The NRL has held its grand final in Sydney for the entirety of its existence – all 18 years of it. That’s right, you heard, me 18 years.
Should the grand final be moved to Brisbane? Absolutely, undeniably, without a doubt it should.
Should it be retained in Sydney permanently for 20 long years afterwards? Absolutely not.
Let’s start from the start.
The NSW state comp grand final should never, ever be moved away from Sydney. The NSWRL have held their grand final in Sydney since 1908 and all that wonderful traditions and history that belongs to it should remain there.
The QRL should likewise never move their grand final – it’s been held in Brisbane for the same length of time. Rugby league has been played in Brisbane since 1908, it did not come to Brisbane from Sydney, it is every bit as much a heartland of the game as Sydney is. This is one of the great strengths of our game.
The greatest thing that has happened in our game in the last 108 years was the creation of a national competition in 1997-98. The sooner that this is wholly embraced and decisions made with this at the fore, the better off our game will be.
I would like to see an eventual rotation something along the lines of Sydney, Brisbane, Sydney and lastly, the highest bidder (possibly Melbourne, Auckland, eventually even Perth, but always a capital).
For now, we should take the NRL grand final to Brisbane every four or five years.
A few things worth considering:
If the venue was solely about how many people would go to the game then why isn’t it being held at the MCG every year?
If was about bums on seats, why are they reducing the size of ANZ Stadium instead of increasing it?
If it’s about selling out the game, only the very arrogant would think that wouldn’t happen in Brisbane, no matter which two teams played. In fact a National Rugby League grand final would be sold out months in advance of the teams being known. It is my experience that club identity is stronger than code identity in Sydney, while the reverse is true in Brisbane.
If the venue is only about the bottom dollar, you can guarantee that a minor increase in ticket pricing would have no effect on ticket sales, especially if the event was in Brisbane only on a four or five-year rotation.
Keeping the NRL grand final in Sydney simply because ‘we’ve always had it here’, refers to either different competition or a very small slice of history, barely enough to call it a tradition.
I get that the NSWRL public had to be nursed into the national format, with changes only being made slowly – like, for example, holding the NRL grand final in Sydney for the first 20 years of its existence. NSW had a strong state competition and represented the largest population that supported rugby league. But surely enough time has passed now that the idea of a national competition has settled on the collective minds, and we can look beyond the suburban mindset that so stifles our code.
Let’s start playing to the strengths of our code instead of playing catch up with the AFL all the time. Let’s embrace our game in its entirety and take it to its potential, instead of using an old state comp as a crutch to prop it up (or hold it back).
Let’s move the grand final to Brisbane and announce to the world that we are the truly national football code in this country – before someone else does.
Zenith Bonner
Guest
The NSWRL were under paying the players and keeping all the profit The Super League changed that and played the player a real salary and improved the game so much video replays etc so if you want tradition be ignorant and never change like the NSWRL the same people ruining league are the NSWRL percentage the old greedy rip offs from NSW I go national and the highest bid gets the GF. Go Qld we rock 9 - 10 Origins and not just the the Qld team but the whole Qld organisation of ex players who know the game and love it not the money
Syd Barrett
Guest
where would Canberra be playing then??- dont think that would work
Syd Barrett
Guest
The GF should always be played in Sydney at ANZ - reasons are simple - Suncorp DOES not have the same crowd capacity and also QLD has 3 NRL sides - compared to NSW - 10 - 9 in Sydney. If ANZ is unavailable then Suncorp may get a run for 1 or 2 years but not permanently or on a bi-annual basis.
Mr Big
Roar Rookie
why try to fix something that isnt broken, I'd rather look at why the Broncos have the best draw in the whole premiership, its totally unfair and rigged, why dosnt teams like Newcastle or the Warriors have this same luxury? do you seriously think any loyal true blue fans would like to give any Queenslanders any extra advantage?. so the answer is no, tradition is tradition.
Wayne Lovell
Roar Guru
There is nothing better a good pre-origin fire up. Thank you to everyone who read and commented.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Ridiculous.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Wayne - I'm not saying the NRL and the NSWRL are one and the same. But it's undeniable that the NRL was born out of the NSWRL and ARL. Feel free to go around counting comps in the NRL era if it makes you feel better but it's pretty much irrelevant. Every team in the comp bar the Storm and the Titans were competing in the same competition long before the NRL was formed.
The Barry
Roar Guru
So ignorant it's not funny. Pre Broncos qld players were leaving the QRL in droves to play for NSW clubs. So I wasn't talking about the Broncos as a NSWRL club I was talking about NSW clubs. And it was going to get worse. QRL clubs couldn't compete financially with the NSWRL clubs. The Broncos gave Qld players a Qld team to play for before they all signed with NSW clubs. I'm not saying the NRL is the NSWRL or vice versa. But when the Broncos signed with the NSWRL the QRL clubs and league still existed. When the NSWRL became the ARL and then the NRL the NSWRL clubs still existed but the league did not. It became the NRL. So the argument that the NRL formed leaving behind the NSWRL and QRL is false. Souths started in 1908. The Broncos started in 1988. Both existed and won premierships before the NRL was formed. If you're saying the Rabbitohs have won one premiership and the Broncos three then you are obliterating history. It doesn't mean squat from a national perspective? You do realise that in 1995 the ARL was a national comp? More national than the NRL is today. Brisbane, Cowboys, Gold Coast, South Queensland, Warriors, Perth, Illawarra, Newcastle, Canberra as well as the Sydney clubs. Learn your history before you start squatting on a national perspective. Your harbour bridge line is childish and completely out of context. I think you just like the line and were determined to use it regardless of whether it was appropriate or not. I've actually spent the last two days on the Roar presenting arguments for Brisbane (and Melbourne and NZ) to get regular grand finals on a permanent basis - not just while ANZ is being redeveloped. I completely agree that the NRL doesn't revolve around Sydney clubs. But that doesn't change the history of how we got here, regardless of how desperately you want it to. Get your facts straight before you start resorting to personal insults.
