Bite the bullet and move the Sharks out of town

Sportsfreak.Not having a go at the Rebels.Having a go at someone(with a Rebel bent) who wants the Storm out of Melbourne. With all the drama the Storm have had,and the jibes by some ru fans in Vic(who also want the Storm to disappear),I would have thought standing up for the code is a given in that fair city.That is all I am doing. I hope both teams do well crowdwise next year.I do know the Storm will be on FTA TV,and that is all I care about.

Hey leave the Melbourne Rebels alone CC. They have enough support without you my friend. Watch them sell out every game next year...

Not a case of close mindedness.You don't shut up shops in one area which have support ,in order to set up shops in another area.If one is not viable long term OK.That is not the case ATM. You can still expand at the same time,with new teams plus the traditional teams in place. Funny you of all people should mention close mindedness,when you are one and the same gent that wants the Storm shut down and moved ,in Australia's 2nd city.Great commercial move i don't think.Even the NRL and Tv people realise that team's presence adds decent value to the Tv contracts.Woudn't be backing the Rebels by any chance! You obviously have not learnt the lessons of SL .

It's that kind of closed mindensess that will keep the NRL sydney-centric, whilst opportunties are missed out on in Adelaide, Perth, Christchurch, Central Queensland, PNG and Capetown.

One thing for sure King of the GGs geography is not one of your areas of expertise.The Roosters represent a small area of East Sydney.Even the Rabbitohs are South of them. There are only 4 beaches in Southern Sydney'Wanda Eloura,Nth Cronulla and Sth Cronulla all geographically located in the Sharks area. You don't merge God's country,with the fleshpots of the east,thank you linesmen ,thank you ball boys. Consider you consideration, illconsidered.

Just merge the Shires junior comp with that of St George. Simple. I am sure the Roosters would be keen to get a slice of it too. The Shire's nursery won't be lost.

Consider this........ Merge the Sharks and Roosters. Theo both represent the southern beaches of sydney, so why not merge them. Time to think outside the square NRL.

The point i'm making is we are going to lose potential rugby league juniors to other sports......The Shire's junior competition is the third largest in the country. As for your ridiculous statement that people like myself are holding the game back - I am all for Expansion and have been for a very long time, i'm not holding the game back i have supported rugby league since i was 4 years old and don't even take much interest of any other sport apart from Cricket......your naive article, clearly shows you don't really get out to league games and understand the passion that some supporters have for their club. I was at the sharks-titans game on saturday night and although the sharks have had a terrible season and don't have much to play for, 10 000 people showed up to see them play an out of town team (Gold Coast) and created a very lively atmosphere throughout the game because they are very passionate about their team......the Sharks Army (CSSC) is without doubt the nosiest supporter group in the game and probably the most passionate, you notice these guys on TV at every sharks game. Anyways as per my original statement - If the Cronulla side fold and die due to bankruptcy or whatever reason, then so be it.....but in the short term THE SHARKS SHOULD NOT BE RELOCATED OR FORCED OUT OF THE COMPETITION!!

boot the sharks

Rebel, if you are going to write some piece of drivel, at least check your facts and make it accurate drivel! I'll address just a few of the blatant inaccuracies and misconceptions regarding the Sharks. 1. Sharks have no juniors? Sorry mate, we have the third biggest junior competition in Australia. The Cronulla Sutherland District Rugby League is what built the 11 straight premierships won by the St George Dragons before the establishment of the Sharks. Why do you think the Dragons have done nothing since the Sharks were formed? If it wasn't for their last minute merger with Illawarra (thereby robbing the Illawarra fans of a team they deserve) the Dragons would be gone. They can't even form an A grade comp these days and have to play in other districts (Cronulla being one). If you want a Club with no juniors, look at the Roosters. No junior comp at all, no Jersey Flegg, no Harold Matthews - they contribute nothing to Rugby League. 2. We have the smallest crowds. Once again, wrong. If you check our crowds week to week, you will see that we rarely get the smallest turnout, this being despite the facts that we rarely get the Friday night or Sunday games, we had a run of successive wet games and that we are not performing well in the comp. From memory, we have only had one game this year that got less than 10K. Penrith got less than that to the Friday night game the last Round against the Rabbits, despite the fact that they were in the top four. 3. Your assumption that there are no more deserving teams of relocation. As I mentioned earlier, the Roosters have no juniors, small numbers of supporters and contribute nothing to RL. Yet you simply claim "you can't relocate the Sydney team!" Really? Why not merge them with South Sydney then and call them the Sydney Rabbitohs? Problem solved. Now you've got juniors, supporters and at least Souths will have a home ground that is remotley near Redfern. Seriously, they play at Homebush! WTF? 4. Finally, you're claim that "we need teams in AFL States". Why? Melbourne are a failure. They have succeeded only through cheating and at the expense of millions of dollars a year in losses to keep them running. Who is gonna fund them when News Corp walk away? Their crowds aren't that big to start with and they have made four successive Grand Finals! Who will turn up when they are nobodies? Rugby League will never work in AFL States. Give up on it.

