magpie_man
Juniors
- Messages
- 1,973
While it's a fanciful notion adding more teams to the competition to potentially increase broadcasting revenue, exposure for sponsors and heartland/non-heartland fan bases; I think, overall, it will be detrimental to the strength of the competition and will put too much strain on key areas:
a. The clubs - 50 more nrl-standard players are going to have to come from somewhere. The gap between the Toyota cup and nrl is too large for a significant amount to come from there. Ditto with the ESL to a lesser degree; for every Gareth Ellis there's a matt orford. The vast majority are going to have to come from the other clubs, diluting the talent and the closeness of the competition which will have a counterproductive effect on memberships, crowds and even tv ratings. As it stands, the extra strain is the last thing that the likes of the titans and crounulla need right now.
b. Coaches. The disparity between the quality of coaches currently is dire. As far as im concerned, there are 3 top-shelf coaches in the nrl: Bennett, Bellamy and hassler. There are a few on the next rung down like sheens and Cleary but after that standard is pretty poor. I think the nrl would be better served setting-up some kind of coaches academy and getting the likes of Phil Gould, Bennett etc. giving aspiring coaches accredited training in order to get the best out of the players and strengthen the competition overall. I don't want to go back to the days of seeing the likes of fittler/langmack as first grade coaches.
c. Adjudicating - while, thus far the refereeing this season has been ok, last year it was diabolical. It's extremely frustrating for fans and players alike and, again, I'd rather see the nrl set-up some sort of academy for adjudicators and give them proper training.
This upcoming broadcasting rights boon should be used to strengthen the competition overall so that it's in a good position to expand come the next contract at around 2018.
It's not time yet.
a. The clubs - 50 more nrl-standard players are going to have to come from somewhere. The gap between the Toyota cup and nrl is too large for a significant amount to come from there. Ditto with the ESL to a lesser degree; for every Gareth Ellis there's a matt orford. The vast majority are going to have to come from the other clubs, diluting the talent and the closeness of the competition which will have a counterproductive effect on memberships, crowds and even tv ratings. As it stands, the extra strain is the last thing that the likes of the titans and crounulla need right now.
b. Coaches. The disparity between the quality of coaches currently is dire. As far as im concerned, there are 3 top-shelf coaches in the nrl: Bennett, Bellamy and hassler. There are a few on the next rung down like sheens and Cleary but after that standard is pretty poor. I think the nrl would be better served setting-up some kind of coaches academy and getting the likes of Phil Gould, Bennett etc. giving aspiring coaches accredited training in order to get the best out of the players and strengthen the competition overall. I don't want to go back to the days of seeing the likes of fittler/langmack as first grade coaches.
c. Adjudicating - while, thus far the refereeing this season has been ok, last year it was diabolical. It's extremely frustrating for fans and players alike and, again, I'd rather see the nrl set-up some sort of academy for adjudicators and give them proper training.
This upcoming broadcasting rights boon should be used to strengthen the competition overall so that it's in a good position to expand come the next contract at around 2018.
It's not time yet.