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As rumour surfaces today of the potential that the Sharks could be moved north of the border, it seems to act as further proof of how blinded the management of the National Rugby League really is.
Last time I checked our game was supposed to be national and unless that word’s definition is suddenly applicable to two states who hate each other so much that they feel that the rest of their country does not exist, it is anything but.
So based upon this twisted definition, management believes that a team should be stolen off one heartland and implanted into a state with three teams already.
By moving the Sharks away from the Shire, you would firstly be gaining no friends in the Shire or in the new location of South East Queensland, and furthermore demonstrating this phobia that the NRL has of moving west.
Regardless of whether you have been exposed to the indoctrination of NRL CEO David Smith, quite clearly that the NRL is not in a period of great success.
Crowd figures and TV audiences may be good in comparison to the Super Rugby competition, but when compared to the NRL’s closest rival, the AFL, alarm bells start ringing.
The AFL consistently gets crowds in the region of 50,000 to regular season matches and never would you see crowds sinking in the region of ten or twenty thousand as is the average for the NRL.
Come finals and even with the NRL having all but one of its finals matches played in Sydney, crowds are still struggling to crack 30,000.
Conversely, every AFL final has risen above this mark including notably 94,000 at the MCG for the Richmond and Carlton clash, 37,000 at Sydney against Carlton and 43,000 at Fremantle’s grand final qualifier.
The AFL has tapped into markets all over Australia and has proved successful, something which the NRL still remains scared of, despite those figures showing what the AFL has achieved through expansion.
While the NRL has shown signs of expanding its reach it has never followed through and the reasons are unknown.
Matches played in Perth and Adelaide experienced high demand for tickets.
A great deal of success has been enjoyed in these areas by AFL, football and cricket.
Honestly, the NRL needs to be thinking of expanding the number of teams in the comp, not of robbing the Shire of the Sharks.
In order to secure a future as a national sport, the phobia of expansion must be overcome.
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