Where did this come from?
Can't say I'm suprised though ... disappointing at the lack of balls being displayed to take the game to a harder territory. NZ, Central Coast, SE Qld, PNG are all League territories. WA is not. WA, despite it's face value of being a hard market to crack, wouldn't actually be as hard as they'd expect. The WA Reds are doing the hard yards now, so by the time 2012 comes around, there'll be team recognition, support (corporate and fans), good stadium, players, coaches, trainers, and 5 years of experience behind them. Has any other NRL team had any of this in the lead-up to their inclusion? Has any NRL team ever had so much going for them by this stage, yet continuously being punched in the face (okay, maybe Central Coast Bears ... and technically, they're not an NRL team ... yet ...)?
I think that's a no answer to both questions.