The New Zealand Warriors have made two grand finals in ten years and their national side won the 2008 World Cup. So why are they still on struggle street across the ditch?
Most rugby league administrators would love to have the untapped markets the Warriors have at their fingertips. The list goes on with Christchurch, Wellington, Hamilton and Dunedin barely touched by the Warriors or the New Zealand Rugby League.
Yet the Warriors are still considering a home game in Australia next season.
Forget the opportunities these cities offer for a moment.
Consider the nirvana of young talent coming through the system at the Warriors. This is seriously just the tip of the iceberg if things are done right.
Everyone wants and expects NZRL and the Warriors to be juggernauts in the rugby league world.
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks chairman Damian Irvine added his two cents.
“The Warriors have an incredibly unique position. We talk in our game of ‘one team towns’ and all of their advantages yet the same doesn’t seem to be driven as an advantage for the Warriors” Irvine told FootySocial.com.au.
“The job for the Warriors has been made very difficult by the different ownerships over the years. However now they have a really sound administration, CEO and ownership. I think most in the game, myself included, expect them to really start harnessing the massive catchments both in terms of on-field talent and customer base.”
Irvine added that Australia’s thirst for islanders is eroding the game in New Zealand.
“Why we as a game would want to cannibalise the amazing natural talent in New Zealand and the islands by poaching every talented junior and turning them into Australians is beyond me,” he said.
“Australia is strong enough to field three World Cup league sides we always hear, yet our admins over the past twenty years have constantly bent eligibility rules in order to suit ourselves.
“To the detriment of our sport not only in the island nations and New Zealand, but locally at international level also.”
Has the problem been inaction on the part of the Warriors and the NZRL?
Or does the problem stem from almighty Australia?
Irvine believes it’s the latter.
“It’s not cool for a very powerful nation like ours, the most powerful, to keep picking the best kids from the playground just because we want to win easier. That isn’t the Australian way or the way we were brought up as a sporting nation,” Irvine added.
“Stop picking New Zealanders, Fijians, Samoans and Tongans and any other nationalities for our national teams. If they are not getting picked they will soon play for their own nation and hopefully want to prove something.
“Thus creating very strong, interesting, broadcastable international rugby league. Provincial and International union is ripe for the taking at present. We should be better positioned to make a huge play for their market than we are.”
Like all of us, Irvine is speaking as a rugby league fan only wanting the best for the game in New Zealand and around the globe.
Johnno
Guest
And Denmark too cross coder: So places where rugby league Has prescence. Rugby league will go global more and more, they should promote rugby league 10's,9's, or 7evens for growth to, as easy to pick up: But I will do a global list of rugby league: Asia-pacific: Australia/NZ/PNG/Fiji/Samoa/Tonga/Cook Islands/Lebanon Africa: South Africa North America: USA/Canada/Jamaica South America: Maybe Argentina/Brazil/Chile Europe: England/Wales/Scotland/Irleand/Italy/Germany/Russia/Czech Republic/Croatia/Serbia/Ukraine/Denmark/Norway/Sweden -So about 25 countries global rugby league can boom if done right, and they promote and make it more important than state "yawn" of origin
duecer
Guest
oikee - you're spot on there - there used to be a time when international league was strong, but it's not in NRL's interest for it to happen again.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Get it correct .The NRL run the competition in this country.The ARLC administers the lot in this country as to rules ,structure,the financial backing.The NRL do not run tests. The RLIF /RLEF /ARL are those involved in the international aspect of the code.The NRL is not financing the RLWC2013 in the UK for starters. There will be no accommodation made with its sister code jus. $1bn big ones in this country for starters is but one reason.Another, the code(rl) in question likes tries and is structured so they are 99 times out of 100 achieved.Perhaps the first course of action is getting your code up to some sort of entertainment standard. I thought France was a country and ditto PNG for starters and poor old NZ,who played rugby league.Must purchase a new map of the world. The east Coast ,north of England swipe is tired and boring and outmoded,try something original.It is typically used by those who have no affinity with rugby league or perhaps shelter a fear it will succeed. Stagnate LOL,when the code in its infancy in Canada can get 4,500 speccies at an international against Jamaica.When there are now two divisions in Serbia.When it is fast running out of grounds to play the game in Fiji.And PNG wanting a team in the NRL.Numbers are growing again in NZ as well as France.Experiencing amazing growth in Norway.
jus de couchon
Guest
A storm in a tea cup. As long as the NRL run Rugby League there will be no International platform outside of the east coast of Australia and the North of England. An accomadation must be made with Rugby Union or the same misstakes will be repeated and League will continue to stagnate .
peeeko
Roar Guru
how about the Qld great Petero who was born in Fiji?
