Moaning has been seen as a key personalty trait of English rugby league supporters – but that’s grossly unfair. It’s a key personality trait of rugby league supporters everywhere.
How on earth can a fan of the 13-man code be negative after the weekend we’ve just had? Just under 135,000 people to a Magic Round in Brisbane that featured some amazing football, Championship Bradford beating Super League Leeds in the Challenge Cup in front of a massive national TV audience in Britain and then Warrington and Wigan putting on an epic the next day.
Yet get on social media and it’s all disallowed tries, ripped up playing surfaces and injuries.
Really?
The thing that I was most fascinated to see about Magic Round was whether it had any cultural impact, whether it made rugby league fans think about what they share. That’s what it does in Britain.
I was pleased to see a social media post from the edge of a dance floor at the Caxton, people in rugby league jerseys swaying from side to side while they watched the Bradford-Leeds Cup tie on the big screen.
That, indeed, is the spirit!
What follows on from thinking about the game as a community rather than just following your club is you start to consider issues that go beyond who NSW’s halves will be this year.
If you spend a minute on where Magic should be instead of a minute thinking about that, you have my support regardless of where you actually think it should be.
Which brings me to an interesting comment in colleague Brad Walter’s piece on NRL.com in which he argued that there are clearly enough players for new teams because 34 have made their debuts this year.
Personally, I’ve always dismissed the “not enough players” argument as hogwash. Expansion is about business, money, market share, media rights … it’s not about football.
“Standard” is for purists. You take four good players out of every team to form two new clubs.
Theoretically standard could drop by just under 25 per cent? Who notices? Only rugby league purists and they’ll keep watching anyway.
We don’t expand for purists.
Broncos big man Joe Ofahengaue collides with Manly’s Morgan Boyle. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)
But in Brad’s story, Tom Burgess was quoted saying: “We should get an English team in the NRL to play out of Perth.
“All the English boys would be keen, they loved it in Perth during the World Cup. We always used to joke with Wayne, saying ‘Wayne, if we get a team in Perth you coach it and we’ll play in the NRL’.”
It’s not a bad idea although there aren’t really enough home games to be split between Perth and England. Perhaps some away games could be purchased off the Perth Lions’ opponents?
So they’d have a month on the road, a month in Perth (with every second game an ‘away’ match that has been bought off a rival) and a month England with – again – games that would otherwise be played in Sydney shifted to London, Leeds and Manchester.
It sounds like a fantasy but we knew the NRL would eventually have a Magic Weekend. Only took ‘em 12 years!
Peter Piper
Guest
OR, a team in Perth from Canada ??????? What about the Ottawa Red Socks or the Perth Redskins ? Since the U.K. is getting multiple requests for teams from Canada/Northern U.S. then why not a Canadian club playing in the NRL ?
Peter Piper
Guest
No need to go after them just create the jobs and the talent will come knocking.
Peter Piper
Guest
I agree, the logic is a bit screwed there however I do not agree with the not enough talent argument. Its a classic chicken and egg situation.
Simon Carter
Guest
Yeap fantastic article just what the nrl needs a english super league team in Australia???? geezus mate, there’s definitely no where near enough talent for expansion.
Steve Mascord
Expert
Please. I'm SOUTHERN English. I live in London.
Milan
Guest
Dyl - stop being a DYL
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
Great, if you want to add 12 hours to every flight and double the airfare for every person involved.
Adz Sportz
Roar Guru
Doesn't mean they can stop the NRL. If there's AFL players who have the speed and skill to be an outside back in league, go after them.
MadgicSH
Roar Rookie
Even better, they could play out of - I dunno - ENGLAND!
Adam
Roar Guru
League is already raiding pretty much all the rugby union talent in the country. The AFL talent is already thin enough on the ground I doubt the AFL would sit idly by while NRL scouts circle anyone with a skerric of talent
Clanger McClunk
Guest
I would love to see a team in Perth but not a Pommy one. Sydney has far too many teams with nine and the attendences at the big stadia show bums on seats supporters are not enough. Around the inner suburban areas like Easts, Souths,Saints, Canterbury, Balmain for example they are saturated with teams. Sydney needs less, the game must expand but no more than 16 clubs like we have now. How to do it, I'm not sure but I agree with Andrew Johns in saying the talent pool is too shallow. To have 18 will dilute the quality and fans will be turned off by reserve graders playing in firsts.
Adz Sportz
Roar Guru
There’s more than enough players for 2 new teams if you think outside the square. The talent pool isn’t just what we have in our reserve grade comps. We can raid English super league and also look to poach rugby union players. Union seems to be a dying code in Aus and why not look at recruiting some of their young talent. And if you want to look at the far fetched ideas, league could look at converting young AFL players and develop them into league players. As far as the moaning part goes, rugby league in Australia has such a negative culture at the moment. The league Media always gets criticized for being ‘crisis merchants’ but the NRL fanbase as a whole just can’t help but to express a negative attitude towards the game and actively go searching for something to complain about. It’s sad really.
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
I'd love to see an English team play out of Perth. That would be awesome, and would attract a lot of interest in the NRL from English fans.
BA Sports
Roar Guru
Haven't read Brad Walter's piece and maybe I should, but just because 34 players have made debuts this year, is not an argument for two more teams. 1. If those 34 were playing first grade there would need to be a minimum 34 more players to cover the hole they leave, cover for the injuries etc. 2. Those 34 players include the likes of Adam Keighran - not a first grader before the season in the eyes of anyone who has ever seen him play - except for Steve Kearney apparently - and it took him two games to work out he was wrong about that.
RandyM
Guest
Perth can find players from somewhere else. England is Raiders territory! I don't buy into the "not enough talent" argument. I think good teams come down to coaching and hard work just as much as talent. I see some really illogical arguments around as well such as "the bottom two teams aren't as good as the top 2 teams, therefor there isn't enough talent". But even if you had an 8 team competition the bottom team will always be below standard.
Dyl Walker
Guest
Now Steve is Northern English and trying to push it on New South Welshman and Qlders. ???? He hates Australia. Just leave us alone Steve.