Which team should relocate to western austrlia?

[reanimate]

I think you misunderstand I wasn't talking about the past I was talking about possible future mergers, which by the way I don't support or think are a good idea. I was simply discussing ways that we could possibly achieve mergers between two rivals.

Yeah, effectively creating a new franchise would be the way to go about a merger, I'd agree with that.
.

On the other hand winning over the North Shore is all up to you guys and their's little that anybody apart from possibly the Bears, can do to help you and I can't see the Bears doing you guys any favors anytime soon.

It is up to us, but the NRL has to offer clear direction for the area. The screwing around with the CC Bears bid has done League on the North Shore no favours, the bid has gone nowhere, and the Bears brand on the North Shore has gone nowhere. Personally, and this is just my opinion, I think the CC Bears are a stupid idea. If they were brought in, they'd get decent crowds for a few years, everyone would crow about what a success they are and how it was stupid it wasn't done sooner, then reality would hit and we'd have another team in NSW with a 10-13k average, which we don't need. I think the CC's best chance for a team is for the relocation of a struggling Sydney team. Plus, if the CC Bears were to represent the North Shore as well, you'd have the same dumb problem that affects Cronulla and St. George-Illawarra, you'd leave Manly isolated, surrounded by another team's territory.

I think the Bears brand needs to be laid to rest, and the NRL should tell Manly the North Shore is theirs, and give clear directions to Manly to build the brand up there. As with your Wests Tigers example, the resentment from the hardcore Bears fan can't last forever, if Manly got in with the younger generations, the North Shore would be sealed up by the Sea Eagles.

The first thing I'd look to do is a lot more stuff in the community on the North Shore, at the same time hit the North Shore hard with a huge unrelenting add campaign, plaster the Sea Eagle everywhere.

100% agreed.

Then you guys will need to sacrifice something and make a commitment to show the North Shore that your serious, maybe commit to play a couple of games a year at North Sydney oval and Bluetongue (which you are already doing), maybe wear a Bears jersey for heritage round one year in attempts to reconnect with that market. Publicly and seriously backing the hopeless CC Bears bid would a good idea as well as it would connect the Sea Eagles brand with the Bears brand even more and that's the key pushing the links between your brands.

I don't agree with this, however. Games at North Sydney oval... maybe. Maybe a few trial games, maybe the odd low drawing game vs one of the less popular interstate teams. The ideal situation would be for Brookvale to get a massive upgrade, and for Brookvale to become the go-to place for big events and sporting events north of the Harbour Bridge. I.e. forget NS oval, and make Brookvale an attractive place for the North Shore fanbase to come to.

The last step after many years of hard work and you've got a steady supporters base on the North Shore would be a re-branding to make the team truly represent the North Shore and not just Manly, that would include a new name (something like the North Shore Sea Eagles), a new logo, new jersey designs and maybe even a new colour scheme, which you've already said you would't be open to and if that is truly the case for all/most Manly supporters then Manly has no hope of connecting with the Northern Sydney RL community.

I definitely wouldn't support Manly becoming the 'North Shore Sea Eagles' though. That's just the Northern Eagles all over again. I could maybe, maybe be ok with 'Manly-Warringah North Shore Sea Eagles' if the logo was altered to shift the Sea Eagles name slightly to the right to fit in North Shore, and if the club was still referred to in a popular sense as Manly/the Sea Eagles, and if we kept the same colours, jersey, home ground etc.

Back to what you were saying, if after that work, we'd built up a strong supporter base on the North Shore, I'd call that mission complete. No name change would be necessary, establish that the Sea Eagles are the North Shore's team and just keep it that way. There's plenty of suburbs/areas that don't have an RL team, but still predominately support one team, that's what the NS should become for Manly. I can see the beginnings of it, go back to the late 90s/early 2000s and you most definitely wouldn't see pubs on the North Shore with Manly memorabilia up on the walls, listings for the next Manly game up on the walls and messages of support for Manly around the place. It's been a decade- the hatred is definitely fading away, it never will for some, but it's definitely faded significantly in general.

 

[flippikat]

As for West Sydney and GWS I agree with you, mergers in West Sydney would be a pointless exercise at the moment, that if anything would help GWS more then hinder them.

