http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...hearts-and-minds/story-e6frep66-1225976171870
Looks like the QLD bids are going to battle it out until they kill eachother off... excellent.
THE battle-lines are drawn.
As the spectre of expansion appears on the NRL's radar, two tribes are ready to go to war in the hope of becoming Queensland's fourth NRL team.
In the blue corner is Central Queensland, backed by multi-millionaire construction magnate Geoff Murphy and a slick, ambitious consortium that has come out swinging hard and early in its aggressive plan to deliver the knockout punch to expansion rivals.
In the red corner is Ipswich, initially slow to start but quietly plotting to go the distance and land some heavy blows when the championship rounds loom.
With the NRL expected to make a definitive call on expansion midway through 2011, the contrasting fighting styles of CQ and Ipswich have formed a mouth-watering sub-plot as the governing body comes under mounting pressure to ensure the next team added is based in Queensland.
Both camps are reluctant to build their campaigns on a bedrock of sledging and mud-slinging. But with Perth and the NSW Central Coast also flexing their expansionary muscle, blood on the floor is inevitable . . . and CQ are determined not to be left sprawled on the canvas.
''It's hard for us to judge where we're at, but we're confident we are making a compelling argument to be the best place in Queensland for expansion and hopefully the best place overall,'' says CQ bid chief executive Denis Keeffe, who impressed News Limited executives with his managerial skill as the former CEO of the Cowboys.
''Naturally we're biased, so I'll let the independent commentators make a call on where we rate. But I don't see too many deficiencies in our bid.''
From the moment they launched their bid 18 months ago, nothing about CQ has been low key. The consortium has held more launches than NASA. More than 20,000 residents have signed an NRL petition, and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has pledged to build a $150 million stadium.
And then there's Murphy, the workaholic, passionate construction tycoon who is so determined to deliver an NRL team to Central Queensland he flew NRL boss David Gallop to the region for a two-day visit last month in his private jet.
''We are going to convince you,'' says Murphy. ''We have to show David Gallop what we can do for the NRL.
We tick all the boxes.
''We've got the population, the passion, we have no other national sporting teams in CQ, we basically shore up the east coast (of Australia).
''I'm very confident of getting an NRL licence and always have been.''
But so is Steve Johnson. While CQ have been screaming from the rooftops of Rockhampton, the Ipswich bid chief has been silently crunching the numbers. And the numbers tell him this: the fourth team in Queensland must be located in Brisbane's western corridor.
''We could start a rugby league club tomorrow,'' Johnson says. ''We haven't got the players of course, but we have the infrastructure at the Ipswich Jets (Queensland Cup club), it would just be an expansion of that.
''I'm not going to be disrespectful to CQ, they are passionate league people and that's what the game is built around.''
There is no doubt Ipswich are upping the ante. Last month, former Sydney Roosters CEO Brian Canavan was added as a consultant and he will table a blueprint for the bid in the next three weeks.
Last week, Johnson met Gallop, who initially flagged Ipswich as a leading Queensland expansion target two years ago.
Gallop is reluctant to show his hand, but says Central Queensland has major appeal with its booming billion-dollar resource industry.
''One of the things I like about this area is that it doesn't have a national team in any other code,'' he says.
