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How a farm system could help the NRL expand

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Roar Rookie
8th May, 2020
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Expansion is a contentious word in rugby league.

Expanding and removing teams has been part of Australia’s rugby league landscape since its inception. Cumberland played in the foundation year of 1908, and did not play in 1909. Newcastle, who joined as one of the competition’s first teams, did not play in 1910, making room for Annandale, and so on.

The dominant teams of the current NRL competition are expansion teams. In fact, every club in one way or another has had to go through identity changes throughout their history as rugby league expanded and contracted over the 112 years here.

The question still rages today: should the NRL expand its number of teams?

Answering yes takes you into a rabbit warren of long problems and difficult solutions. Answering no takes you into a deep, dark well of stagnation and missed opportunities. Both propositions are challenging and worth defending.

Expansion seems to be the most exciting and positive way forward, and so this is the direction this article will take.

Sixteen teams is a lot for an Australian and New Zealand competition. It already encompasses different time zones, different states, and the vast majority of the nations’ populations. Investing in just these teams for a long period of time attempts to further strengthen their historical and cultural connections to their respective fan-bases.

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But where then does the growth happen? How can we still grow the game? The best place for growth is in the NSWRL and QRL competitions.

This is not a new idea, and it is certainly not my original idea. We have seen the successful application of the PNG Hunters into Queensland’s top grade competition.

Ase Boas

Is Papua New Guinea fertile soil for expansion? (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Recently the Fiji Silktails successfully applied to play in NSW’s top grade. Even more recently the collection of Pacific Islands have put in a bid to also join Queensland’s Intrust Super Cup competition in 2023.

This is the way forward. This is where successful growth can happen in rugby league. And this proposal is not limited to island nations around Australia. This is an open invitation to all of Australia and New Zealand’s regions: the developing regions of South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and more.

The creation of a large and welcoming second-tier system, similar to the ones run in other sports that have minor leagues, would be greatly beneficial to the game of rugby league.

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A large farm system underpinning the NRL would have several positive impacts:
• A larger pool of players to select from, improving the quality of play
• Larger sections of different cultural groups, further strengthening the inclusivity of the game
• A larger audience watching and supporting the game, generating more cash flow
• An endless list of possible teams and areas, as places like the Northern Territory and Tasmania plus the northern parts of New Zealand would all see this as an achievable goal to reach

There are flaws and pitfalls in this simple plan. With cooperation from the NRL, NSWRL and QRL, these could be negotiated and navigated.

With the additions of PNG, Fiji and hopefully soon the Pacific side, this will be the great redevelopment of rugby league.

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