Precisely. Any attempt to merge teams in West Sydney will be perceived as a weakness towards AFL. Penrith-Parramatta would span such a huge area, it could backfire - with some great juniors leaving to sign for other teams or quitting the code altogether for lack of opportunities to play 'at home'.

On the other hand winning over the North Shore is all up to you guys and their's little that anybody apart from possibly the Bears, can do to help you and I can't see the Bears doing you guys any favors anytime soon. The first thing I'd look to do is a lot more stuff in the community on the North Shore, at the same time hit the North Shore hard with a huge unrelenting add campaign, plaster the Sea Eagle everywhere. Then you guys will need to sacrifice something and make a commitment to show the North Shore that your serious, maybe commit to play a couple of games a year at North Sydney oval and Bluetongue (which you are already doing), maybe wear a Bears jersey for heritage round one year in attempts to reconnect with that market. Publicly and seriously backing the hopeless CC Bears bid would a good idea as well as it would connect the Sea Eagles brand with the Bears brand even more and that's the key pushing the links between your brands.

That would require some very forward thinking & open minds from Manly management and from the Central Coast/North Sydney fans. The potential is there for a "super club" that covers a huge area north of the bridge, similar to how the Dragons reach south down the coast.

It might take some tweaks to colours or name or logo, but if it works it does solve problems for the NRL (re-engaging the North Shore & Central Coast) and Manly (extending their supporter base, giving them a 2nd home ground that's far more modern than Brookvale).

 

[Perth Red]

Manly need to expand their operations to the whole north shore. There simply isn't enough fans in just the Manly area to keep them up there as the game moves on. I would even go as far as to offer them a grant incentive, say $2mill a year to change their name to North Shore sea eagles, play min 4 games a year at Bluetongue and set up jnr program's across the north shore region. The RL fans of Gosford have been dicked around enough and the game needs to encompass that whole region. The only way Manly will stay relevant in the future is to grow their regional appeal.

Penrith are a basket case and I am not convinced at all that the game will be damaged if they disappeared. The jnr set up will remain, most fans in the region support someone else anyway and I can't see Westies flocking to the joke of GWS because the NRL panthers are not in the NRL.

The only other Sydney problem child is cronulla, time will tell if the property development saves them or if they like manly are too isolated in a small catchment with a limited capacity ground.

Back the op if any club was to relocate wests I would say panthers would be the one. Perth panthers. Gives access to a strong jnr nursery for the WA club and would keep the Panthers brand in the NRL. No Gus though please!

 

[The Great Dane]

I think the Bears brand needs to be laid to rest, and the NRL should tell Manly the North Shore is theirs, and give clear directions to Manly to build the brand up there. As with your Wests Tigers example, the resentment from the hardcore Bears fan can't last forever, if Manly got in with the younger generations, the North Shore would be sealed up by the Sea Eagles.

I completely agree with you except for the bears brand needing to be put to rest.

The Bears brand is very valuable and it doesn't necessarily need to be in Sydney to be valuable. I agree that the Bears should never and will never be resurrected in (or near) Sydney, but if we moved their brand to somewhere like Queensland it has heaps of potential to become a very valuable brand (arguably much more valuable then it would be in Sydney).

It'd be a big risk but if it came off the rewards would be huge, a Brisbane based team with a reliable and consistent away supporters base in Sydney would be hugely lucrative and a power house to say the least.

100% agreed.
I don't agree with this, however. Games at North Sydney oval... maybe. Maybe a few trial games, maybe the odd low drawing game vs one of the less popular interstate teams. The ideal situation would be for Brookvale to get a massive upgrade, and for Brookvale to become the go-to place for big events and sporting events north of the Harbour Bridge. I.e. forget NS oval, and make Brookvale an attractive place for the North Shore fanbase to come to.

I completely agree, it's my mistake I should have clarified this earlier. The games at North Sydney Oval would be temporary to help grow a supporters base on the North Shore and would cease after Brookvale gets an upgrade.

I definitely wouldn't support Manly becoming the 'North Shore Sea Eagles' though. That's just the Northern Eagles all over again. I could maybe, maybe be ok with 'Manly-Warringah North Shore Sea Eagles' if the logo was altered to shift the Sea Eagles name slightly to the right to fit in North Shore, and if the club was still referred to in a popular sense as Manly/the Sea Eagles, and if we kept the same colours, jersey, home ground etc.

