The Case for Adelaide.....

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Yeah there’s a lot of purple getting around. I was quietly proud to be honest - that League has that much genuine interest in Melbourne. I don’t bag the storm like many others do, I think they are by far the most successful club of the modern era on a number of fronts - with fans n membership base a great example given the AFL stronghold it’s historically been.

While I mentioned it in my original posts when putting up the thread - I too see so many people wearing nrl merch in Adelaide getting around. Genuinely surprising when I came here and I too get comment if I’m in a dragons top, my Gold Coast Seagulls Jacket or Western Reds cap (love my vintage league stuff). It’s what prompted me to research more into the history of the Rams and subsequently put up the case thread. I’ve recently come back from a trip to NSW and had requests off local friends to bring them back nrl gear, I went to Peter wynns and left with a sack Santa would be happy with.

And now I live in a “pioneer state” - ie outside NSW n QLD - I understand what it’s like for true fans of the game here. Many in NSW n QLD don’t really rate holding games or having potential clubs outside the heartland states. Yet they haven’t been to these states enough (or at all) to see what the appetite is truly like...

In Victoria it’s now established with a successful club. In WA and SA, there is indeed a big appetite.

I think the board members of a struggling Sydney club need to read this. They could become so much richer and stronger by establishing a base in Adelaide or Perth, and either relocating there permanently or split their base evenly between Sydney and their adopted city.

I am against new clubs being placed in these cities because there's too many hurdles for them to overcome. A Sydney team that does what the Swans and Lions did has a far greater chance of succeeding. The Brisbane Bears were a new team, but struggled until they merged with Fitzroy.

I think the future will see 3 or 4 Sydney clubs branching out. I wouldn’t be surprised if Manly became the North Sydney Sea Eagles or Central Coast Sea Eagles and play half of their games in Gosford. St George will probably relocate permanently to Wollongong at some stage.

PVL should look at talking Wests/ARLC into selling the Balmain side of the merger to the Pirates consortium. Western Tigers, six games in Perth, the other six at Campbelltown, Magic Round in Perth each year in exchange for funding from the WA gov. A stronger Tigers team that has one paw in Campbelltown and the other in Perth will attract more sponsors than the current club. Perth will have exposure to RL seven times a year. It is better than having zero games in Perth.

 

[mongoose]

Many did play for the Storm's SG Ball or NYC teams before they were canned though.

edit: ive updated that list to include the age they moved to Vic (although many stats didn't exist or are based on quotes and not age)
Purple = had a Storm contract
Bold = played at NRL level for Storm

Born but not NRL Vic Player
Peter Wallace (B)
Jake Webster (B)
Timana Tahu (B)
Craig Polla-Mounter (B)

Altona Roosters
Jeremy Smith (n/a "Junior" "started his RL career")
Gareth Widdop (16)
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad (15)
Kurt Bernard (n/a - u20 or less)
Ben Nakubuwai (18)
Tony Tumusa (n/a - u20 or less)
Jamayne Taunoa-Brown (B)
Shae Ah-Fook (n/a - u20 or less)

Northern Thunder
Young Tonumaipea (n/a "at a young age")
Richard Kennar (n/a "at a young age")

South East Titans
Mahe Fonua (B)
Francis Tualau (n/a "played his junior rugby league")
Kelma Tuilagi (n/a u18 or less)

Waverley Oakleigh Panthers
Drury Low (n/a "played his junior rugby league")
Denny Solomona (n/a u18 or less)
Pride Petterson-Robati (n/a u20 or less)

I guess it depends at what age is the cut off to be considered a product of the state, it also doesnt help that there is next to zero information on any of these players until they played for a u20s team (so they might of been a lot younger playing in Vic)

It's also worth noting that most of these played their first Australian RL in Vic

theres also a lot more players from Vic floating around in the SL, or NSW or QLD cup that I didn't include, many of which have played international league

Hopefully when Smith retires and a new Brisbane team comes in the Storm start to really look in their own backyard for players and push hard on the development front.

 

[flippikat]

Hopefully when Smith retires and a new Brisbane team comes in the Storm start to really look in their own backyard for players and push hard on the development front.

Absolutely. Surely they realise that the days of just picking over the best up and coming Queensland talent are well and truly numbered, given the "stay in your home state" options Qld players will have once Brisbane 2 is a reality.

