NRL strategic plan 2018-2022 as it relates to expansion

[titoelcolombiano]

I mean it all depends on what they mean by "prove their viability" and " second-tier".

If done properly this could be a very positive thing, for example if they were to restructure the "second-tier" into a national second division and were able to get similar national coverage of this second division to what the NRL currently enjoys, instead of the hotchpotch of state leagues that we currently have as a "second-tier", and there was a clearly defined way for clubs to "prove their viability" and apply for promotion from this second tier to the NRL, then that would be a very positive thing.

However if what the NRL means is that they want teams looking for entry to the NRL to waste millions playing in the state leagues with no defined criteria for entry to the NRL and no promise of entry into the NRL at all, and with no way of even attempting to recoup their investment, cause they (the NRL) don't want to make a decision on expansion cause they are scared of pissing off the NRL clubs that don't want to share the profits that the NRL makes with more people cause they believe that they 'own' the game, then no that's a bloody stupid idea.

I guess since we haven't really been given any actual details on what the NRLs' actual plans are for the "second-tier" in the long, and they haven't really elaborated on what they actually mean by "prove their viability" that we'll just have to wait and see.

Good points! If a national second teir is setup with decent enough coverage then you are right, it might also be a place to temporary house teams that fall on hard times in the NRL so that they don't fall into oblibion

 

[Perth Red]

Sadly I see no sign that they have any intention to make the second tier a genuine National comp. The code is far too 2 state centric to allow that to happen. The NSWRL and QRL would never allow it and the NRL doesn't have the balls to push it past them.

 

[The Great Dane]

Sadly I see no sign that they have any intention to make the second tier a genuine National comp. The code is far too 2 state centric to allow that to happen. The NSWRL and QRL would never allow it and the NRL doesn't have the balls to push it past them.

I agree, but you never know maybe they'll surprise us.

 

[johnny plath]

Yep it makes no sense really, but like I said it means nrl can procrastinate over expansion for another 5 years!

On ABC Grandstand today their was a brief mention of the Cairns Mayor meeting with Peter Beatie to discuss a combined Cairns/PNG Bid. Maybe if they already haven't its time for the WA bid to lick their wounds and re-engage with the new ARLC board and Peter Beattie to explain why it would be ridiculous for them to expand via a second tier, rather than directly. I don't have a clue what goes on behind the scenes, but surely the bid team can't just be sitting on their hands waiting on a phone call from the commission, have to be proactive and in their face, especially following the 'expand or die' moment from Beattie.

 

[I Bleed Maroon]

Ah yes because that's what the NRL needed, another team in NSW.

f**k me sideways.

 

[Perth Red]

On ABC Grandstand today their was a brief mention of the Cairns Mayor meeting with Peter Beatie to discuss a combined Cairns/PNG Bid. Maybe if they already haven't its time for the WA bid to lick their wounds and re-engage with the new ARLC board and Peter Beattie to explain why it would be ridiculous for them to expand via a second tier, rather than directly. I don't have a clue what goes on behind the scenes, but surely the bid team can't just be sitting on their hands waiting on a phone call from the commission, have to be proactive and in their face, especially following the 'expand or die' moment from Beattie.

It’s a bit hard to figure out where perth is at tbh. We have the nrlwa running the pirates set up but as a part of the nrl I’m not sure if they can bid. Then we have the original owner of the Reds, Laurie Puddy, who has popped up saying he is ready to financially back a club. We had Tony Sage/benny Elias putting their hand up a few years ago. Who knows what is being discussed behind closed doors. Seems the plan is for a Pirates nsw Cup team in 2020 but if it happens and what that may lead to is anyone’s guess. It’s clear there’ll be no expansion until at least 2023/2024 at the earliest.

 

[Diesel]

Expansion may be earlier than 2023.

Isn’t there a clause in the current contract for a 17th team?

 

[8Ball]

I would like to see a knock out style event as a trial for a genuine second tier comp. Top 4 of both comps at the end of a regular season. Would be very easy to plan and put into place in the short term without taking many resources.

I can see a game like Newtown v PNG at Henson Park generating quite a bit of interest.

 

[Perth Red]

Expansion may be earlier than 2023.

Isn’t there a clause in the current contract for a 17th team?

They wont expand unless it gives them a ninth game to sell. The nrl has allocated all its revenue for the next few years somdesnt have the funds to expand within its current revenue streams.