It wouldn't be the the Northern Eagles all over again because it wouldn't be a merger. The Manly Sea Eagles would still have 100% control, so really it'd just be the Manly Sea Eagles with a different name.

The name change is a must otherwise you run the risk of creating the appearance that the Eagles are firstly a team for Manly and that can be very dangerous because you then run the risk of alienating a large part of your potential North Shore market and that's a very bad idea because the changes that the club is making to accommodate the North shore will certainly alienate some of the Manly purest's and if you can't can't replace the fans your alienating with the fans you are trying to gain because your alienating them as well you put the club in a very dangerous place. You can't have your cake and eat it to it has be the whole turkey or none at all, otherwise you run the risk of putting the club in a very unstable place.

The changes to the logo, colours, jersey and home ground would all be optional. As I said before I would not change the home ground, Manly could change the jersey and the colours if they wanted but I wouldn't say it's necessary. Personally I would change the logo with the name just to push home the Sea Eagles are the whole of the North Shores team now agenda, just slightly change the Eagle other then that keep it the same but it wouldn't be a necessity.

Back to what you were saying, if after that work, we'd built up a strong supporter base on the North Shore, I'd call that mission complete. No name change would be necessary, establish that the Sea Eagles are the North Shore's team and just keep it that way. There's plenty of suburbs/areas that don't have an RL team, but still predominately support one team, that's what the NS should become for Manly.

That could work if the Sea Eagles are able to keep up the hard work indefinitely, otherwise eventually the situation on the North Shore would fall back to how it is now with the North Shore not feeling any tangible links to the Sea Eagles and becoming disenchanted with RL.

Eventually that supporters base that you fought hard for would start to become disconnected and many of them would start to drop off, and that would leave all the time, money and hard work that the Eagles put into gaining the North Shore wasted.

I can see the beginnings of it, go back to the late 90s/early 2000s and you most definitely wouldn't see pubs on the North Shore with Manly memorabilia up on the walls, listings for the next Manly game up on the walls and messages of support for Manly around the place. It's been a decade- the hatred is definitely fading away, it never will for some, but it's definitely faded significantly in general.

They may be starting to lose the hate but is it being replaced with a love for the Eagles or just a interest. From what you are saying I can gather that the interest is there and if the eagle can capture that interest and build it into a love you could have one hell of a large and strong supporters base on your hands that would put you up there as one of the largest Sydney culbs.

 

[reanimate]

Manly need to expand their operations to the whole north shore. There simply isn't enough fans in just the Manly area to keep them up there as the game moves on. I would even go as far as to offer them a grant incentive, say $2mill a year to change their name to North Shore sea eagles, play min 4 games a year at Bluetongue and set up jnr program's across the north shore region. The RL fans of Gosford have been dicked around enough and the game needs to encompass that whole region. The only way Manly will stay relevant in the future is to grow their regional appeal.

'North Shore Sea Eagles' doesn't incorporate the whole of Sydney north of the Harbour Bridge, the North Shore is the North Shore- the Northern Beaches are not part of the North Shore, which is where Manly are based. North Shore also doesn't incorporate the Central Coast. We attempted a revamped Eagles brand that was supposed to incorporate the North Shore, the Northern Beaches and the Central Coast- it failed, and any attempt to do it again would be met with scorn and anger. I may be biased, but I honesty think the best way to do it is to keep the Manly brand as is, and push the Sea Eagles as the North Shore's team. Manly also has a lot of support on the CC, however I really don't think the CC can support a full-time team- keep sending games there as events, but a full-time team would prove a disappointment IMO. I think extending the Manly brand, without majorly altering it, is the solution.

 

[The Great Dane]

Manly need to expand their operations to the whole north shore. There simply isn't enough fans in just the Manly area to keep them up there as the game moves on. I would even go as far as to offer them a grant incentive, say $2mill a year to change their name to North Shore sea eagles, play min 4 games a year at Bluetongue and set up jnr program's across the north shore region. The RL fans of Gosford have been dicked around enough and the game needs to encompass that whole region. The only way Manly will stay relevant in the future is to grow their regional appeal.

Not a bad idea, but it would anger a lot Manly fans (and Sydney purest's) as it would seem to them that they are being forced to change which could back fire on the club enormously.

