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The year was 1991 and rugby league was heading into an exciting new era. What should have been the beginnings of national domination quickly became a rabble over the coming decade.
While researching the year 1991 for my radio program I was shocked to find that there were sixteen first grade clubs in the ’91 competition.
Remember that number.
Back then the Canberra Raiders were the defending premiers, Brisbane Broncos were on the cusp of greatness and others like the Gold Coast and Newcastle were the early lab rats for the game’s development.
What makes many shake their heads is the fact that 22 years on, rugby league has the very same number of clubs going around in the National rugby league.
Granted we have had a Super League war and even reached 20 clubs at the turn of the century, but while rugby league does so many other good things you wonder when our game will be allowed to grow once more.
It doesn’t matter how many statistics NRL CEO David Smith can rattle off about everything else going on in the sport, we want to see this national competition truly become national.
In ’91, the AFL had fifteen teams.
Now they have eighteen, including the Gold Coast Suns, two sides in Adelaide, two sides in Perth and a second Sydney side in the supposed heartland of rugby league.
I won’t even bother mentioning the teams that lined up for the 1991 National Soccer League but have a look at them go now. Sure, you can argue the A-League only has ten sides going around. But have a look at where they’re situated around the country.
No more excuses rugby league.
We want expansion.
While the Super League war set the game back many years, you wonder how and why the Western Reds were booted from the newly formed NRL in 1998. Balmain, Western Suburbs and North Sydney all survived the chop.
That didn’t last long.
Rugby league should have never left Perth.
That’s why it’s imperative we hand the next license to the Western Australians with a big fat sorry to go with it. In fact, guarantee them the spot now and give them every chance of building their franchise.
It is a travesty the game turned its back on Perth.
A team that did make the cut in ’98 and played in the inaugural NRL season were the Adelaide Rams.
South Australians had their first taste of top flight rugby league in, you guessed it, 1991. A crowd of over 28,000 watched the St George Dragons take on the Tigers. Fast forward a few years to 1997 and the Rams averaged over 15,000 fans for regular season matches.
The frustration in fans is there for all to see and we haven’t even mentioned central Queensland, a second team in Brisbane, Central Coast NSW, Wellington or the Sunshine Coast of Queensland.
We can argue with rival codes and their fans until we’re blue in the face that we are a national game.
Billion dollar television deals, viewers tuning in in their millions and impressive youth participation are wonderful things. But we want more. We need more.
The question is how long until Dave Smith and his colleagues put the national into rugby league.
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