 

[Marlins]

I got a feeling the Nrl will expand to 18 teams for the next Tv Rights Deal. It will be a big selling point.

If the Nrl wants the expansion Teams to have already established feeder clubs, then Two new Qld clubs is the most likely scenario. There shouldn’t be any expansion in nsw. Perth/Adelaide/Nz2 haven’t got any teams in the state leagues. So that leaves Qld and Png.
A 2nd Brisbane seems the most obvious choice. A Cairns/Png would be really interesting to see. Maybe even call them Northern something and potentially take games to Darwin as well.

The best choices I see are -
In order
- North Brisbane Dolphins
- Cairns/Png Team
- Western Corridor Jets

 

[RoosTah]

I got a feeling the Nrl will expand to 18 teams for the next Tv Rights Deal. It will be a big selling point.

If the Nrl wants the expansion Teams to have already established feeder clubs, then Two new Qld clubs is the most likely scenario. There shouldn’t be any expansion in nsw. Perth/Adelaide/Nz2 haven’t got any teams in the state leagues. So that leaves Qld and Png.
A 2nd Brisbane seems the most obvious choice. A Cairns/Png would be really interesting to see. Maybe even call them Northern something and potentially take games to Darwin as well.

The best choices I see are -
In order
- North Brisbane Dolphins
- Cairns/Png Team
- Western Corridor Jets

Perth is without a doubt priority 1 for the next TV deal. PNG has great support for Rugby League, but frankly they're still another 20-30 years of economic development away from being ready to host an NRL team. The country is one of the most sparsely populated, linguistically complex, minimally urbanised, educated and secure in the region. The NRL isn't going there in a hurry... being in the Qld cup is fine for now.

Frankly from a market access and development standpoint the priority listing has to be
1. Perth,
2. NZ2
3. Brisbane2
4. Adelaide

North Qld doesn't need another team, but the game desperately needs to be in Perth, and also desperately needs to be bigger in NZ - in fact long term we ought to be aiming for the kiwis to be supporting 3 teams like Qld as it makes the international game stronger.

 

[Marlins]

Perth is without a doubt priority 1 for the next TV deal. PNG has great support for Rugby League, but frankly they're still another 20-30 years of economic development away from being ready to host an NRL team. The country is one of the most sparsely populated, linguistically complex, minimally urbanised, educated and secure in the region. The NRL isn't going there in a hurry... being in the Qld cup is fine for now.

Frankly from a market access and development standpoint the priority listing has to be
1. Perth,
2. NZ2
3. Brisbane2
4. Adelaide

North Qld doesn't need another team, but the game desperately needs to be in Perth, and also desperately needs to be bigger in NZ - in fact long term we ought to be aiming for the kiwis to be supporting 3 teams like Qld as it makes the international game stronger.

Problem is no Perth or Nz2 feeder clubs. The Nrl are making it clear no feeder clubs, no chance of Nrl Licence.
There is a huge market and heaps of potential players in Cairns and Png. Something that doesn’t exist in the West. Also a Bri2 would be the biggest Tv seller.

 

[RoosTah]

Problem is no Perth or Nz2 feeder clubs. The Nrl are making it clear no feeder clubs, no chance of Nrl Licence.
There is a huge market and heaps of potential players in Cairns and Png. Something that doesn’t exist in the West. Also a Bri2 would be the biggest Tv seller.

PNG is a non-starter, it's as simple as that. Perth you could astroturf to start with - enough ground work has been put into the place to get it going and from a TV standpoint it adds an extra slot that doesn't currently exist AND makes the game almost completely national finally.

It's a strategic imperative in the way Cairns just isn't - the Cowboys already adequately service Nth Qld.

As for NZ2 - Christchurch have been vying for a NSW cup spot for a while, and have strong fundamentals, so that could well change. They'd be a brilliant shot in the arm for the game in NZ if they entered.

 

[Marlins]

PNG is a non-starter, it's as simple as that. Perth you could astroturf to start with - enough ground work has been put into the place to get it going and from a TV standpoint it adds an extra slot that doesn't currently exist AND makes the game almost completely national finally.

It's a strategic imperative in the way Cairns just isn't - the Cowboys already adequately service Nth Qld.

As for NZ2 - Christchurch have been vying for a NSW cup spot for a while, and have strong fundamentals, so that could well change. They'd be a brilliant shot in the arm for the game in NZ if they entered.