Crucial to that will be learning from the Raiders experience, given that they've struggled with a similar transition out of being a "Virtual Queensland club".

 

[greenBV4]

Hopefully when Smith retires and a new Brisbane team comes in the Storm start to really look in their own backyard for players and push hard on the development front.

I also agree from what I can see at face value the club could doing more to push through victorian juniors, idk what goes on behind the scenes though

I think canning the NYC had a fairly big impact on vic develoment as it seems a lot of the storm youth side was made up of victorians, hopefully we some some come through the JF and SG Ball Victorian Thunderbolts. The issue though is that since all the feeder clubs are in qld, the all end up needing to relocate to qld anyway - I'd love to see a victorian-based side set up in the NSW cup eventually

 

[greenBV4]

Absolutely. Surely they realise that the days of just picking over the best up and coming Queensland talent are well and truly numbered, given the "stay in your home state" options Qld players will have once Brisbane 2 is a reality.

Crucial to that will be learning from the Raiders experience, given that they've struggled with a similar transition out of being a "Virtual Queensland club".

tbf I think they already have, this year we will likely see more Storm players picked for the blue squad than the maroon one, and I would say majority of our players coming in now are actually NZ or Pacific Islanders.

As I mentioned above though, the issue is no Victorian presence in the 2nd tier, and thus Storm will continue to have their Qld connection through the qld cup feeders, unless they shift over to NSW cup sides or a Vic side is brought in (although I think the SC connection will stay in place a while, given this year, and the storm owning the SC netball side, as well as the number of Vic expats on the sunshine coast)

 

[Perth Red]

In all honesty who cares where the melbourne storm stars, or any nrl player for any club, were born and trained? Sure it’d be nice to see more melbourne jnrs come through bir until the nrl throws the same amount of money at nrlvic that afl throws in nsw and qlnd it ain’t going to happen.

Melbourne Storms job is to run a viable professional rugby league club and win competitions. It’s NRLVic (and as now owned by nrl in effect the nrl’s job) job to turn the 3500 Vic grassroots players into 10,000 so more cream comes through for storm to turn into elite players.

ps Storm development pathways were not helped by the nswrl’s bloody mindedness re their jnr team.

pps the storm now have more first teamers from nz and nsw than Qlnd. It’s a myth that they are the fourth qlnd side,

 

[LeagueXIII]

Exactly, most AFL players in QLD or NSW have some connection to Aussie Rules states.

The other thing in Melbourne is the government are funding a rugby league academy, unheard of when I first came to Melbourne. The graph is definitely in an upward trend and will continue to do so.

Also Slater and Smith are having a statue placed out the front of their home ground.

They are household names in Melbourne.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Exactly, most AFL players in QLD or NSW have some connection to Aussie Rules states.

The other thing in Melbourne is the government are funding a rugby league academy, unheard of when I first came to Melbourne. The graph is definitely in an upward trend and will continue to do so.

Also Slater and Smith are having a statue placed out the front of their home ground.

They are household names in Melbourne.

Great to hear. Cheers for sharing.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

The 15 other clubs won't like seeing players from their catchment area routinely being poached by a club in fumbleball land. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if all 15 of them, plus the Storm, are against adding a Perth team because it will lead to twice as many players being taken out of Queensland, NSW and NZ.

You cannot blame the clubs for not wanting to jeopardise their recruitment prospects.

I'd imagine the Storm would be the biggest and loudest club voting against a Perth team as they will be impacted more than anyone else.

 

[Perth Red]

There’s always been plenty of support for a perth club from players and clubs


https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/cameron-smith-backs-nrl-team-for-perth-20180308-p4z3d0.html

 

[The Great Dane]

The whole 'where do the Storms' players come from' thing is just a red Herring, and it's worked perfectly because now we're all talking about the Storm, juniors, and the state of the game in Victoria, instead of discussing the real topics; Adelaide and expansion.

 

[The Great Dane]

The 15 other clubs won't like seeing players from their catchment area routinely being poached by a club in fumbleball land. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if all 15 of them, plus the Storm, are against adding a Perth team because it will lead to twice as many players being taken out of Queensland, NSW and NZ.

You cannot blame the clubs for not wanting to jeopardise their recruitment prospects.

Clubs have been "poaching" juniors from each other from time immemorial. It's an inevitable part of professional sport and adding more teams into the mix will have no impact on that.

