I’ll only back up CA on their weekday fixtures. Thursday as Day 1 means that the two highest-demand days (1 & 2) are pre-booked and people roster days off. Day 3 is family day on a Saturday and usually has kids go in free. Day 4 on a Sunday is the best day for a walk up crowd and all that leaves is the possibly unnecessary Day 5 on the Monday, where the crowd is mostly made up of members. CA don’t even factor Day 5 crowd takings into their budget. If anything, this actually works against the wishes of Ch9, which is probably why they’re a driving force for day/nights tests.

Also, the BBL is scheduled with different states’ school holidays as the primary factor.

Ch9 visuals + ABC audio is the way.
Not sure the problem is the commentary members (besides the lack of diversity) but more the direction of conversation that the producers push. You’d think that there’s enough senior members interested in upholding the standard that was in place with Richie at the helm.

No exaggeration, there’s more hi-vis than suits in the Perth Virgin lounge on any given day, guaranteed.

How many FIFO workers would quit on the spot if they were offered the same job with same pay only 30 minutes down the road?

I just want some fingernails to remain after the first 15 minutes, I need some left for stoppage time.

Anything but ‘Southern Expansion’. The link between Sutherland and St George is tedious at best, Woolongong is like trying to say Melb Victory truly covers Geelong (which despite taking a few matches out there, just doesn’t).

George

I’m in the same boat as a Sydney expat living in Melbourne – the main difference is the Melbourne-centric AFL competition. In a regular season, I can go to roughly 8-10 swans games if I like, but only 3 SFC games (although this year with the SMFC FFA Cup match that was a bonus game/shower).

So basically, I get to support the Swans on roughly the same scale as I could if I was still in Sydney, but only 3 SFC games a year makes ties somewhat tedious.

I think you’ve already got your expansion team in Melb City, but being a ManU fan I don’t know how well wearing city blue goes down.

As much as I’d love pro-rel, I think the better option to keep the A-League exclusive (at least for now).

IMO, we should introduce a proper NPL as our national premier winter football competition, with four conferences sitting below it (North, South, East, West) and then state leagues below that. It’s a lower risk attempt at expansion, gives us ‘premier’ football all year round and if done right, could be a great way to experience ‘true football’. Crowds around the 5-10k mark would seem achievable if it was all marketed the correct way?

If all goes to plan, this could be a perfect way to blood teams to bring into the A-League (although the season switch-over could be tricky) and then at some point down the track find out how the hell we can make pro-rel work.

The NRL is stuck in an identity crisis of whether it is a ‘big-ticket’ showpiece like the NFL or if it is rooted in the local communities like the EPL. The AFL has been hellbent on following US sports governance techniques, for better or worse, but at least they know what they’re trying to do. Also, I think they have the money in their coffers and the balls to play hardball with state govs.

IMO the NRL should embrace going back to a community stadium atmosphere (I think the fashionable word is ’boutique’), but this is at long odds from my last experience of their vision.

Even though it’s apparently irrelevant, my opinion on XXXX is it’s a terrible beer.

Also, I left this site a few years ago because of nonsense exactly like this. We all come on here just to have a decent discussion about sport (although it’s probably mostly because we all like the sound of our voice a bit too much and everybody at the pub doesn’t listen to us anymore). If there’s a flaw in somebody’s logic, show them the logic. If they don’t see it, let them live their delirium, God knows I have a few.

Bang on for that point. My favourite case on how our politics has regressed is the Sydney Harbour Bridge took about 5,000 cars each direction per day when it was first built compared to its capacity of taking 90,000 each way today. Took 50+ years until more infrastructure was required (the tunnel). Then compare that with our modern roads. Sydney is a mess everywhere, Gold Coast to Brisbane is intolerable and there’s still nothing for the growing population north of Melbourne.

Probably should have phrased that better – you’re right about the govt ownership but that’s part of the problem. What genuine stake does the government hold in local stadia? Besides the marquee venues (ANZ, MCG, AO, PS and Suncorp are probably the only genuine ones), there’s no payback involved for them.

And the note about the sports market, while having some bearing here, can’t apply to the US – so it must be a cultural issue more so than an economical one.

As SM said, a lot of the EPL stadiums were built up from paddocks over generations, much like plenty of grounds here. It doesn’t require a huge investment to continually evolve them with the times.

PS. Look at what happens when govt money is involved in stadiums in the UK by looking at what happened to my West Ham. No wonder they keep it all in house.

Why is it stadiums in the UK are built and owned mostly by individual clubs/organisations yet in Australia and the US everything involves a huge government hand out? Any hand outs in the UK are through specific fund allocations too i.e. national lottery or the safe stadiums fund.

