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Both the NRL and NSWRL will never admit that rugby league’s heartland is Queensland. Whether it’s North, South, East or West. Every region in Queensland has a thriving rugby league competition.
With so many Queensland players in the NRL already, it will only be a matter of time before they will be the dominant numbers.
NSW based teams, apart from Newcastle, are struggling to get people through the gates, while the three Queensland teams rarely have poor attendances. To keep rugby league dominant, teams need to look at moving to smaller central cities.
Queensland has been screaming for a number of regions to have their own NRL team for quite a while and now is the time for the NRL to deliver. Rockhampton in Central Queensland is an absolute must that the NRL need to get a team into as soon as possible. Another team should go in the South East, whether it is on the Sunshine Coast, Ipswich or Toowoomba.
The further one travels from the Gold Coast and Brisbane the more diehard rugby league fans one encounters, people who live and breathe rugby league. For the NRL to continue to ignore these fans will only continue to harbour the resentment most Queenslanders feel towards their NSW counterparts.
Let’s be honest here, Queensland has an extraordinary state competition that includes Papua New Guinea. Players are already used to travelling long distances to compete, to not having more than three teams in the NRL is a kick in the face to every one of those players and their supporters. Queenslanders over and over have proven they support their team by putting bums on seats.
If the NRL is serious about expanding the game then it has to not only increase the number of Queensland teams but force Sydney clubs out into other regions. Even the NFL doesn’t base their competition around one city. The only other game that does is the AFL, and even they are expanding beyond their borders.
Queensland deserves more than three teams in the NRL, after all it is the National Rugby League not the New South Wales Rugby League, who already have a competition. The NRL has to look at where their fans are based and reward them with a team, sooner than later.
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