If you ran NRL, where would you put teams?

That is why the Titans ( a resounding success) were given the final go ahead and the Warriors a non Aussie team was introduced to the comp.And a Melbourne team (which went over like a lead balloon for many fans) came in to the NRL .News Ltd's share of their $8m NRL handout,about $5m is used for the Storm. The grants from the NRL go to junior development,the various sub bodies and community projects.There is very little left in the kitty.eg the code is in no position to fund an $8m relocation for any team to the CC. Yep all self interest LOL.Or does self interest really mean,economic viability and/or strategic decisions. Memo: the NRL has no control of intnl expansion.The organisation is the RLIF (repeat after me RLIF).The NRL's sole responsibility is the running of the NRL comp and grants to the various sub bodies.

The NRL is run by self Interest first. No point in trying to expand League in Oz let alone the World while the NRL is in control.

Wally Lewis ,who is fully endorsing the Central Coast Bears, while recently promoting his book at terrigal referred to the Central Coast as Bears territory.. and would love to see the CC Bears in the NRL competition.. welcome to the Bears den..

Could it be that the Bears could be back for 2012.. David Fairleigh said today in the North Shore times.. "we will be ready to go for 2013, but if it arises we'll be right for 2012" I believe Greg Florimo also said something similar this week.. if the IC gets up next thursday as , they are all predicting.. will the CCBears be admitted around June/july this year for the 2012 season.. then when the TV rights are due for 2013, the other licence ie Perth: Central Qld: or South east qld. comes in.. similar to what the AFL and also Soccer are doing..

I agree, we need more people like Col the Bear. If all fans were like him we would have sold out games constantly. And Brisbane could possibly support another team, we did that with the South Queensland Crushers. Although they did collapse, I will acknowledge I had an affair with them. But I hope we wait until Brisbane has sold out crowds constantly.

My wife used to follow the Bears religiously, going to every home game.....went to see the merged team once then hung up her jersey. She for one wont be back, not because of the bears, but because of the way they were treated by the NRL. I also have a mate who played for them, and then went on to play for the Raiders....he has exactly the same feelings....its not the team, its the NRL they wont forgive.

Can't keep every team and end up with more than 20 teams... probably 16-18 max. Can relocate Norths up the road to Gosford or St George down the road to Woolongong....BUT not a lot of point relocating a Sydney team to another State.. better to let any excess Sydney teams drop back to just a local presence like the Newtown Jets. As for QUEENSLAND... probably will only ever get ONE more NRL team... and need to represent the smaller town and country areas outside of Brisbane + the central queensland areas. Some great rugby league areas like Ipswich, Springfield, Toowoomba, Warick, St George, Rockhampton, Mackay..... MUST be another Qld team for 2013. would need to be based in Ipswich/Springfield or in Rockhampton... but cover the whole are by calling them the Queensland Rebels or Queensland Countrymen or something... they could then play 6 home games in Rockhampton and 6 home games at a stadium in Ipswich/Springfield . + a trial in Mackay and Toowoomba As for PNG, Perth or Darwin.(or even adelaide, NZ or pacific islands).. too many question marks at the moment....and problems especially if those teams can't win on the road... maybe they get a look in if they split the NRL into conferences down the track and a couple of Sydney teams drop out.

Gallop and the NRL have made it very plain and clear,they will not be forcing a team to move or merge from Sydney.The first objective is to maintain the stability of the current Sydney teams,and they will be doing all in their power to achieve that. The lessons of the SL war with the shunting of Souths/Bears gave the code one hell of an uppercut.You don't whiteant the supporter base. He also noted that any submission by a consortium that was outstanding would be looked at .Insert the Bears if you will. To those who continually make the poor old Sharks the whipping boys, remind me of the Gladiator"to those who are about to die we salute you". Whilst their current position is hardly idyllic,they have not taken into account @the development B) the 3rd largest junior base in Sydney c) The ground is actually owned by the club d) the new sponsorship achieved including also a big increase by Toyota and decent increases in membership to date.e) an increase in grants from the NRL/IC from the new TV deal,and the new people behind the club's administration. If all goes according to hoyle,this club should be in the top 2 or 3 finance wise in Sydney and not reliant on poker machines. There are of course no guarantees in life,but I will put my money on them staying and expecting an 18 team comp with the Bears and either Perth or a 2nd Brisbane side in the North.

