people still going on about the 90s....
Anyone remember Agro's cartoon connection? Massive Broncos fan was Agro.
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Some of us are still talking about the 90's because in that era, Perth and Norths were booted out of the comp. Now there is a likelihood that both will comeback under the one entity as possibly "Perth Bears".
Also we reflect on the criteria at the time in the late nighties. Apparently a new stadium (on the Central Coast) wasn't an important component .
Fast forward to 2021. The NRL announced that team 17 will be The Dolphins. Eighteen months later, The Dolphins made their debut in the NRL. However before the announcement, there was a process in place, where other bidders like the Jets and Firehawks were under consideration for NRL entry.
But the NRL chose The Dolphins because they were an existing club for 75 years in the Qld comp, had pathways in place, where they were going to play (Kayo, Suncorp) and were asset rich.
Compare that with the criteria back in the late nineties, we ended up with three rushed mergers. Example, Norths final game and Northern Eagles first game were only five or six months apart. The newly formed NRL's ambition was to reduce teams down to 14, and not have any careful deliberation on how those mergers were going to function.
In a nutshell, the code has come a long way today.
