NRL2

[Perth Red]

With the news that Wynnum are aiming to build a 12k stadium thought it'd be fun to revisit an idea thats been floating around for years. The creation of a professional second division. With an acceptance that NRL is unlikely to go beyond 18 teams, and some significant markets not covered by professional RL would an NRL2 make sense? Would require NRl to create a genuine reserve grade for its clubs and for state comps to accept they would become third tier which would be challenges

Some criteria you could use;
1. Must not compete with an existing NRL club
2. decent quality stadium with a min 10k seats
3. Must not be in a feeder club arrangement with an NRL team
4. Must be in regions that can sustain decent supporter base (target 5k crowd avg)
5. Salary cap of $3million. total spend cap of $6million. NRL grant $4million (NRL to cover travel)

What clubs might be viable either due to stadiums available or decent financial base or strategically be good for RL to have a professional footprint there?

1. Christchurch (presuming not admitted as 18th club)
2. Perth (as above)
3. Adelaide
4. Fiji
5. PNG Hunters playing in port moresby stadium
6. Mounties
7. NS Bears
8. Newtown Jets
9. Wynnum - Manly
10. Ipswich jets (new stadium pending)
11. Easts Tigers (as above)
12. Gosford
13. SC Falcons
14. Cairns taipans

not a bad spread of clubs nationally/internationally.
3 international clubs, 2 national clubs, 3 Sydney clubs, 3 Brisbane clubs, 1 nsw regional club, 2 qlnd regional clubs

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Expansion Through the Second Tier

Ok so let's say tomorrow the ARLC announce that they are going to build a second tier RL competition that will be fully professional (with a much lower salary cap than the NRL), will have a game a week televised on FTA and the rest will be on Fox and that are accepting all applications provided...

forums.leagueunlimited.com

 

[Perth Red]

My bad, forgot we were having that discussion lol

 

[Foreign Legion]

Uhm Cairns Taipans is a basketball team

 

[Perth Red]

Uhm Cairns Taipans is a basketball team

thought it sounded catchy lol
Northern Pride is a sht name.

 

[siv]

So who do you drop from the Qld Cup to let the others in?

 

[Perth Red]

So who do you drop from the Qld Cup to let the others in?

No one, Qlnd cup still exists as a third tier comp with remaining, and new as it wont be quite as strong, clubs.
NRL 2 is for the 5 best and biggest, most strategic, in the current Qlnd cup to join plus PNG
Dolphins and Cowboys would have a reserve grade so no need to be in Qlnd cup.

That would leave potential for a ten team NRL3 (Qlnd)
Existing clubs
Norths
Burleigh
Tweed
Souths Logan
Mackay
CQ
Plus 4 new clubs to join.

Radical, but you cant make an omelet and all that....
Problem we have now is that everything is set up as a tier system for NRL purpose meaning fans cant get overly excited about following anything other than NRL. We need a genuine second division that fans in places without an NRL team can get behind. I'd be happy to watch the WC Pirates in my proposed NRL2 comp. We used to get 3k to nib stadium when the reds were playing in Jim Beam Cup.

 

[Foreign Legion]

Cairns Crushers?

thought it sounded catchy lol
Northern Pride is a sht name.

 

[TGG]

With an acceptance that NRL is unlikely to go beyond 18 teams

No acceptance of this. Shortsighted.

 

[siv]

The only way you will get to NRL2 will be by growing the NRL to 22 teams first

Then the comp breaks into 2 divisions 12 top tier 10 bottom tier

I cant see 10 clubs demoting themselves

 

[Jamberoo]

Stupid idea. Where would players come from? It would be a lower standard that the existing second tier comps that are full of NRL listed players. Why would anyone be interested? It would fail more quickly than the National Rugby Championship.

 

[Foreign Legion]

Stupid idea. Where would players come from? It would be a lower standard that the existing second tier comps that are full of NRL listed players. Why would anyone be interested? It would fail more quickly than the National Rugby Championship.

Victoria, Western Australia, France, the Pacific, left overs from South Africa, rural NSW and QLD, USA university NFL drop outs... the list is endless

 

[Perth Red]

Stupid idea. Where would players come from? It would be a lower standard that the existing second tier comps that are full of NRL listed players. Why would anyone be interested? It would fail more quickly than the National Rugby Championship.

it would give more opportunity for players to come through and earn a Salary playing rugby league. you might attract players from png, fiji, England etc but mainly it’s an opportunity for players who aren’t quite good enough for nrl either due to age or talent level, where they live or have just been overlooked to keep playing RL and earning some money.

Of course It wouldnt be as good as nrl, it’s not meant to be but it fills a void below nrl and gives areas who don’t have an nrl club something to follow other than the current pseudo reserve grade where results don’t really mean anything as they are determined by how many nrl squad players were in the side that week.
I can see it being more competitive than The current two state comps.

 

[Perth Red]

for the $3-4 millish Salary cap you could have a set system ie
1 marquee player on $250k
5 players on $175k
5 players on $150k
5 players on $125k
10 players on $100k

 

[Santino Patane]

Interesting idea and I can see the merits, but the fact that sinks it is the second divisions all exist to feed up to the NRL. Separating NRL2 from the top tier would stop all (or the vast majority) of potential talent in playing there- keeping themselves available to make the NRL. NRL2 clubs would have no talent, no growth and would kill the comp in the medium term.

Our game will never be big enough for this system and the current system (despite some flaws) works well and should be strengthened.

 

[Bulldog2020]

I think the the most likely way to get to something like this is to build on the winner of NSW Cup & QLD Cup playing each other. Overtime more teams could be added to a combined play off system.

Perhaps a combined cup competition and or 9's tournaments could be used to build more links/rivalries between the two comps.

 

[TGG]

Our game will never be big enough for this system and the current system (despite some flaws) works well and should be strengthened.

Could be one and the same

 

[Perth Red]

Interesting idea and I can see the merits, but the fact that sinks it is the second divisions all exist to feed up to the NRL. Separating NRL2 from the top tier would stop all (or the vast majority) of potential talent in playing there- keeping themselves available to make the NRL. NRL2 clubs would have no talent, no growth and would kill the comp in the medium term.

Our game will never be big enough for this system and the current system (despite some flaws) works well and should be strengthened.

It wouldn’t stop talent emerging in nrl2 and being signed by nrl clubs. just not in a feeder system.

The problem is more in convincing nrl clubs they need to run and pay for reserve grade! There seems to be an agreement that since scraping the under 20’s it has had a negative impact on development of players. Maybe a compromise is for nrl clubs to run a reserve grade side of under 23’s but can have up to 5 overage players in the side?

 

[Perth Red]

I think the the most likely way to get to something like this is to build on the winner of NSW Cup & QLD Cup playing each other. Overtime more teams could be added to a combined play off system.

Perhaps a combined cup competition and or 9's tournaments could be used to build more links/rivalries between the two comps.

Doesn’t solve the problem that the perception is the comps are just a pseudo nrl reserve grade and don’t really have any value with results tainted by feeder arrangements and how many nrl players turn out each week.

That perception has a big impact on those clubs abilities to generate revenue, get a tv deal, sponsors etc. meaning that it’s virtually impossible to financially field a side in either comp without a LC or some significant backing from govt (png) or an nrl club.

 

[T-Boon]

Its a good idea. I had a thread called B League. The only way it works is if NRL clubs are just first grade and have nothing to do with the lower tiers and don't have a reserve grade. This would be perfect because all the NRL clubs care about is winning first grade.