Gosford doesnt need a team, here is why: 1. Its so close to Sydney that its virtually another Sydney team, indeed its closer to Manly than Penrith. 2. These people already watch NRL, its preaching to the converted. A Perth team is real expansion converting NEW hearts, minds and wallets to the NRL. 3. Its small - 300,000 at most. They wont add anything to the TV ratings, just dilute how its spread across the league. 4. It makes the NSW/ACT tally of teams 12. And thats just 3 in Qld - a bizzare imbalance. 5. The AFL is opening up 2 teams in NRL territory...why on earth would we open up one in our backyard in response!? Bad groupthink is hijacking RL circles, it really is.

What about the roosters? No supporters. no junior league no nothing. Only that channel 9 gives them big time air play.

It would be too expensive to run. The NRL has restructured itself around building up NSW and QLD cups to be feeder levels for those not yet ready for NRL and to support NRL level, and to utilise the Toyota Cup in the way the NFL uses College football in America. The NRL (and Australian sport in general) will probably never go down the tiered league structure of European Football competitions.

It will be well serviced by St George Illawarra. Don't worry about the Shire juniors or fans, the Dragons will be only too keen to add their 220k. The Dragons would then have around 1m fans living in its catchment, and would be a big multi regional club, which is the way of the future to compete with big one team towns like Brisbane, Melbourne, Auckland, Perth et cetera.

I agree with you that if there is a team to be based in Gosford, it has to be the Bears, or (a less satisfactory) Manly. This will put preasure on the weakest Sydney club, which is Cronulla. Why are they weak? low membership, low attendences, debt due to low income, low sponsorships. Its a small niche market without success, where the majority of RL fans follow other clubs. The NRL can only realistically give out 2 new licences over the next 10 years. So when you have Perth, Brisbane, Ipswich, Central Coast, Central Qld, Wellington, PNG, Adelaide, and the Sunshine Coast all earmarked for expansion, it makes sense to strip the very weakest club that adds very little to the competition.

.... ok for around 10 years more. Beyond that, they will be back struggling again, as there is an underlying problem. That is THE SHIRE ISN'T BIG ENOUGH TO SUPPORT A FULL TIME NRL CLUB.

SL axed some of the wrong clubs. The Shire can't support a full time NRL side. That is a fact. They were bailed out by the ARL in 1993, only to join SL for money. This artifically inflated the Sharks crowds and bank balance leading into the "criteria" for rationalising Sydney. That money ran out in around 2006, and they have simply been building debt ever since. As soon as St George and Illawarra merged it spelt the end of the Sharks. They don't have as many juniors as you claim, and the majority of people in the Shire follow other NRL clubs. Merge the Shire juniors comp with the St George one (currently joined up with Canterbury)

The majority of people in the sutherland shire support other clubs, like St George, Souths, Canterbury and Wests. It is an area of the city that has a tendency to have people from other areas and loyalties. Penrith and Western Sydney in general is like this too.

So it appears the ones wanting the Sharks to move fall into a couple of categories: 1) the Shark haters 2) ones who want to expand and bugger a club losing its identity or locality ,in order to achieve this aim. Might i point out the clubs averages in 2010 when they are down the deep end of the comp,are not much less than some in the 8-If that is bad for the sharks is says even less for those in rl heartland. Altona Rebel. That is not what i am saying,and i don't know whether you actually know the sporting make up of the Shire.It has the biggest junior soccer comp in the country about 16,000,about 3,000 playing rugby league.And various numbers though smaller playing union and AFL. The point I am making is The clubhouse and grounds should the Sharks be moved,could be used for A league games,the AFL would not put a team there. The kids who play rl would have more incentive to play other codes.I have become sick and tired of hearing people Ï have met over the years who have said, ï once supported the Bears,Wests or St George or because of SL,and do not attend rl matches.The common thread the loss of identity either by club or the game. if you don't understand the human (fan) toll due to the effects of the SL war.I suggest you correspond with Col the Bear and just about any other Bear supporter.I suggest if the CC hadn't retained its Nth Sydney identity in its bid,it would have little real meaning. I further point out when SL came into existence,the crowds in sydney for other codes increased,sheer coincidence yeah sure.

The best idea I've heard is to merge Eastern Suburbs with Cronulla. Play 6 games at Cronulla, 5 at SFS and 1 at SCG. Play with the red and white V to - but replace the blue body with the Shark's lighter blue. Combined they have about 80,000 leagues club members. There's no real venom between the clubs, unlike the Northern-Eagles fiasco. Plus you're not abandoning either territory to other sports by forcing them interstate. Wests Tigers have shown that a joint venture can work if balanced correctly - and now they're writing a better history. Easts corporate backing + Sharks development system = Probably the biggest team in Sydney