Penrith are a basket case and I am not convinced at all that the game will be damaged if they disappeared. The jnr set up will remain, most fans in the region support someone else anyway and I can't see Westies flocking to the joke of GWS because the NRL panthers are not in the NRL.

That's a bit rough I think, Penrith are having many of the same problems that the Raiders have had for the last 20 or so years. They're a tight knit proud club with a proud history that are struggling to let go of their old traditions to adapt to the times.

Give them some time and they'll get back on track.

The only other Sydney problem child is cronulla, time will tell if the property development saves them or if they like manly are too isolated in a small catchment with a limited capacity ground.

If there's any basket case it's Cronulla, and unlike Manly there's no obvious room for them to grow. I'm not sure if Cronulla will be able to keep it up in Sydney to much longer into the future, I hope they do but I'm not sure that they can.

Back the op if any club was to relocate wests I would say panthers would be the one. Perth panthers. Gives access to a strong jnr nursery for the WA club and would keep the Panthers brand in the NRL. No Gus though please!

That would be a disaster! Penrith would insist on complete control, Gus would come of like Kevin Sheedy does in Sydney and Canberra and the Panthers would squander the WA juniors in favor of marquee signings and Penrith based juniors.

Nope the only way the Panthers can work at the moment is if they stay in Penrith, maybe in ten or so years time when they have their sh!t together and Gus has moved on it might be a good idea, until then they either need to stay in Sydney or die and be resurrected under new management.

 

[taipan]

"There's nowhere for Cronulla to grow"
Lets see:-
A new suburb created near Wanda with over 450 houses,now being built upon.
The Sharks development with 630 units next door to the club,with 1,2 and 3 bedroom units.Potentially at least 1,200 people living next door to the ground.
Sales off the plan will be starting around October this year.
A residential development (430 plus units ) and retail on the site of the old brickworks at Kirrawee.D/A approved.
Other units throughout the Shire being planned .
Discussions ongoing about a a huge housing development near Menai.
High density housing all around the Shire (townhouses and villas springing up everywhere).
And BTW the 3rd largest junior base in Sydney.

Now lets look at basket cases.The Tigers need $1m to survive this year,Parramatta well the board and change of coaches over the years and their table position suggests something.Manly ,their board is split with in fighting.

 

[reanimate]

I completely agree with you except for the bears brand needing to be put to rest.

The Bears brand is very valuable and it doesn't necessarily need to be in Sydney to be valuable. I agree that the Bears should never and will never be resurrected in (or near) Sydney, but if we moved their brand to somewhere like Queensland it has heaps of potential to become a very valuable brand (arguably much more valuable then it would be in Sydney).

It'd be a big risk but if it came off the rewards would be huge, a Brisbane based team with a reliable and consistent away supporters base in Sydney would be hugely lucrative and a power house to say the least.

An interstate Bears team is a good idea. It would allow them to double dip for membership like the 'Sydney' Swans do- the supposedly proudly Sydney team who first toured their trophy around South Melbourne last year.

I completely agree, it's my mistake I should have clarified this earlier. The games at North Sydney Oval would be temporary to help grow a supporters base on the North Shore and would cease after Brookvale gets an upgrade.

That's a good idea, we are going to need somewhere to play while Brookvale gets upgraded.

It wouldn't be the the Northern Eagles all over again because it wouldn't be a merger. The Manly Sea Eagles would still have 100% control, so really it'd just be the Manly Sea Eagles with a different name.

The name change is a must otherwise you run the risk of creating the appearance that the Eagles are firstly a team for Manly and that can be very dangerous because you then run the risk of alienating a large part of your potential North Shore market and that's a very bad idea because the changes that the club is making to accommodate the North shore will certainly alienate some of the Manly purest's and if you can't can't replace the fans your alienating with the fans you are trying to gain because your alienating them as well you put the club in a very dangerous place. You can't have your cake and eat it to it has be the whole turkey or none at all, otherwise you run the risk of putting the club in a very unstable place.

The changes to the logo, colours, jersey and home ground would all be optional. As I said before I would not change the home ground, Manly could change the jersey and the colours if they wanted but I wouldn't say it's necessary. Personally I would change the logo with the name just to push home the Sea Eagles are the whole of the North Shores team now agenda, just slightly change the Eagle other then that keep it the same but it wouldn't be a necessity.

