Western Sydney is rugby's boomtown

Haha.... it wouldn't work. Only private school boys can play rugby. Yeah, right.

The AFL has done the multi million dollar swindle on its smaller Melbourne clubs, the smaller Melbourne clubs are paying the mortgage for Etihad stadium, the AFL gets the stadium, and gets to put the clubs it wants to move away from Melbourne in financial difficulty. Its like two birds with one stone. The AFL has shown no substantial investment so far to overseas expansion, compared to its big budget for Australian expansion. Generally the biggest investment the AFL makes overseas is in fudging figures and pretending. I am sure money would go a long way in Papua New Guinea, if they did put it in. If the AFL had thrown more money at South Africa maybe they could have garnered some interest in the sport especially in the poor black areas. I don;t see the AFL really making a big move into NZ, is this some hope they can sabotage NZ in rugby, in the way they are perceived to have sabotaged AUstralian rugby.

Republican I shouldn't be negative to AFL so I will put it like this. What relevance do NZers attach themselves to a sport that has NO historical and cultural relevance to kiwi's, same as why doesn't AFL put a team into Gaelic Football or vice versa(apart from logistics, if they have that much money to throw around because there is no relevance again its like your achieving nothing. Just like The Storm , Rebels and the 2 soccer sides in Melbourne , ask an average AFL supporter and they wouldn't give a hoot no relevance , foreign sport. We had one of NZ's greatest football heroes who played for Bremerhaven FC , he was a legend in Germany , NZ not so to the general public at the time , he is in NZ football and well known but. if he walked down a street no one would recognize him. Agent 11 NRL have put expansion on hold for several years and already I hear calls from RL people over my dead body for a 2nd NZ side also The Warriors organization will not like a second team because of commercial issues. You are hearing calls from Kiwi's and I hear all the we have enough kiwi's in the NRL to form a second side BUT a lot of kiwi's prefer Aussie clubs because of their their rich history also a lot of top kiwi players do not want to play for the warriors period.

So Rugby is losing out fast AussieIrish, while League is losing out slow?

Why would the ARU be interested in any region anywhere? Isn't that why they grant millions to the state unions to manage this?

BT are these run by the ARU or NSWRU?

AND extracts fees of a similar value as the ARU from each player. The difference being where the ARU passes on any excess over admin costs, the NSWRU (and all other states) keep the entirety. Essentially they're funded from both ends.

.....makes sense, ta for that.

"Television deals are based on where you get the most viewers for free to air or subscribers for Pay TV". So that makes Melbourne potentially, a very attractive location for both codes surely Brains? The critical mass of 'Rugby lovers' in the corporate sector of Melbourne can't be all that compelling, while the memberships of both the Storm and Rebs hasn't grown much since the inception of respective brands, from what I have heard.

The figures are available through the various clubs and the NSWRL. I have no doubt that the numbers are being boosted by touch and tag. However, this does not explain the increase in club sides in the Parramatta, Penrith and Canterbury districts. If newspaper reports are correct there has been a considerable resurgence in league in the inner west. Even if the player numbers have been boosted by tag and touch, the problem for Rugby is that these games provide a pathway to playing league proper. I live in the eastern suburbs and I look at the situation of Rugby in my area. My old school, which used to be the champion Rugby Associated Schools team, now has more boys playing soccer and a dramatic increase in AFL teams. The subbies club I started with after leaving school is no more, with at least another three subbies clubs that were in the district. The grade club I eventually joined went bust and now fields teams on the smell of an oily rag. Of the park league teams that were around when I was playing, only one has disappeared. There are, however, new AFL clubs now playing in whatever comp they play in. To continually pretend league is A: dying, B: shrinking or C: becoming a Polynesian game is foolish. I made the effort to check on what I regard as a non-league area, the North Sydney Juniors. This competition dropped from 12 clubs to 7 clubs in 2000. The competition now has 9 clubs with another 2 having applied to join in 2017. In the Sydney region there are only about 60 junior Rugby clubs! Heavens, Rugby is losing out fast and all some people can do is say that league and AFL’s membership figures are wrong. Talk about Neville Chamberlain.

"but hopefully they never artificially try and inflate it by including it into an Australian competition." hahaha is that a dig at League? The NRL are looking at putting a second team in NZ in the near future as the talent coming from their demands it.

