By Crazy Dave
December 2nd 2009 @ 4:14am
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Bring PNG into an Australasian Rugby League
Just like New Zealand Rugby League has been improved through the Auckland Warriors playing in the NRL, so would Papua New Guinea Rugby League also improve through a team there playing in the NRL.
I am all for a team from PNG being included in the next expansion of the NRL.
Of course, this would then have the NRL being a supposedly ‘national’ competition, which includes two teams from outside the national borders.
Does this mean that the name of the competition should be changed? Can you have a national competition which includes teams from three different countries?
Maybe we could call it the Australasian Rugby League.
Or the Oceanic Rugby League, thus opening the way for teams from some of the island nations in the Oceanic region.
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(19)
mtngry said | December 2nd 2009 @ 7:13am | Report comment
I have been saying this to all and Sundry for ages on RL forums. I live in hope
Barking Glider said | December 2nd 2009 @ 7:31am | Report comment
Never going to happen.
To be a NRL club it has to be like the other NRL clubs. It will buy and sell players from everywhere to build a team.
Is the NZ Warriors team entirely from NZ? Are you suggesting that the PNG team in the NRL should comprise only PNG residents?
Look how hard it is for the Warriors to get a big name Aussie to join them. Do you really think any NRL player is going to sign up to living in Port Moresby?
Wylie said | December 2nd 2009 @ 7:45am | Report comment
You’d have to base them in N QLD and play a few games in Moresby every year. Having spent a fair bit of time there I agree with Barking Glider, unless you are paying players an absolute fortune nobody is going to want to live there. The thing is though, not only would it be good for the game in PNG but also good for them as a country. About 1/5 of the world’s languages are spoken in PNG, in terms of culture it is the most diverse country in world. Pretty much the only time they feel united is when the Kumuls are playing. I would expect the Federal Government could be convinced to kick in some money as part of the overall PNG aid budget, some of which is marked for nation building. I reckon we owe it to them.
Go the Kumuls!
Rodney McDonell said | December 2nd 2009 @ 8:31am | Report comment
Stupid.. i wont read any more after the first line.
New Zealand’s world cup triumph has more to do with the influx of Kiwis into EVERY NRL club than the Warriors. It’s the NRLs ability to identify talent that has them searching the globe for the next super star that has given the Kiwis a boost.
Adding a team from PNG won’t do a lot – how many PNG players do you see in the NRL today? Hardly any! Because it’s much harder for a PNG resident to gain residency in Australia than it is for a NZ resident.
The PNG government will need to commit a lot more than $20 million if they want an NRL team.
They’ll need to spend millions upgrading facilities through port morsebury. Build hotels, restaurants and cafe’s that can cater for an influx of visitors (because no one is going to visit it the way it is, unless you want to walk Kadoka). In crease the police presence to put pressure on criminals. And they’ll need to splash out a lot of their do$h to do it as well as bring in many a commercial partner in making Port Morsbury a place that players will want to play at and fans will want to stay at.
At the moment, they have a long way to go.
buttery said | December 2nd 2009 @ 9:18am | Report comment
I would not want to be an NRL player in PNG when they have the elections, they cant control the people, I was there in the middle of the football riots when Papua played New Guinea the last time, the higlanders vs the Papuans, this is what would happen if their NRL team were beaten.
The Link said | December 2nd 2009 @ 9:28am | Report comment
Could be a goer in 15-20 years or so.
PNG is behind Central Coast, Perth, 2nd Brisbane Team and 2nd NZ Team in the queue.
But this is the strength of Rugby League in Australia / the Region, these areas have communities driving the NRL bids, not some faceless demographer putting pins on maps as areas to expand in.