You could be right, if adding North Shore to our current logo is all it would take to galvanise support for the Sea Eagles on the North Shore, then it would be worth pursuing. I'd wait a while, until support had really grown, before considering that though.

That could work if the Sea Eagles are able to keep up the hard work indefinitely, otherwise eventually the situation on the North Shore would fall back to how it is now with the North Shore not feeling any tangible links to the Sea Eagles and becoming disenchanted with RL.

Eventually that supporters base that you fought hard for would start to become disconnected and many of them would start to drop off, and that would leave all the time, money and hard work that the Eagles put into gaining the North Shore wasted.

I don't know, you could be right, but areas such as the Magpies former homes of Ashfield haven't been lost to RL- they've fallen under the area of another team and now mostly support that team. A culture of support needs to be built up.

They may be starting to lose the hate but is it being replaced with a love for the Eagles or just a interest. From what you are saying I can gather that the interest is there and if the eagle can capture that interest and build it into a love you could have one hell of a large and strong supporters base on your hands that would put you up there as one of the largest Sydney culbs.

Some have begun to love Manly, others have a casual interest and follow how we're going, while some don't care, but might if we were to push into the North Shore. Basically, what it comes down to is the fact that a call needs to be made on the CC Bears, because at the moment, Florimo and co. have obsessively been doing their best to prevent Manly from taking the area. The Sea Eagles have been trying to do fan days, junior development programs, school visits, meet and greets etc. only to be met with opposition from the Bears, and Florimo running to the NSWRL telling them to make us stay out. Which is idiotic, all it's done is damage RL on the North Shore. The area would be far better served being a part of the Sea Eagles than stuck in the state it's in now. A lot of North Shore clubs play in the Manly comp from ages 13+ anyway, it would make far more sense than the area being part of a CC team.

 

[The Great Dane]

An interstate Bears team is a good idea. It would allow them to double dip for membership like the 'Sydney' Swans do- the supposedly proudly Sydney team who first toured their trophy around South Melbourne last year.

Ha ha, yes it would be almost exactly like the South Melbourne Sydney Swans or the Fitzroy Brisbane Gorilla Bear Lions. The only difference would be that they would have both their supporters base's in strong RL heartlands and not one of them in a heartland and another in a unstable expansion market, so they'd be less likely to experience the mass exodus of fans to the same scale that the Lions and Swans experience in their expansion markets during times where they're not going so well.

It'd be like printing money if we could pull it off.

You could be right, if adding North Shore to our current logo is all it would take to galvanise support for the Sea Eagles on the North Shore, then it would be worth pursuing. I'd wait a while, until support had really grown, before considering that though.

I completely agree, there's no point in changing the name and hoping that the support jumps on broad, you've got to build up that supporters base then change the name to seal the deal.

Changing it to the Manly-Warrigah North Shore Sea Eagles would still be sloppy in my opinion though.

I don't know, you could be right, but areas such as the Magpies former homes of Ashfield haven't been lost to RL- they've fallen under the area of another team and now mostly support that team. A culture of support needs to be built up.

I agree but if I'm correct Ashfield is a prominently Tigers area. If so that's kind of a flawed example.

Some have begun to love Manly, others have a casual interest and follow how we're going, while some don't care, but might if we were to push into the North Shore. Basically, what it comes down to is the fact that a call needs to be made on the CC Bears, because at the moment, Florimo and co. have obsessively been doing their best to prevent Manly from taking the area. The Sea Eagles have been trying to do fan days, junior development programs, school visits, meet and greets etc. only to be met with opposition from the Bears, and Florimo running to the NSWRL telling them to make us stay out. Which is idiotic, all it's done is damage RL on the North Shore. The area would be far better served being a part of the Sea Eagles than stuck in the state it's in now. A lot of North Shore clubs play in the Manly comp from ages 13+ anyway, it would make far more sense than the area being part of a CC team.

The Bears are doing themselves no favors staying in Sydney and desperately trying to hold on to Northern Sydney while they bid for a team on the CC that they will almost certainly never get.

The sooner they realise that all their opportunities lay outside of Sydney the better and the ARLC really needs to step in and tell them this and stop them from preventing the growth of the game in and around Sydney to help their flawed plans.

