It's a great podcast, standout episodes for me being Phillip Street (ARL's response to the Super League raids) and What the Bullfrog Knew. Not sure if you've made any points yet where they are using Matthew Ridge's autobiography, but they normally illicit amusement!
What I've learnt regarding expansion from the Rugby League Digest's SuperLeague War series is that whilst it may have seen visionary expanding to 20 teams, it was never sustainable at the time. I believe they only were only planning on adding 2 sides when they were at 16 but ended up letting all 4 bids in. A reckless abandon strategy which summed up the wild west of ARL and club administrations in the 80's and 90's. From thinking that News Ltd were totally at fault for the SL War, the picture is far from black and white from listening to the podcast.
agreed and i think anyones who tries to dispute what that poddy goes on to say on the matter really needs to zip it. these rld blokes did years of research with quotes, reports, first hand accounts etc to be able to discuss the subject in a fantastic manner.
again, whats is the relevance to west aussie bears? everything. its learning from the mistake and errors and not just the obvious ones but also the not-so-known and talked about ones.
finally they said what ultimately drove the bears to arl and not sl was that news ltd club contract agreements imposed a % ownership on all franchises competing in sl. everything pointed towards bears moving to sl, mark soden & greg florimp were big pushers for it and made some good points of getting away from arko/manly heavily favouritised comp but the head honchos at norths just couldnt get past the ownership model of news ltd with sl clubs.
now 30 years on it looks like the nrl will own bears anyways in west aussie. so one could say that the current norths administrators have at least learnt their lesson with whats overall best for business moving forwards in regard to the brand.