Brett
Guest
Then we are in agreement. I too would like to see the GF moved to Suncorp for the 3 or 4 year construction period and then take it back to ANZ once it has been upgraded.
Wayne Lovell
Roar Guru
I think you will find that the most Queenslanders resent the manufactured history that attempts to state that the NSWRL and the NRL are the same thing. No ones obliterating history, just stating the truth about where it actually belongs. The History of Rugby League in Australia, includes the QRL, NSWRL and the NRL, the history of the NRL started in 1998.
J
Guest
So pretty much what fans of every interstate club face currently if their team makes the grand final?
Wayne Lovell
Roar Guru
I say your version is the revisionist history. Created as a marketing tool to bring the NSWRL public to the NRL after Super League, it worked.
Wayne Lovell
Roar Guru
No ones resetting anything, you the fans have watched your clubs compete in different competition. That doesn't mean the competitions are the same.
Wayne Lovell
Roar Guru
Yes but now we've had 20 years of exposure, and we would have Melbourne and New Zealand and you can bet Perth pretty quickly, add to that the fact that that National comp would have to create another Sydney Team to compete and all of a sudden your city comp would be a feeder competition
Kaks
Roar Guru
I think it should be moved to Suncorp during ANZ's redevelopment as not only is Brisbane a NRL city - it will take to the final and create a huge buzz around the city - but a lot of fans wont have to travel far. This is the NRL's final league game, it should reward it's faithful fans, not tell them to travel to a city that hasnt taken to the sport, pay an arm and a leg to do so, just so that the NRL can make more money. There is no logic behind moving the Grand Final to Melbourne other than 90k+ people will be able to attend the game on a pitch which is horrible for rectangular sports.
Renegade
Roar Guru
What do you mean the demand isn't as great.... The NRL is sold out months in advance with only 15k kept for the actual competing clubs membership/fan base.
Renegade
Roar Guru
YES ? What EJ said. Case closed!
Oculus Rift
Guest
And I resent that southerners such as yourself think that it is still the NSWRL. "The Broncos joined the NSWRL. The Gold Coast joined the NSWRL. The Cowboys and Warriors joined the NSWRL." Unlike Beetlejucie, saying NSWRL three times won't make it reappear. "The QRL has all its grand traditions but in the late 80s it was dying because most of the Queensland talent was joining NSW clubs and it was going to get worse." And you where complaining about people rewriting history. The QRL went down hill because the Broncos that started drawing attention away from the local comp, and, last I heard, they are QLD club (if you were smart, would have typed "NSWRL Clubs") "You paint a rosy picture of NSW fans having the NSWRL to support. We don’t. The NSWRL evolved to become the ARL and then the NRL." But the NRL is still not the NSWRL. It may have evolved, but it evolved into a totally different beast. It represents all (well most) of Australia and doesn't totally revolve around NSW any more, much to your disdain. Otherwise show me where clubs such as Newtown, the Bears and Wests Magpies are in the NRL? Just face the fact that the only comp you can totally own anymore is the NSW CUP, and just like its counterpart, the QLD Cup (which seems to be the better of the two) are second tier that feed into the NATIONAL (not NSWRL) comp, the NRL. "The Broncos left behind a state league. The NSWRL clubs did not." Why would NSWRL clubs do so when they could get rich of pokie money, which were illegal in QLD clubs at the time. "Whether you like it or not the Rabbitohs history goes back to 1908, not 1998. There were premierships played and won long before Queensland teams felt the need to abandon their local competitions." But that was in the NSWRL, not the NRL. And since when did the Broncos play in a QLD comp before they started? If they didn't then how could they abandon it? Hyperbole much? And just becuase the Rabbitohs have 100+ years of history doesn't mean squat to me in a national context. After all in didn't mean much to the NRL either when they chuck them out of the comp, and it was only whinging from recalcitrant Rabbithos fans that got them back in. In the end, if a club was part of the NRL when it was sanctioned, then its tradition in that comp would be, guess what, only 18 years, regardless of when the club started. "So I support a regular rotation of the grand final because we’re in a national competition and I think it’s a brilliant way to grow and market the game." Yeah, and I got a harbour bridge you might want to buy. You might have heard about it? "But don’t obliterate over a hundred years of history just because the Broncos don’t have it." I don't see anybody obliterating 100 years of History, just old has beens who are refusing to believe that things have changed and that the RL universe doesn't revolve around them any more.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
Oh dear, you couldn't be more wrong. The Queensland comp was leaking player after player to the Sydney comp. Origin was created because NSW would smash Qld every year because Qld kept losing players south. After Combined Brisbane proved competitive in the midweek Cup, Brisbane starting stating their case to be included in the NSWRL. And that Combined Brisbane team could only beat the NSWRL teams once, and that was with Lewis, Meninga, Myles, Lindner, Dowling and Scotts.
Troy
Guest
If the minor premiers win their 2 semi-finals to make the grand final, the final should be played in their city. This way their is a real incentive to be the minor premiers. If the minor premiers don't go straight through, the next highest team to make the grand final first gets the game in their city. I am over the fact NSW still feel they own rugby league. It is a national game, no one owns the right to stage the GF.