 

[parrawentyfan]

I always thought we need to plan far ahead for NZ. Something like:
Next 10-15 years. NZ 2&3 Well, Christchurch
Next 15-30 years. Move to conferences and have possibly a 4th NZ team. Either Hamilton, North Harbour (ie Auckland2) or Dunedin.

At this point there is enough NZ teams to consider a NZ comp standing on its own, building new teams to complement the existing ones. The 4/ 5 would then become 8 etc. We would have another country with its own fully pro comp.

Would also be a better basis for adding Pacific sides in the future, rather than in Aust (far in the future - if they don't have their own intra-Pacific comp by then.)

 

[reanimate]

Ha ha, yes it would be almost exactly like the South Melbourne Sydney Swans or the Fitzroy Brisbane Gorilla Bear Lions. The only difference would be that they would have both their supporters base's in strong RL heartlands and not one of them in a heartland and another in a unstable expansion market, so they'd be less likely to experience the mass exodus of fans to the same scale that the Lions and Swans experience in their expansion markets during times where they're not going so well.

It'd be like printing money if we could pull it off.

It's a great idea actually, it'd just have to be done in a market a long way away from Sydney to ensure the old Bears hierarchy don't keep trying to stymie other team' efforts on the North Shore.

I completely agree, there's no point in changing the name and hoping that the support jumps on broad, you've got to build up that supporters base then change the name to seal the deal.

Changing it to the Manly-Warrigah North Shore Sea Eagles would still be sloppy in my opinion though.

From the perspective of a Manly fan, a generic all-inclusive name simply can't be done again- there'd be far too much mistrust and anger around such a move for it to work. Adding North Shore to Manly-Warringah may be somewhat sloppy, but it would be far, far better received than another generic, all-encompassing 'Northern' name again. Manly can't be seen as losing their identity, expanding our reach and identity though, that would be far better received. Manly-Warringah North Shore Sea Eagles isn't really that much more of a mouthful than Saint George-Illawarra Dragons.

I also think North Shore would be a better name to use than 'North Sydney'- North Sydney brings back too many memories of the Bears. North Shore is more inclusive and avoids using the Bears' old name.

I agree but if I'm correct Ashfield is a prominently Tigers area. If so that's kind of a flawed example.

True, it's a poor example these days, but pre-Wests merger, they were a Balmain supporting area mainly.

The Bears are doing themselves no favors staying in Sydney and desperately trying to hold on to Northern Sydney while they bid for a team on the CC that they will almost certainly never get.

The sooner they realise that all their opportunities lay outside of Sydney the better and the ARLC really needs to step in and tell them this and stop them from preventing the growth of the game in and around Sydney to help their flawed plans.

100% agreed, they're holding the game in Sydney back.

 

[flippikat]

I always thought we need to plan far ahead for NZ. Something like:
Next 10-15 years. NZ 2&3 Well, Christchurch
Next 15-30 years. Move to conferences and have possibly a 4th NZ team. Either Hamilton, North Harbour (ie Auckland2) or Dunedin.

At this point there is enough NZ teams to consider a NZ comp standing on its own, building new teams to complement the existing ones. The 4/ 5 would then become 8 etc. We would have another country with its own fully pro comp.

Would also be a better basis for adding Pacific sides in the future, rather than in Aust (far in the future - if they don't have their own intra-Pacific comp by then.)

I think you're on the right track here.

Wellington & Christchurch would be my picks for NZ 2 & 3 - in which-ever order. Then you'd have 3 teams with areas that cover top half of North Island, bottom half of North Island, and the whole South Island. Plus the Auckland-Canterbury-Wellington triangle of rivalry will be good for the game.

I strongly believe team 4 should be Waikato-Bay of Plenty - You have plenty of potential in there - and with over half a million people in those two regions, you have a population base that stands up well against Wellington & Canterbury.

As for the idea of splitting-off a NZ competition once there's more teams, I don't think that will happen. What's more likely is that the NZ teams end up being a conference in a restructured NRL where they only play home AND away against each other.

 

[davi]

Good article on relocation.

http://commentaryboxsports.com/australian/nrl/expansion-yes-relocation-no.html

Basically the NRL shouldn't touch it with a fifty feet poll, and relocation for example taking the West Tigers to Perth does nothing in terms of retaining Tigers fans. The author also argues the NRL can survive with nine Sydney teams and should go on with expansion anyway.


