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Let’s take a walk down memory lane, to the ARL of 1994. It looks strangely familiar.
The ARL is going strong, some say it’s the best season ever. The Brisbane Broncos are looking to win a third premiership in a row.
Gold Coast, Wests, and Newcastle are struggling financially, as too are Cronulla and Souths, but they at least are having good results on the field.
The league prepares for expansion with four new teams: Auckland Warriors, North Queensland Cowboys, South Queensland Crushers, and Western Reds to enter into the 1995 competition.
By the end of the 1994 season the Canberra Raiders win their third premiership in six years.
Does this look familiar to you? No? Let me continue.
We are midway through the 1995 season. More clubs begin to battle the financial burden that the game has bought on itself. Players want more money and the words Super League begin to pop up.
Now let’s move to the present day. Manly are the current champions with two tittles in four seasons and Melbourne picked up a couple too. Manly and Melbourne have been the dominant clubs of this era, similar to Canberra and Brisbane of the early to mid 90s.
Gold Coast is struggling again on and off the field. Cronulla are still battling cash problems but are winning games. Most of the NRL clubs today are battling some kind of financial problems.
Talk of expansion is on the agenda. This time there is eight potential bids. A new television deal is close and the players want a bigger slice of the rugby league pie.
The current situation in our game seems very similar to that of 1994. The game is going strong but some of the problems that were around then are still here today.
We went from 16 teams to 20, then back to 14 after the Super League war. Than back to 16 when Souths and Gold Coast came back from the dead.
If expansion does happen, the magical number looks to be 18 with the hot tip that the Western Reds and the second Brisbane team will also be back from the dead.
Hell, why not expand to 20 and bring back the Bears and the Rams too. What else can we dig up from the past?
In all seriousness, a team in Perth and another side in Queensland is a must. The ARLC will have some big decisions in the future and will have to get them right.
One thing different today compared to 1994 is that AFL has a bigger presence in New South Wales and Queensland. If a bad choice is made, the game may not recover this time, and AFL will be ready to pounce.
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