ANZ should be a rectangular stadium, no doubt about it. The SCG will exceed 50k with upgrades in the near future. It should also only be used for marquee events to keep it in top condition for these events (Socceroos, Wallabies, SOO, NRLGF). This would qualify it for government money as it becomes a key part of our international image as a sporting destination. Also, the NRLGF is not a major tourism coup, so don’t throw any money at the NRL to host it and put the ball in their court. If they want to abandon their history and cause an uproar in the RL community, let them.

The SCG should be funded to a lesser extent on the same lines as above, being a tourism draw card for international cricket and if it returns, the MLB. It’s practically perfect the way it is, despite needing modernisation on the stands you mentioned. SFS is no longer the primary rectangular stadium in NSW and should become a 30-35k stadium capable of hosting SFC, Tahs, Roosters, Rabbitohs and possibly even St George, as well as the lower drawing Wallabies June tests. Manly can play here too if they keep whinging about their (apparently sacred) Lottoland.

Spotless is ready made for the upper bowl to wrap around the open end of the stadium – it’s literally designed that way. It’s just a matter of when it’s required. If CA want it now, CA can arrange the $$$.

Parramatta Stadium can be the home of all of the western teams if they’re not willing to fork out for their own stadiums, as well as being one of three stadiums (with ANZ and SFS) the Socceroos can use for lower drawing games.

Any other stadiums can be the domain of the teams using them, and they can fund accordingly. No need for the NSW Gov to shell out for them. As much as I love the suburban grounds, it is up to the teams using them to come to a funding agreement. But there is far too much money wasted at sporting organisations, that I can’t see this happening.

Of course, all of this happens in the vacuum outside of politics, so there’s no chance of it happening.

Can we please have a rule for even just the first 5 minutes where we don’t play around with the ball at the back and just pump it long to Juric/Cahill. Amazing how often in nervy moments like that the ball can drop to one of our guys on the run through.

At the very least it’ll stop me having a heart attack watching Ryan and the back three try and switch the play with strikers closing quickly.

Biggest issue is the exact reason we had the initial rules in place – allowing all of our Wallabies to go overseas means that the interest in Super Rugby will fade. Best example is the attitude to the A-League in soccer, where there are a bunch of fans only watch European matches because “the quality in Australia is second-rate”.

I think the system we have now is pretty spot on – Wales just (poorly) implemented the exact same system. It means we keep some leadership around the SR teams to bring up the future WBs and keep some ‘marquee’ players in the comp.

Being born and bred in Loftus, I’d jump ship as long as they got the identity right. The first problem is that St George, Sutherland Shire and particularly Woolongong are three distinct areas. The second is that South Sydney FC reflects the Redfern area and any other generic names are just eh. I could get around something that ties in the whole St George/Sutherland area (something like Botany FC or Endeavour FC – but I’m not exactly sold on either) and the colours would have to be pretty neutral like a Tottenham or Derby County kit, because as we’ve seen from Melb City, sky blue and red are a no-no. Woolongong is 100% a separate bid.

On topic of the stadium, the only benefit is public transport access, although claiming it’s serviced by two stations is a bit rich, seeing as they’re on the one and only train line. Endeavour Field/Shark Park/whatever we call it these days is no Wembley, but I think the logical opinion would be to see that used 12 months a year first – with any funding the consortium wanted to inject to go towards a redevelopment.

You’re forgetting the tram museum.

Spot on.

The fundamental culture towards referees between the two sports is what sets them apart. Referees in RL call every player on a first name basis. In RU, only the captains are spoken to by name, the rest of the players are called by jersey number. It’s a tiny detail but it sets the tone for all communications to/from the referee.

The blame for officiating lies directly on NRL HQ instead of the match day officials. They have chopped and changed rules to the point of inconsistency, all in the name of “aesthetics”. The rule that does my head in is the 7-tackle set after a dead-ball. For as long as I know, RL has always had 6 tackle sets. Zero tackle for errors makes sense because it simply replaces the scrum. But restarting the set after one tackle has absolutely zero consistency with the rest of the game. If they were really insistent on punishing dead-ball, either advance the restart to a 30m tap, or revert to the RU rule of an option between 20m restart or scrum where the ball was kicked from (IMO the best option because it truly punishes the negativity they were trying to remove).

Also, I know this subject pops up now and again, but I have no idea why NRL HQ didn’t implement the challenge system after its trial in the NYC. The greatest benefit is that it puts the onus back on the players – if you don’t like the call, challenge it. If you’ve used up your challenges on 50:50’s, too bad, and we all have a genuine distinction of when the bunker/video ref is used. Simples.