NRL has two options:

1) Stick with nine Sydney teams or
2) Decide Sydney teams should be the survival of the fittest

The latter option was suggested by Paul Fitzsimmons on The Thursday night Footy show when they asked for an outsider's opinion, he suggested that teams that are poorly managed and go bust can't blame the NRL if they are too broke to continue. He even went as far to suggest scrapping the salary cap to accelerate the process.

I have heard in commentary this week that the NRL are likely going to go down this path of not continuing bailing teams out if it's not in their geo-graphical interest to do so.

 

[BuffaloRules]

Good article... Thanks for posting... I have posted here previously in agreement with many of the points made..

The whole problem to me stems from the NRL Leadership continually putting off expansion...

It does make sense to have two teams in Brisbane, and it does make sense to have a team in Perth, mainly because of the opportunity for new live game TV time slots due to the time difference back to eastern states...

Because the NRL doesn't have the balls/vision whatever for expansion, this leads to calls from the media and others for Sydney teams to be cut or relocate...

Just expand to 18 and get on with it...

 

[T-Boon]

All nine Sydney teams should relocate and we should have 5 brand new sydney teams.

Each Sydney fan would have 2 teams.


West Coast Panthers (Perth & Parra)
Western Eels (Perth & Parra)
Melbourne Rabbitohs
Melbourne Warriors
Adelaide Sharks
Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles
Wellington Roosters
Auckland Bulldogs
Brisbane Broncos
Brisbane Storm
Wollongong Dragons
SQ Titans
Newcastle Knights
Canberra Raiders
NQ Cowboys
Sydney Ducks
Sydney Bears
Sydney Jets
Sydney Hammers
Sydney Cartoons

 

[The Great Dane]

I agree that relocations are stupid, but survival of the fittest is stupid too.
There're two problems with survival of the fittest, it's too random and just because there isn't room for a club in the NRL anymore doesn't mean that there isn't room for that club in RL.

For example losing Manly would be a disaster for the NRL because they're the only Sydney club on the North side of the harbour, and strategically the NRL needs a club on the North Shore, and with survival of the fittest there's no way to make certain that Manly survives without creating a PR nightmare.
And using Manly as an example again, if Manly goes broke that's it, they're gone, and any club closing it's doors isn't in anybodies interest, just because we don't need 9 Sydney clubs in the NRL doesn't mean that they aren't valuable elsewhere in the sport, like in the NSWcup or any second tier competition we may come up with.

The only way for everybody to come out of rationalisation relatively unscathed is if it's planned and organised, otherwise there is noway to make sure of the best outcomes possible for everyone involved.

 

[BuffaloRules]

Please save me the "NSW Cup" argument that somehow means that your team will live on in some Zombie Apocalypse league that no one gives two shits about...

That is just dishonest.

 

[T-Boon]

Please save me the "NSW Cup" argument that somehow means that your team will live on in some Zombie Apocalypse league that no one gives two shits about...

That is just dishonest.

The only thing that is really wrong with NSW Cup is that it is just reserve grade/feeder clubs for the NRL teams.
If the NSW cup clubs were independent of the NRL clubs maybe even made their own rules the comp would be well respected and supported.

 

[BuffaloRules]

The only thing that is really wrong with NSW Cup is that it is just reserve grade/feeder clubs for the NRL teams.
If the NSW cup clubs were independent of the NRL clubs maybe even made their own rules the comp would be well respected and supported.

I know you like the different rules thing so I ain't touching that...

Who would be interested in supporting the Nsw cup team as a fan though? Who is going to pay for the teams to play in the lower leagues with no hand out from the NRL?

I heard the same arguments when Balmain Tigers and Illawarra Steelers went through their mergers in 2000...

Their respecive NSW Cup teams lasted about two years from memory

 

[T-Boon]

I know you like the different rules thing so I ain't touching that...

Who would be interested in supporting the Nsw cup team as a fan though? Who is going to pay for the teams to play in the lower leagues with no hand out from the NRL?

I heard the same arguments when Balmain Tigers and Illawarra Steelers went through their mergers in 2000...

Their respecive NSW Cup teams lasted about two years from memory

My big vision is that NRL clubs end up drafting players from the NSW & QLD cup which is an under 22s type competition and the NSW & QLD cup teams become responsible for the grass roots. Think of NSW cup being like college football.