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Lote Tuqiri scores for the Tigers: NRL Round 20 Manly v Tigers @ Bluetongue Stadium Sun 25th 2010. Digi Image by Grant Trouville © action photographics.
Who would’ve thought? Suddenly the West Australian bid for a rugby league team looks like being the only nailed on certainty for entry into the NRL, when expansion is most likely to go ahead in 2013.
NRL chief executive David Gallop recently indicated that a team would be placed in an area considered rugby league heartland and another in a tougher market, where the game is not yet king.
Perth will be the latter, there’s absolutely no doubt about that. The rugby league heartland option seemed to be the Central Coast Bears. A sold out crowd at Bluetongue Stadium for Manly’s, home away from home game, against the Wests Tigers three weeks ago, had us wondering why the NRL hadn’t already planted a team in Gosford.
But after reading the recent edition of Rugby League Week (RLW) magazine, I’m not so sure the Bears will be next in line when the NRL decides it’s once again ready to be bold and back its product to thrive in a market.
Amidst all the goodwill to have the Bears in some way, shape or form back in the competition, those behind a bid for a team in Central Queensland are doing their best to be noticed.
RLW is currently doing a series on the expansion hopefuls and the Central Queensland bid looks like a serious challenger. As Football Australia chairman Frank Lowy would say when discussing the World Cup bid, “we’re a safe pair of hands”.
How’s this for impressive:
* A 25,000-seat NRL compliant stadium worth $149 million has been promised by Queensland premier Anna Bligh.
* Bid team chairman Geoff Murphy is worth over $90 million.
* $4 million on the table right now to get the bid going.
* Some of the biggest companies in Central Queensland banging down the door to be involved.
* A junior base that is expanding rapidly.
* More demand than their is supply of football fields and coaches.
* Former local juniors, Matt Scott (Cowboys) and Dave Taylor (South Sydney) keen to be involved.
Denis Keefee, the chief executive of the bid for a team in central Queensland, says three quarters of the playing roster will be made up of local talent (and according to all reports their is plenty of it). Locals watching locals shine, on a national stage, with plenty of corporate support and an expanding junior base, is a recipe for success.
RLW says NRL chief executive David Gallop will meet with the bid team in November, and you can bet they’ll roll out the red carpet.
The Central Coast Bears have done an extremely good job getting the local community and the business world behind them, but the case for a fourth team in Queensland is compelling.
In a perfect world, all three teams would gain entry into rugby league’s holy land. Western Australia has impressed when given the chance to host matches, the Bears have been pushing to come back from extinction since the day they were shown the door and Central Queensland has a market ready and willing to embrace a team of its own.
This is extremely healthy for the NRL and another step towards making the N in the title legitimate.
You can follow Luke on twitter @luke_doherty and on Sky News Australia.
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