......who gets funding from the ARU. Sorry Mr Pedant

Maybe its because the Pacific Islander community are mainly the ones left willing to play contact rugby and rugby league. Rugby has just got onto the touch football bandwagon with their own version Viva7's. Touch football/ tag is the main source of participation numbers for rugby league in my opinion. They don;t have any western sydney locations though. New South Wales VIVA7s Chatswood Jul 30 - Sept 17 Saturday 3pm-5pm Beauchamp Park, Chatswood Register Here VIVA7s Coffs Harbour Sept 16 - Nov 11 Friday Evenings Coffs Harbour Rugby Park, Toormina Register Here VIVA7s Far North Coast Sept 23 - Oct 21 Friday Evenings Lismore Rugby Oval, Lismore Register Here VIVA7s Lane Cove Oct 14 - Dec 16 Friday Evenings Blackman Park, Lane Cove Register Here VIVA7s Mosman Oct 10 - Dec 2 Weekday Evenings Rawson Oval, Cross Street, Mosman Register Here VIVA7s Scone Sept 30 - Nov 4 Friday Evenings Scone Isuzu Ute Brumby Park, Scone Register Here VIVA7s Strathfield Oct 6 - Dec 1 Thursday Evenings Hudson Park, Strathfield Come & Try Day: Thursday 6 October Register Here VIVA7s Sylvania Oct 13 - Dec 1 Thursday Evenings AR Hurst Reserve, Sylvania Come & Try Day: Saturday 23 July Register Here VIVA7s The Entrance Oct 14 - Dec 2 Friday Evenings Sir Joseph Banks Oval, Bateau Bay Register Here VIVA7s University of Wollongong Sept 8 - Oct 27 Thursday Evenings Northfields Ave, Wollongong Register Here VIVA7s Wahroonga Oct 14 - Dec 2 Friday Evenings Cliff Oval, Wahroonga Register Here VIVA7s Woollahra Sept 5 - Nov 28 Monday Evenings Woollahra Oval, Bellevue Hill Register Here

Brains I believe there has been a reverse in movement across the ditch, i.e. an increase in those returning to as well as Aussies choosing to live in NZ and a decrease in NZers moving here. Economically we are chalk & cheese, yet NZ is out performing us in this respect, as well as in the sporting arena - not to mention socially.

Phill L Thats what I keep hearing and I concur however as we know, the very cashed up AFL are presently in a code cold tele war in what is a saturated Australasian footy market, born out by their expansion to non Australian footy demographics domestically. This is driven purely by television and as such your rationale and mine, has no baring on their single mindedness in this respect. I only wish they did balance their commercial avarice with their duty of care because Tassie and Canberra would have been afforded stand alone gigs in the AFL way back if they were worthy custodians of the game. I am of the opinion that if they do see the future of the code off shore, they would be well advised to look to Saffa, which is close to WA relatively speaking. I believe there to be less competition for code allegiance, integral to a lack of code diversity in Saffa as well Soccer and Rugby Union are the competition in Saffa wheres in NZ it is Union, Soccer and League in what is also a very small market if population is at all relevant to their thinking. Those less privileged South Africans have already shown a real interest in our game over the past 15 years, but the AFL have shifted their focus from there to NZ. I know that the raw Aussie Rules talent coming out of PNG is far in excess of anything NZ has to offer but again, GR talent is not a criteria the AFL considers in respect of expansion & when they mention it is is purely a hard sell rhetoric. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this thread anyway and I trust for NZs sake, you are correct because your Union pedigree may well be compromised if this evolution is indeed, realised.

Ok & thanks for sharing your insight Agent11. Lets see how the ensuing fixtures v NZ pan out and of course the pending WC. I fear you may be a underestimating NZ's depth, much of it based here and as well as a more fervent passion in the guernsey compared with the Kangaroos. We tend to focus the required passion on the SOO rather than internationally sadly. I still reckon that the code here is in slow decline at the GR but I sincerely hope to be proven wrong.

Thank you Phill L. Answered my question and basically summed up what I thought was the case.

Emride produce your figures otherwise your as bad as AFLNZ saying they have more registered players in NZ than RL.

There are about 600,000 NZ in Australia, with plenty in the major capitals which is why they can stage All Black games in Melbourne. On the other hand there are 60,000 AUstralians in the whole of NZ, its a matter of economics people are moving to the stronger economy. Australians tend to stay in AUstralia. The only place where there are a lot of Australians outside of the country is London. However imagine the cost of doing business in London it would be astronomical.

Would be good to get an actual link from some of these posters to back up their claims. I suspect you and In Brief are more on the money.