The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Go West, rugby league!

Roar Pro
7th July, 2013
12

I’m a sucker for expansion teams. Always have been. I don’t know if it’s because more teams mean more games, or because of the temporary novelty value that gives new clubs their first burst of momentum.

Mention the Central Coast Bears, Wellington Orcas or Brisbane Bombers to me and I’ll get lost in a wonderful fantasy world in which the NRL has 37 teams from all across the country.

The ARLC obviously does not share my enthusiasm for forging new outposts for the game.

When the new television deal was inked last season, it meant that expansion was put on the backburner until at least 2017. Weather by relocation, or by the creation of a new club, the answer regarding who will receive the 17th team is clear.

Be it via the resurrection of the Reds or the birth of the Pirates, by the time 2017 comes around, Western Australia must have a second bite at the expansion cherry.

The fate of the original team from the West is well known. In a decision that proved to be unwise, the ARL brought in four new franchises for the 1995 season.

The Auckland (later New Zealand) Warriors and North Queensland Cowboys remain, while the cynically and hastily created South Queensland Crushers join the Reds in extinction.

A strong first season saw the Reds finish just two points outside of the playoffs. While they did not enjoy the crowd numbers of the Cowboys or the raw talent of the Warriors, and at times struggled on the field, but across their three seasons they averaged crowds of 10,211 at the WACA, and had 24 wins across those three seasons.

Advertisement

These numbers may seem meager, but when compared to the standards of the time they are quite respectable. Over the period from 1995 to 1997, Parramatta (26 wins and average home crowds of 11,686) and Penrith (25 wins, average crowd of 7,015) experienced similar numbers, and the Reds were streets ahead of Souths (13 wins, average crowd of 6009) and several other Sydney teams.

While Parra, Penrith and Souths were admittedly experiencing lean years on the field, when the Reds crowd numbers are compared to more successful teams of that era, for instance, the Sydney City Roosters and Sydney Bulldogs (who had average crowds of 11,952 and 9,197 respectively) they are more than adequate.

It would be easy for the WARL to roll over and die after the ignominy of being wound up, but rugby league is more entrenched in Perth than many think (a domestic competition has been run in the area since 1948). In 2008, the Reds returned, albeit in the third-tier Jim Beam Cup, and two years later the club made the momentous step of entering a team in the SG Ball Under 18’s competition. The teams have been made up of a mix of local talent and a few imported youngsters, with Dragons fullback Adam Quinlan and North Queensland Holden Cup player Curtis Rona the two best products to come out of the system.

As the GWS Giants are finding out and the Western Sydney Wanderers have so effectively demonstrated, long-lasting expansion teams require grassroots community support and strong junior development systems to be continually competitive and relevant.

The introduction of the WA Reds into the youth competitions is an attempt to bring WA youngsters into the first grade rugby league system, demonstrating the areas viability as a junior area.

The most overriding factor that has seen Western Australia vault ahead of the other expansion candidates is the mining boom.

According to CommSec’s latest State of the States Report, WA has seen a population expansion of 3.45% per anum, by far the most in the nation. Perth now boasts a population of 1.83 million, an increase of over 400, 000 since 2006. The mines have brought thousands of workers, especially in the ALRC’s coveted 18-35 age bracket, from across the Nullarbor, establishing a healthy number of transplanted league fans in the area.

Advertisement

Add to this a larger foreign born population, with 9.5% of the population born in Britain or Ireland, along with over 50,000 Kiwis (which is why last nights fixture sounded like a Warrior home game at times).

Since 2009, Souths have been taking one game West every year. They have averaged crowds of over 15, 000. In 2011 monsoon season came early and the players could have drowned in some of the puddles on the pitch, and still 15,000 hardy souls turned up. David Smith and his merry men must allocate Perth three games for the next few seasons, to test if these numbers are real. While AFL is still the dominant sport in the area, and will remain so for a long time, a niche market for rugby league exists.

The Western Force, despite toeing the fine line between poor and awful for much of their existence, experienced average crowds of nearly 14,000 in the 2012 season.

Nothing cements the success of a new sporting franchise like wins. To achieve that aim, the ARLC should allow salary cap concessions any WA team, allowing them to sign the talent to be successful right away. If the SG Ball squad continues to develop the way it has, the stage will be set for a compelling mix of current starts and local juniors to propel the budding franchise to the top.

For instance, just say that the West Coast Pirates are admitted for the 2018 competition. Using the salary cap concession granted by the ARLC, they are able to lure a 32 year old Benji Marshall back from rugby union (steady on Tigers fans, just a hypothetical) as the team’s first captain, along with a few current Warriors or notable rugby players.

The likes of Curtis Rowe and Adam Quinlan, established first graders at this point, are brought back home along with the three other WA juniors in the NRL (three first graders in five years is a reasonable goal for the junior system), and a couple of Super League stars make the trip out – a 29 year old Sam Tomkins would be perfect, especially after his stint at the Warriors.

The expats would come in their droves, the casual fans attracted by the novelty will, hopefully, be converted into diehards by the wins.

Advertisement

The spark of rugby league exists in the west, the ARLC need only to reach across the desert and fan the flames.

close