I'd imagine the Storm would be the biggest and loudest club voting against a Perth team as they will be impacted more than anyone else.

'Without a doubt' case for Perth NRL expansion, says Bellamy

Perth Expansion should be looked at: Smith

Cameron Smith calls for NRL to expand and take on AFL head on

My favorite quote from Cam: "I have played in Adelaide and I have played in Perth and there is some pretty good support there. We played at the Adelaide Oval and I think we had close to 20,000 there and over in Perth was sold out on the two occasions we played there."

Seems to me like the Storm are all for expansion in Perth and Adelaide.

 

[Billythekid]

There is so much untapped potential out there in terms of getting more players. Maybe we should develop better pathways from NZ, PNG and the all the pacific islands if we’re looking for more playing talent.

The big problem is that whilst an Adelaide team makes sense so do other areas. The game needs a Brisbane 2, Perth, Adelaide, NZ2 and a CC team but we already have so many so we have to be selective. Right now for me other than the CC I see Adelaide sitting at the bottom of that pile and that’s the unfortunate reality.

I would love to see the NRL push towards 20 teams and include all of the above bar the CC, not expecting it in my lifetime.

 

[mongoose]

a new team at CC is a flat no for me, it's not expansion - doesn't bring in any new fans. Unless a Sydney team wants to relocate there then fine but no way a new team. The Sunshine Coast should be above the Central Coast.

 

[The Great Dane]

There is so much untapped potential out there in terms of getting more players. Maybe we should develop better pathways from NZ, PNG and the all the pacific islands if we’re looking for more playing talent.

You don't have to go to NZ and PI's to find untapped potential, plenty of it is being missed all the time just in country NSW.

The fact of the matter is that it's pretty bloody hard to argue that talent is a problem when the NRL is exporting almost a full team worth of talent to England and RU each year without it having a major impact on the quality of the competition.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Cam Smith is hardly a trustworthy source.

What players say in public and what they believe are not necessary the same. The Broncos say they welcome Brisbane 2, but anyone who knows the history of the club isn't falling for their BS.

Clubs are not going to welcome a competitor that will put their future in jeopardy. Players will not want to fly six hours to and from Perth. The RLPA is always whinging about player welfare. The flight issue will be something they will not want to experience.

 

[greenBV4]

Cam Smith is hardly a trustworthy source.

What players say in public and what they believe are not necessary the same. The Broncos say they welcome Brisbane 2, but anyone who knows the history of the club isn't falling for their BS.

Clubs are not going to welcome a competitor that will put their future in jeopardy. Players will not want to fly six hours to and from Perth. The RLPA is always whinging about player welfare. The flight issue will be something they will not want to experience.

What does Cam Smith or Bellamy gain by "lying" about being all for Perth or Adelaide expansion? If anything they would probably get more praise from the Sydney-centric league media for calling out against it. From most reports we've seen players for whatever reason like playing in these cities, and the flight isn't that bad, businessmen do it all the time.

The addition of more clubs means more job openings for proffesional rugby league players, the RLPA would likely be all for this

 

[The Great Dane]

Cam Smith is hardly a trustworthy source.

In other words any opinion that doesn't validate yours is invalid.

What's your excuse for Bellamy's opinion, is he not trustworthy as well?

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

There is so much untapped potential out there in terms of getting more players. Maybe we should develop better pathways from NZ, PNG and the all the pacific islands if we’re looking for more playing talent.

The big problem is that whilst an Adelaide team makes sense so do other areas. The game needs a Brisbane 2, Perth, Adelaide, NZ2 and a CC team but we already have so many so we have to be selective. Right now for me other than the CC I see Adelaide sitting at the bottom of that pile and that’s the unfortunate reality.

I would love to see the NRL push towards 20 teams and include all of the above bar the CC, not expecting it in my lifetime.

Bang on, your first paragraph is on the money for me. That is the well of potential talent that needs to be brought to fruition. I’d thought Gus Gould was given that gig from the NRL and given his efforts with the roosters and then Penrith - he’s the perfect bloke to build that pipeline for mine.

 

[Perth Red]

There’s always been plenty of support for a perth club from players and clubs, in fact the only person I have ever heard say in the last ten years that perth isnt a good idea is Vlandys!

id expect a perth club to be very multi cultural like the storm. Png. Fiji, nz and islands, english, qlnd, nsw. but we will have the advantage of getting some WA players through the system quicker.