Bondii Junction said | December 2nd 2009 @ 9:29am | Report comment
The whole issue of new franchises would be to bring in the DOLLARS to the NRL….4 PNG i agree no NRL player would want to go live there, but their is more than enough raw talent that need the right coaching and facilities so they can be up par with any NRL player. The population of Port Moresby is similar to that of the sunshine coast, but if 4 instance a team such as the Broncos were to play a match with the PNG team, you would have fans all over the country flying into Moresby to watch that game, just imagine 50,000 plus screaming fans every game, with almost the rest of PNG watching on TV…..Now we’re talking $$$$…..
check out http://www.pngnrlbid.com Love the sound of 800 tribes, one head.That brings a tear to your eye, and if we can help PNG make this bid reality, then it will help transport them into the 21st century. Now this is what i love about rugby league, once the seed is planted, their is no turning back, it is a great game.
True Tah said | December 2nd 2009 @ 11:45am | Report comment
There are no 50,000 stadiums in PNG for a start.
How much $$$ would PNG bring to the equation, bearing in mind that there would be bugger all pay-TV subscribers in PNG, in a developing country, whose biggest import is foreign aid. How many travelling supporters would travel to Port Moresby, given its a violent city?
I think PNG would be best placed by getting as many of their players into NRL and ESL clubs, similar to the situation with Fijian/Samoan/Tongan rugby players playing professionally in France/Japan/England/New Zealand/South Africa.
oikee said | December 2nd 2009 @ 11:19am | Report comment
I have done a back-flip on the PNG bid, at the moment the Pacific cup is just starting to build momentom in the region, and if you had a team in PNG, it would destroy the local comp, pretty much the way the broncos nearly killed the QLD comp, at the moment a png bid is just stupidity, at least wait until PNG starts getting more corparate dollars thrown into the country. They are slowly getting their, next year they are going to play QLD cup i think, now this is a start, let this and the pacific cup take hold, maybe 10 years away, they can think about putting in a bid. Not now. Its a pipe dream, and a sentimental one at that, we need to take sentiment out of it, and do whats best for them. Eradicate aids would be the 1st job over there, nobody gets visa’s because of this issue. ?
The bid will happen, but it will have to involve probably Union, Soccer, and even maybe AFL. If you go in, make sure you have all barrels loaded. Only having rugby league wont do any good for the country as awhole, probably cause riots every second week.
Corey said | December 2nd 2009 @ 11:36am | Report comment
I don’t believe that no NRL player would like to live over there. That is the worst excuse ever, many Aussies already live over there, and, as seen by the English Super League, money will take someone anywhere. The money issue is another one raised, this is wrong as well, PNG love their rugby league more than anyone else and this team would draw the whole nation which is a lot of people and thus a lot of money. PNG deserve a team, along with Perth, Central Coast, Central Queensland and Ipswich.
Springs said | December 2nd 2009 @ 12:35pm | Report comment
If living in Port Moresby is the excuse what is wrong with living in Nth QLD and travellingto PNG for home games? If a 20-30,000 capacity stadium is built and security is tight, it wil be no worse than playing cricket in India. And I thought a NRL team would contain mostly PNG players, with a few AUS/NZ players. The players over there would be heroes, and I would say there would be many players willing to help out the less fortunate people. A PNG team would unite the country, but as it is, CC and Perth deserve a team first.
Matt said | December 2nd 2009 @ 1:00pm | Report comment
Well, if anything is true it is that the NRL is predominatly driven by money (thanks in no small part to News’ involvement).
So the money facts are what really hurt PNG’s chances. The fact is that they’ll definitely have loads of people wanting to watch games, but they don’t have any money to make it worthwile.
The average Nominal GPD per capita or Australia is US$46,000, slightly less for NZ.
For PNG Nominal GPD per capita is US$1300. So they have a fraction of the funding in a city (Port Morseby) that is not very large (in comparison to most Aussie NRL cities.
So even if large crowds were guaranteed, the PNG punters would have very little money to pay for tickets/merchandise and they would not be a very attractive market for Sponsors and Pay TV.
