What`s Wrong With An 18 Team Competition???

[Misty Bee]

I am starting to think that the NRL badly needs to subsidise travel costs for a second division. A Second division would be made up of the top non nrl clubs in the country. Eg Gold Coast Burleigh, Redcliffe, Easts, Wynnum Manly, Ipswich, Toowoomba, Cairns, Hunter Valley Wests, Central coast Representative, Norths, Newtown, Canberra, as well as Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Northern territory, Hobart, Wellington, Christchurch and some NSW and Qld Country sides. the second division would be a feeder league for the NRL, but it would give sides the chance to develop local players and harness diehard support, in preparation for an eventual entrance into the NRL in 3, 5, 10 or 20 years.

Great idea, but the costs would be enourmous, and as the NRL and it's clubs are too stingy to allow Team 16 into the gene pool, such a solution would never happen.

Be encouraged by the strong state of the QRL comp, and the Metro Cup, and the Groups 1-20. Interaction between these comps and NZ would be great, but it would only ever happen in rep football.

 

[Misty Bee]

Misty, didn't Smith's Aus schoolboys side lose to the poms? Anyway, I agree with the rest of your post.

Yeah, they did. But by all reports I hear, Smith had a blinder of a tour.