.
Some old-timers hate the Broncos, its true. But the Broncos are a club modelled on successful NFL clubs, and young people LOVE them. The Broncos were always successful because they breathed success.
If you look at Sydney, you may say its different to Brisbane. But Sydney is 4 times the size of brisbane in most respects. If you think something along the level of power and influence the broncos have cannot be replicated in Sydney, then you are wrong. Sydney could easily have 4-6 powerful and influencial clubs with the scope of the Broncos.
Only now, in the past 2 seasons, has any sydney club done anything to become bigger and better in a real and meaningful way.
Remember, some people have been asking clubs to shape up LONG before the financial crisis:
people laughed at them, and become insecure and blasted them left, right and centre.
Then the financial crisis hit, on top of the pokie fiasco.
I'm the last person that wants to see sydney clubs die. I want to see sydney clubs rise to the level they are capable of.
Dont come on here, and tell me about travelling, seeing sydney, seeing brisbane, seeing wherever, and alluding to some mysterious sporting knowledge that somehow gives you the edge.
Dont give excuses. Its not enough anymore. Shape up please RL, or prepare to be shipped out. By receivers.
