Ready for a brain explosion?
I would set down a very long term vision looking around 30-50 years into the future. The ultimate goal would be 5 pro leagues in the Southern Hemisphere - even if we only make halfway it is a big achievement. For all the areas with no or little presence I would organise funding for team/s of people focused solely on growing the game in those places.
The first step would be taken within 5-10 years. This would entail splitting the NRL into two divisions which only meet at finals time. They would largely exist as competitions in their own right. Given the spread of players and need to reduce costs, the level of quality would be somewhere between current NRL and the current state cups.
One division would be based in NSW and would include the existing NRL sides, with demerged clubs plus the Central Coast and NSW Country. The pressure of sharing the same market would be offset by minimal travel and associated costs and making the most of rivalries.
The other division would take all the other existing NRL sides, plus add the strongest QLD Cup teams and other expansion areas, including Warriors plus 2 other NZ sides, PNG Hunters and a big town rival for the Broncos. This would start smaller but grow to its full size by 10-15 years. Travel would be an issue so a super rugby approach would be taken using the extra money saved from the other division. Ie teams would take a 2-3 game road trip. As we gear towards the NZ and PNG leagues, those teams would depart this comp to form the basis of separate national comps, making way for lesser priority expansion areas to take their place.
I would be happy with a lower average crowd but a much larger national footprint.
Within 25 years, I would look to establish a NZ pro league built around the Warriors, Orcas and other NZ sides which would already have experience in the NRL. This would be a smallish pro league of 8 or so teams. As the second major power in our part of the world, it is a missed opportunity not to make the most of NZ.
Within 35 years, I would try to secure funding to fully fund a pro league for PNG based on the existing cup plus the Hunters. As the cost of living in PNG is so low, wages for full time players would also be low so this is achievable in the long-term, albeit difficult.
Within 50 years, I would have a goal of a Pacific pro league encompassing 2 teams each from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, plus one each from whichever other larger island nation is ready (eg Vanuatu). I would make a big push to get RL up and running in New Caledonia (one of the only wealthy island areas) with a view to at least 1 side in this comp.
The overseas comps would be built towards over decades and put together under a joint partnership with the NRL, national RL bodies and RLIF. While NRL would provide some subsidising, sourcing private funding from big companies would be important for this.