peeeko
Roar Guru
please explain a bit further
peeeko
Roar Guru
Mateo and Hayne are born and bread and lived most of their lives in Sydney
peeeko
Roar Guru
one of the best commments i have read in ages
Lovey
Guest
I wonder if Irvine could give an example of a player that Australia has poached, of where the international rules have been bent to do so? Serious question. Anyway, international eligibility has no bearing on the Warriors playing stocks. I am all for the "system" to foster young kids being brought up through the local NRL club, who then gets exemption from the salary cap. This would benefit the Warriors and other NRL clubs, but so it should be. I understand that the real issue is them coming out to play for colleges at a very early age. But as no visas are needed, how does the NZRL or ARL stop this?
brucey
Guest
Well said David Irvine. Someone is thinking. Kiwis and Islanders do not belong in the AUS team. We have plenty of local players. What affect does poaching Kiwis have on U20 players coming through the domestic system? International Football is the one chess piece RL has that AFL covets. Yet we are destroying it. ARLC, please act to ban the likes of James Tamou et al playing for AUS. If they are eligible to play for NSW or QLD, then allow them to choose their country of origin. It is so simple. Or set eligibility as country or birth of origin.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
It s a first choice option,others can be added.The eligibility criteria has to start somewhere.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Well then PNG could be your first choice if you so choose.If you opt not to ,then by all means be a fair dinkum sunworshipping,Aussie and be eligible to play for Oz. All it means is the first choice option can be applied.At present ,the current situation is a dog's breakfast. I agree with your point on arrivals utilising residency for their own aims in sport and indeed for selfish reasons ,other than wanting to really be part of this country's social fabric. The very reason Lebanon became a rl country of sorts,is due to people of lebanese descent initially playing for that country (RLWC2000),thereby establishing the game there ,enabling Lebanese citizens to be able to represent
sledgeross
Guest
To be fair, at least League was competitive internationally in Arkos reign. It was GB Maurice Lindsay that continually tried to bugger things up.
Curtis Woodward
Expert
Kenny Arthurson might get a crack too yeah?
sheek
Roar Guru
This is ridiculously simplistic. I had no choice in where I was born. I was born in PNG at a time when it was a colony run by the Australian govt, who my father worked for. My parents are Australian & Australian born & all my grandparents are Australian & Australian born. While my great grandparents (c. mid-1850s) emigrated from Ireland & England respectively as young children. Indeed, apart from the Aborigines & Torres Straight islanders, we're all emigrants from somewhere else. I'm as Australian as anyone else born here to Australian nationality parents. People come from all over the world seeking a better life in Australia (like boat people). That is not the problem, the problem is those who use residency for their own convenience & rather than show appreciation for the opportunity this country has given them, continue to refer to themselves as being from something else. You can be proud of your heritage, be it Irish, British, Samoan, Tongan, Italian, Greek, Lebanese or whatever. But not at the expense of thinking yourself Australian first. It is these people we need to send back to wherever. Even Kiwis!
Johnno
Guest
Malcom Noad could be a good option Curtis new blood. Also Tony Zappa as well is ready.
Curtis Woodward
Expert
Its time for new blood. I'm sick of seing the same old (and I mean old) administrators playing musical chairs. NEW BREED! (Greenberg/Irvine etc)
oikee
Guest
Union is not in any danger from league, we would hang ourselves before ever being able to grow our game. Our administration has no brains, zero brain power to run a international comp. Maybe John O'neil might be ripe for the picking to run our code.
View from the hill
Guest
Maybe all I remember is the 2nd half. I'm sure the field was not the full width but rather than play some league to beat the USA they resorted to taking a cheap advantage to rub out the contest. When push comes to shove the powers & players in rugby league in Australia will always take self interest over doing any greater good. Fair enough in Origin & NRL but just self centered when the ARL could put out three Kangaroos teams & should be helping encourage international league. Australia's selfishness is killing international league and resorting to those sort of kick offs on a small size field against the minnow Tomahawks was symptomatic of it.
oikee
Guest
It is the pinnacle because it is made that way. Hayne and Mateo dont play for the kangaroos now, and they cant play for Tonga or Fiji as they still have ambitions to play for Australia, both have played for their other nation. This is the part that stinks, it weakens international league and nobody knows how to fix the problem, probably because nobody cares. That is the point i am making, we need someone in the game, running the ARLC or a CEO who cares enough to fix this mess. Andrew Demetriou would be that man if he was running our game because he is doing this for the AFL now, bringing a international game through for other nations, it might be small, but i am sure one day it will be huge. Rugby league on the other hand is eating itself alive, i have said this many times to only be dismissed, well look at our international game, hardly alive, on life support outside our top 2 international teams. England is struggling, other nations are struggling with no support from Australia, they ought to be ashamed of what they have done to the international game. Look back a decade, the tours and games played in the UK, now look at our weak international game. pathetic. Union is where we should be now. yet we have not progressed at all.