Cowboys might be called North Queensland but they certainly don’t service that whole region. 400kms distance from Tville to Cairns.
Base the side in Cairns.
7 Games Cairns
4 Games Png
1 Game Darwin
Call them the Northern (insert name).
They could achieve the same success as the cowboys without taking away any fans. It would also give the cowboys a genuine rivalry.

 

[RoosTah]

Cowboys might be called North Queensland but they certainly don’t service that whole region. 400kms distance from Tville to Cairns.
Base the side in Cairns.
7 Games Cairns
4 Games Png
1 Game Darwin
Call them the Northern (insert name).
They could achieve the same success as the cowboys without taking away any fans. It would also give the cowboys a genuine rivalry.

As I said, PNG is a non-starter. Just won't happen in the NRL because of the state the country is in.

But to the rest of your argument, there are 2.2 million people in Perth and 150k in Cairns.

If you combine that with the entire NT, you've still got a combined population of less than 400km. What's more, why would Darwin people support a Cairns side?

Seems to me that if you want Cairns to be better represented, it would be easier to just take cowboys games up there. I know Caines isn't exactly around the corner, but it sure as shit is a lot closer than Darwin and the people I do know up there all cheered for the Cowboys in 2015 when they won the NRL premiership, so there clearly is a tendency to support them.

Either way, I just don't see what you think the game achieves by putting more teams in barely populated strongholds...

 

[Perth Red]

Problem is no Perth or Nz2 feeder clubs. The Nrl are making it clear no feeder clubs, no chance of Nrl Licence.
There is a huge market and heaps of potential players in Cairns and Png. Something that doesn’t exist in the West. Also a Bri2 would be the biggest Tv seller.

NRL WA Pathways Review
On August 3rd & 4th , NRL WA Chairman Bob Cronin , NRL WA General Manager John Sackson and NRL WA Operations Manager Tony Crowe attended two days of meetings in Sydney with NRL’s Head of Football Brian Canavan ,Affiliated States Manager Martin Meredith along with input from a number of other key NRL Executives.

The aim of the WA Focus meetings was to create more strategic vision for the ongoing development of the local game.

The discussions were very positive and at this stage NRL WA, NSW RL and the NRL are committed to building a strategic business plan aimed at achieving the below goals

NRL WA 2020 Pathways Vision
· 2018 – Maintain Cash Converters West Coast Pirates involvement in Current NSW RL SG Ball Under 18’s Competition

· 2019 – NRL WA to introduce High Performance Pathway role to support all development programs

· 2019 – Proposed entry into NSW RL Under 20’s Competition

· 2020 – 2022 – Proposed entry into NSW Intrust Super Premiership.

**Please note that NRL WA will be aiming to align Female programs similar the above objectives

https://nrlwa.com.au/pirates-we-are-wa-vision/

 

[Perth Red]

Cowboys might be called North Queensland but they certainly don’t service that whole region. 400kms distance from Tville to Cairns.
Base the side in Cairns.
7 Games Cairns
4 Games Png
1 Game Darwin
Call them the Northern (insert name).
They could achieve the same success as the cowboys without taking away any fans. It would also give the cowboys a genuine rivalry.

Cairns 162k
Perth 2.16 million

Yep a cairns nrl team makes perfect sense lol

 

[taipan]

They wont expand unless it gives them a ninth game to sell. The nrl has allocated all its revenue for the next few years somdesnt have the funds to expand within its current revenue streams.

If the NRL has allocated all their revenue for the next few years.What are they doing with the estimated $40m profit for this year,Beattie announced?

 

[Marlins]

Cairns 162k
Perth 2.16 million

Yep a cairns nrl team makes perfect sense lol

Png & North Q rugby league heartlands.
Passion, players and a huge hunger for league.

How well did the force go? The glory?
Just putting a team in Perth without the right groundwork in place doesn’t make sense.

They need a solid feeder club in the state leagues, with juniors coming through.
Having a Cairns/Png side, the potential to develop young talent is enormous. It’s an un tapped gold mine for league. You won’t find that in Perth. At best you can create a Storm2. Which don’t get me wrong is excellent.

Start from the ground up in Perth then in 10 years think about the top flight.

 

[RoosTah]

Cairns 162k
Perth 2.16 million

Yep a cairns nrl team makes perfect sense lol

Precisely. And he still hasn’t explained why people in Darwin are going to support his side if he believes people in Cairns won’t support Nth Qld