So the Money is a strong no, which means the bid is also a strong no. If the NRL is losing $6M a year on a Premiership winning team like the Storm in a large wealthy city like Melbourne how on earth would a PNG side stay afloat?
Jaredsbro said | December 2nd 2009 @ 2:12pm | Report comment
Yeah agree with you in principle on the money issue, but expansion can’t just be for advertising/corporate do$h as that’ll hardly increase TV revenue/advertising value per se. Also in having an Independent Commission QLD needs a greater rep on the board than they currently have and even if you give Melbourne to a QLD interest-group that’s still only 4 or maybe 5 votes on the board max.
I do agree with Oikee’s suggestion of getting the Networks to come to the table and sell them your wares ( but not entirely) but expansion and long-term health really requires a frontier…and that means Perth in the shorter term (5-10 years?) and PNG in the longer term (20 years?)
Jaredsbro said | December 2nd 2009 @ 2:06pm | Report comment
Yeah go the Kumuls. If they do get an NRL team and of course it’s a big if I actually think players will treat the excursions North of the Straight like they treat the journey to the Eastern Islands
What’s the weather like in Port Moresby during the Winter months tho?
But with a Perth team and the Bears moving up to the CC I can’t really see any more expansion for the NRL ever, unless Adelaide’s population stops stagnating. Oh maybe a fourth Qld team, but like with all Queensland rural teams there’s not going to be a nicely compact community to stir support for the club in. Sunshine coast is too similar to Gold Coast in its demographic appeal but I guess you’ll need a tweny team comp to balance out the fixtures…
Bondii Junction said | December 3rd 2009 @ 12:27pm | Report comment
if their bid is not successful which is probably the case, then hopefully the visa restrictions will not bo so tough so we can have more kumuls players in the NRL, would guys wanna see a 4 way race in the international rugby league arena, so tired of seeing Aus, Eng n NZ year in year out, we need to bring the game internationally to the next level
jus de couchon said | December 8th 2009 @ 8:28am | Report comment
PNG unlikely. Too poor. Next level? Doesnt happen overnight. Expansion? I live in U.K and Leagues ambitions to expand are admirable in their self beleif but let down by rediculous and expensive Tournements.
Daryl Radman said | March 17th 2010 @ 10:57am (5 days ago) | Report comment
thanks for the comments guys. i’m a PNG boy like over 5 million of my fellow country men, born and raised with rugby league, the peoples game. which other country in the world has rugby league as its national sport??didn’t think so…while criticism can be taken as hurtful & demoralizing, it can also be viewed in a positive way. an opportunity to improve. so thanks on that regard. it is every son of papua new guinea’s dream to one day be united the same way we’re united by the Kumuls, but this time, we’re all cheering for 1 team!!!! if we get in we’ll be over the moon. if not, we’ll live to fight another day. but for now, we’re 800 Tribes, 1 Heart, All beating for 1 team…. that’s new guinea gold!!!!!
Crosscoder said | March 17th 2010 @ 11:18am (5 days ago) | Report comment
Daryl Radman
I hope and pray your team gets there one day,although i can’t see it in 2013,more likely when the 2018 TV contract is up for grabs.
Having a PNG team in the NRL would bring a lot of colour and flamboyance to the game,if the game against the English in the 2008WC was anything to go by.And as you sugggested a whole country behind you.
But I do worry about the security issues,which are well documented.Build a new stadium,ensure security is more than adequate and you would I suggest have your foot firmly in the door.
Daryl Radman said | March 17th 2010 @ 12:07pm (5 days ago) | Report comment
yeh mate, of course we have to be realistic about our chances. but it sure as hell doesn’t hurt to dream.. after taking out the Pacific cup last year with great ease, we’ve managed to earn the support from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and the Cooks as well. success for us will not only benefit us but our brothers in the pacific as well. more so the players back home in the islands. 2013 might not bring all that for us but we’re hoping further down the line we can make it.. looking forward to the 4 nations @ the end of this year…