The comp you refer to Andrew is the NSW Cup..previous names as the Reserve grade,Premier League,1st division... Each of these teams are the feeder club to an NRL team in NSW.Vic and NZ.. believe it or not it is an exciting Comp.. NRLplayers do play in this comp when coming back from injury.. and when they loose a bit of form in the NRL..they don't send them back to the U/20s also formerly known as "Jersey flegg"..this is the comp they go to..loved yesterdays game Norths 10 v Wests 16 out at liverpool.. teams are and their NRL counterpart(feeder arrangement) Auckland= warriors Canterbury= bulldogs Norths = bunnies Newtown=roosters Shellharbour=dragons Windsor=panthers (also a team in the bundy red cup, formerly metro cup and jim beam cup) Wentworthville= parra(also a team in the bundy red cup, formerly jim beam cup , metro cup) Melbourne= storm Western suburbs= tigers Balmain= tigers Cronulla=Sharks Central coast= knights( just started this year when the storm pulled out, this team will more then likely feed into the CC Bears when admitted into the NRL with North Sydney NSW Cup side similar arrangement as West tigers) as you can see Manly and Canberra are the obvious missing.. Manly has a feeder arrangement with the Sunshine Coast in the QRL and Canberra have a feeder arrangement with Souths Logan in the QRL.. but they have been told, and rightly so, by the NSWRL that they have to come back you can't have a dual states arrangement.. so next year Manly and Canberra will be coming back to the NSWCup in some form.and it will be a 14 team comp. This is the comp a lot of savvy NRL Coaches do look at, the toyota cup is a good comp, but they don't play against men each week.. how manyfrom the old jersey flegg comp, did players actually go straight to the NRL, and jumping the Reserve grade side??probably count on your hand.

How about a thread about what teams would make up Australia if the Rugby League and Aussie Rules had ever merged.

Col the Bear said | Today | Report comment | Edit your comment. (Up to 10 minutes available to edit.) you owe it to everyone that pulled on the red and black bears jersey..it’s not only me there are quite a few of us out there just as passionate..we will get the Bears back… Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm Enter the text shown: Reply

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Yes that's the PNG bid, but Searle's plan involves Darwin. I'm sure this bid would only be accepted under the terms you outlined.

http://www.pngnrlbid.com/ That's what is proposed. Nothing about Darwin at all being involved, thouhg if it was to work, that's how it would have to be (6 game split). But that all said, it's just too much risk involved. Maybe if PNG builds a 40K stadium, and a 25-30K one appears in Darwin and the PNG and NT govt's guarantee to underwrite the venture??!?!?

Searle's plan of a Darwin-PNG team is quite good. It rewards the people of PNG while also moving into uncharted territory in Darwin. We don't have to charge the people of PNG $50 to see the game, but we should help the game, and the people, over there. There are not many sports that are willing to do that, imagine the image Rugby League would have as a sport.

Totally agree with you on Wellington because its such a huge rugby union area and there is no class war there because the majority of the working class there support rugby union. Rugby unuion reign supreme in Samoa, Tonga and Fiji and there are more money in rugby union in those three Islands than there are in rugby league. Rugby league in all three Islands is way behind rugby union, soccer, volleyball, cricket, netball and basketball. I just came back from Fiji two weeks ago and they showed the IRB 7's in every pay and free to air tv channels in the Island. It was huge that the whole place was buzzing all weekend.

The NRL isn't a charity. I think doing things like having all those countries represented at junior levels would be more worthwhile in the short term, as it would build those countries National teams up in the future, which would do more for the game in those countries (being successful at those levels helps). It would be so much nicer for the NRL to have the cash at the moment to ask for 2 new teams to be admitted like the AFL have (Though rather than dictate like the AFL, we would ask for bids to be presented- Bring on the IC which will help that). Love to see Perth return to the game, even if the financial benefits are apprant in the first TV deal by having a team there, in the future there will be some major benefits.

Easts & Souths were there in the beginning of the NSWRL. I think there is still a comp run by them which includes Norths, the Jets, Balmain & Wests....

I like your thinking Stew.