Rugby league's new era: where to now?

@QGIRL All good reasons to add more Queensland teams, and not one to chop a Sydney one. One club selling assets (Penrith Leagues, a club in another of the fastest growing regions) and Cronulla developing the stadium it owns which will secure it's future for a long time. All the regions you mentioned should have teams, and we could fill their rosters with ESL players, Rugby players from Europe (further helping the international game) and with better development in Australia and New Zealand (and PNG which needs many development officers). Cutting Sydney teams will put people off, just like the old BRL supporters who sure as hell don't support the Broncos, but might support a Brisbane team who isn't. With a raise in the grant to exceed the cap, all clubs will be profitable, barring Cronulla (who without the development will fall over, which will leave sad fans, but not disenfranchised ones) and Penrith (who have structural issues with their club arrangement which are being sorted out). Cutting teams that people grandparents supported for some new "franchises" that nobody will follow is a ridiculous idea. I never suggested cutting the Titans. What the Titans, Broncos and Cowboys need are better stadium deals. The Titans get a pittance from home games (if they make a profit) and if that was sorted out they would have a lot of money, and be able to cut ticket prices which are the highest in the league. You said that all the Sydney teams are losing money, therefore they should be cut, when in fact, they all are, bar Brisbane.

"Now lets look at Canterbury and St George (who have both spent money on stadiums hence the loss) or Rabbitohs (basically broke even)" Maybe YOU should do some research. The Titans spent $30,000,000 on the Centre of Excellence that sits adjacent to Skilled Park. They lost $3,000,000 when they had to switch builders during the building's construction. The Centre of Excellence sets the Titans up for a rosy future. None of the Sydney clubs have anything of similar value to offer the NRL. The money they're losing now will be made up for in the future. The Gold Coast's population is going to explode over the next 20-30 years. The Titans have the potential to make even more money as the size of its market increases. The Sydney clubs are cutting their losses by selling assets. There will come a time when they won't have any more assets to sell. The regions that the Sydney teams represent aren't growing at the same rate as the LGAs in south-east QLD and are landlocked into tiny regions that cannot increase their population density much more. Areas like Ipswich, Logan, Redland, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Moreton are drawing in new residents every day and have the landsize that's required to grow significantly. The LGAs I've mentioend will be able to sustain 3 clubs between them. Everyday more and more people from rural QLD are moving into south-east QLD. New Zealanders are moving into south-east QLD. The rugby league supporter base is growing in south-east QLD each day.

You have lost me Jaceman. NRL players no time for posing ,only time for training.You keep an eye on it(Cleo) for your wife LOL, please !!!!!!. There is no News Ltd person on the new board,unless you want to include the CEO Gallop.He is now answerable to the board. It won't be 2017 ,else they won't get the bikkies they are chasing for the next deal.The code has already delayed it for the years 2013 and 2014 to assist current stretched clubs. Today Tony Sage the Perth Millionaire is meeting Gallop with his proposal for a Perth team The bidders are not thrilled about 2015,2017 would be disastrous for a few. Let me advise you of a nice story written by James Hooper the D.T.about the 6million dollar man Folau.And today in the same paper,we have on page 71 a page ,the same space as ru,this time a story on Ward being named GWS captain.The story written by Neil Cordy(I understand played a bit of AFL),who gets a regular gig with that paper.

OK CC apologies but I still dont know who the News Ltd person on the Board. The Cleo (owned by Nine) Bachelor of the year (I keep an eye on it for my wife) used to perenially have NRL players in it. This year there are no NRL players and 3 AFL players and 1 Rugby player. Further evidence that Nine is sticking it to the NRL for whatever reason so your argument about lack of coverage in Melbourne continues to be validated...

Rugby union is a great sport to play, but I find it difficult to watch. The game can be great when a break is made, but they're rare. I blame it on the ruck and maul system. The players cannot focus on setting up complex attacking raids because they need to secure possesssion at the breakdown. The only time they have the time and space to put on a decent attacking play is when they're playing the ball from a set piece, such as a scrum or line out. Rugby league is all action. I really love the way the halfbacks, five-eighthes and dummy-halves in rugby league are able to create line breaks for their centres, second-rowers and wingers. They're able to do it because the game play-the-ball system gives them the space and time to focus on that area of the game. It makes for great viewing. I had a lot of fun playing rugby union when I was a kid.It's a great social game. Rugby union is really marketable as a social sport. Rugby league is the more marketable product for television. If the two codes of rugby joined together then they would have the social game and television product that's needed to make serious inroads into soccer territory.

