London and Toronto are expansion areas, just like Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth. London was given the luxury of being guaranteed a spot in Super League throughout most of their existence even if they finished last. They put together some competitive teams, but never drew any interest from the public. RFL tried hard, but no one in London cared.
Sure they are both expansion areas, however they (i.e. RL in the northern hemisphere in general) are facing a completely different set of circumstances and pressures than RL in Australia. In other words you are comparing apples and oranges and trying to divert the discussion down a massive tangent that has f**k all to do with the discussion at hand.
Even then, RL is significantly bigger in both London and Toronto now than it was prior to their respective teams entering their comps, and that has only happened because of what exposure their respective teams have brought.
There are plenty of migrants from Queensland and NSW living in Melbourne too, so I cannot agree with what you're saying about WA being completely different. New Zealanders are also there in large numbers. There's more than enough to have at least 10k registered players by now.
Proportionately migrants to Melbourne from the east coast are a significantly smaller portion of the population of Melbourne than migrants to WA are. I.e. they are more dispersed in the population and as such it's harder to form expat communities.
They also come from more varied demographics than the ones headed to WA, whom are disproportionately miners with young families. Families with young kids equal juniors equal higher participation, where as the young adults in their late teens and early 20s going to Melbourne for uni and work generally doesn't equal higher participation (however it probably does provide growth in other areas).
In other words, you are comparing apples and oranges again. However as I said in my previous post things are changing in Melbourne, but that is another tangent.
Victoria's participation numbers are similar to WA, despite having a much larger population, a pro team that has been on top for the bulk of its 22 year existence and SOO/Tests played there since the early 1990s. RL was played in Victoria long before the Storm existed, so you're flat out wrong when you say the game didn't exist in Melbourne before 1998. The Storm have given the game a much higher profile, but it's dishonest to say no one in Victoria knew of its existence before they entered the NRL. Australians know about American football despite having nothing more than a few amateur leagues scattered around the country that are smaller than RL was in Victoria pre-Storm.
I never said that the game didn't exist in Melbourne before the Storm or that nobody in Victoria knew of RL's existence...
What I did actually say was that RL was a tiny niche sport prior to the Storm and now it's a household name. That is undeniably true and it doesn't happen without the Storm.
Comparing RL in Victoria prior to the Storm to local American Football is actually a good comparison, it was a tiny niche sport that made little to no penetration into the mainstream culture, and as such struggled to grow beyond it's tiny niche status.
Your criticism of Victorian RL basically amounts to RL not having grown it's juniors numbers in Victoria as quickly as you would like. Well I'm sorry but that doesn't change the fact that they have grown significantly and that the vast majority of that growth doesn't happen without the Storm.
You are also cherry picking one metric and choosing to focus on it at the expense of all others, which is always dishonest.
I don't know what point you're trying to make regarding Perth. I said Perth is ready for an NRL team because it has grown its base from the bottom up.
I'm not making any point about Perth in particular except to address your point about Perth/WA.