Yes - we get around 35k comments a month. So 'thousand'might be more accurate here. As for an anti-NZ bias, that's actually quite funny. The Zavos' are all from New Zealand originally. Thanks to Geoff for stepping in - if you hide behind a pseudonym, especially a scary one like "The Truth Hurts" I'm less inclined to have a friendly debate. Cheers, Tristan (Ed.)

'The simple answer is that the site gets many thousands of comments per day' On the best of days (eg if a code war article is published) you would probably only see 300 to 500 posts go up on the front page at most. Unless older articles are attracting as many comments as the newer ones or 50% or more of the comments get moderated, I call BS on these figures. But please provide the REAL site stats if I'm wrong.

Didn't you get stick from the mods just the other day about this kind of provocation??

Looking at it a bit more awake I see he meant the city. I was talking about Buffalo.

in your humble opinion :) In my humble opinion it is a good sport but not as interesting as union. AFL i do not understand but i'm sure a lot of people in Victoria think its the greatest sport in the world as well.

Who's the 3rd New York NFL team Pat?? ....research

Why don't you actually do some research. No team apart from Brisbane made a profit, none. Name one extra subsidy any of the Sydney teams get (they don't get one, it's the same as every other one). New York has 3 teams, and it doesn't represent as big a portion of the country. Now lets look at Canterbury and St George (who have both spent money on stadiums hence the loss) or Rabbitohs (basically broke even). The fact is the only club that will be in trouble once the grant exceeds the cap by the proposed 500k is Cronulla, and if they get the redevelopment they are suddenly one of the best off.

"Moderation only covers posts that contain certain red flags, or from users with a history of code-warring or abuse." Jacemen and Redb have been codewarring on this site for a long time. Just about every time I click on a rugby league article I see pro-Aussie rules/anti-rugby league comments by Jacemen and Redb. I guess the AFL cheersquad must have gone into overtime reporting me to the mods a few months ago when I made a few comments about Victorians, hence the reason all of my posts are moderated. I've heard people ridicule Queenslanders on here, yet none of them were ever pulled up on it. I seriously hope this isn't another site that allows southerners to shot at Queensland while wrapping Victorians in cotton wool. I've seen Aussie rules fans promote anti-New Zealand rhetoric on many articles (IE. Republican). Have they ever been pulled up for it? I would hate to think that this site is anti-NZ as well as anti-QLD.

None of the Sydney teams are able to make a profit. If the pokies reform goes ahead then they'll be on death's death. It's time that the ARLC realised that it's foolish to scrimp and save just to subsidise 9 tiny Sydney clubs that only represent a percentage of the metropolitan area when 5 super clubs have the poential to draw huge amounts of money into the game and represent every area of Sydney. New York only has two teams in the NFL. It's a far bigger city than Sydney.

Cheers Crosscoder. The simple answer is that the site gets many thousands of comments per day, and couldn't begin to moderate that number. Moderation only covers posts that contain certain red flags, or from users with a history of code-warring or abuse. It does mean that other posts can slip through. Just because it's on a thread doesn't mean it has been moderator approved. That's why objectionable content needs to be reported. A comment criticising rugby league for being English, in a country whose sporting landscape, political structure, and racial majority are all recent arrivals from England, is silly enough to provide its own rebuttal. It's less an attack than an own goal for the commenter. After that inauspicious start, though, Macca had some useful things to say about expansion into Perth and the Central Coast. Just depends where you want to focus.

Hello Queensland, Network Ten bought a minority stake last year - I think it was something like ten percent. Nothing changed at The Roar in terms of staff or editorial policy. None of the regular staff are Victorian, and I think three of the 20 regular expert columnists are Victorian. Most are from NSW. The two rugby codes are by far the biggest sports on the site, in terms of columns, comments, views, and every other indicator. If you feel you're being personally attacked, you can flag the post or you can report it via email. Otherwise the mods that day probably won't know it's there.

Second that point jamesb.

Appreciate that comment Geoff,but that doesn't explain why some code war stirrings especially in rl threads, are let through,such as" the rl is masquerading as an Australian sport and is not dinky di." i am big and ugly enough to take sledging,but that sort of thing would not be tolerated in ru or AFL threads

I'd love to see just the one team represent the St.George/Sutherland region. Southern Sydney should be the team's name. Bring the Illawarra Steelers back into the competition. The Illawarra region needs its own team. A team like the Illawarra Steelers could dedicate its time to promoting the game in southern NSW. It's the best way the NRL can keep Aussie rules at bay in southern NSW.