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Divisions and conferences are foreign concepts in Australian sport but for the NRL, it’s a topic that needs further exploration as the competition looks to expand rapidly in the next decade.
This is the future of the game and with expansion of the competition you need a way to ensure consistency and opportunity for all clubs.
It doesn’t make sense for some teams to play each other twice in a season, and others play once a year in an erratic, sometimes bewildering method.
Just over 12 months ago I put forward my whole game expansion proposal, it involved a seven-part plan that would see the NRL become a national competition by the start of the 2033 season.
Since then a few minor tweaks have been made to that plan. You learn something new every day, so through further reading and understanding, my opinion has changed slightly, however, as per my plan for expansion, the separation of the competition into divisions, and eventually conferences will need to be staged.
Tom Gilbert and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow celebrate after a Dolphins try. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
Firstly into two divisions of nine teams then secondly into four conferences of five teams with two conferences making up each division.
The general consensus is to have all Sydney teams compete in one division and the out of Sydney teams compete in the other division. That’s not how it should be – there should be a north and south division.
Some will argue that we need all Sydney clubs to play each other twice.
Thursday night footy – 7.30 pm (Fox & 9)
Friday night footy – 7.30 pm (Fox & 9)
Super Saturday – 3.30 pm, 5.30 pm, 7.30 pm (Fox exclusive)
Sunday ticket – 2.00 pm, 4.00 pm (Fox) 2.00 pm, 4.00 pm (9)
Northern division:
Nth Qld Cowboys
Moreton Dolphins
Brisbane Broncos
Gold Coast Titans
Newcastle Knights
Wests Tigers
Canterbury Bulldogs
Parramatta Eels
Penrith Panthers
Southern division
Manly Sea Eagles
Sydney Roosters
Sth Sydney Rabbitohs
Cronulla Sharks
St George Dragons
Canberra Raiders
Melbourne Storm
NZ Warriors
Perth Bears (2027)
Originally I was in support of adding the Brisbane Jets as the next team, on further thought the next team for me is the Perth Bears. A perfect mix of heritage and a new market, well sort of, I know the NRL has been down this path before.
Fact is the game has attempted expansion albeit unsuccessfully into Perth previously, who knows, without the eruption of the Super League war there may still be a Perth team in the competition to this day. You could go down the path of a fresh team in Perth, however, with the success of an already established and recognisable brand like the Dolphins, it is clear to me this is a stronger business model.
For the NRL, having a financially strong club is very important, I can’t argue with that, the NRL don’t want to be propping up an expansion team like the AFL has to do with the Giants and Suns.
I know the argument for a Pasifika team based in Cairns or somewhere else in Queensland has support, for me it’s a no.
Why do we need a Pacifica team? There is no hiding from the fact that a large percentage of the playing pool has Pacific Island heritage, so in a way that adds weight to my argument against such a team. If we are already seeing up to 50% of the playing pool representing the Pacific Islands, it begs the question, what does the addition of a Pasifika team hope to accomplish?
James Tamou is still going strong even though he will turn 35 at the end of this year. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Would it not be a smarter idea to develop pathways in the region further through junior development? After all all NRL clubs promote players from the region now so really what would change?
Thinking logically, having a team based in Cairns for example that represents PNG, Tonga, Samoa and Fiji just doesn’t make sense. This concept certainly doesn’t keep players close to home, it would be based in Australia, also what happens when the funding from the government dries up? Will the four Pacific Island nations kick in money each year to support the club?
As for scheduling of time slots, Thursday night and Friday night footy should be aired at 7.30 pm. The 8pm kick-off is a bit late. A pre-game show could start at 7pm for a 7.30pm kick-off. Channel 9 could even run the pre-game show on Gem if it was to clash with re-runs of Lego Masters.
Super Saturday works, but Sunday though – what an opportunity Sunday presents. The NRL needs to seriously present this concept to the broadcasters, run simultaneous games at 2pm and 4pm.
Just thinking out loud here, bear with me. Channel 9 gets to pick the two games they want to present, running the Sunday Footy Show into the two games then the 6pm news.
Fox could run the opposite games and the same games as Nine on an alternate channel. Fox would have the same schedule they have now and run both games into the Matty Johns Show. Surely this scheduling proposal presents great appeal for both broadcast partners, not to mention dollar value for the NRL.
The teams would play each other once, 17 rounds. Then to get to 23 rounds of the home and away season they play six teams in their division twice, this would be decided on where teams finished in their division the previous season.
So for example if Manly finish first in their division then the following year they play the teams who finished 2nd through to 7th, likewise if the Warriors finished last, they would play the teams who finished 8th through to 3rd and so on for the other teams. We would have two bye rounds as we do now, so we would end up with a 25 round competition.
Thursday night footy – 7.30 pm (Fox & 9)
Friday night footy – 5.30 pm, 7.30 pm (Fox & 9)
Super Saturday – 3.30 pm x 2, 5.30 pm, 7.30 pm (Fox exclusive)
Sunday ticket – 2.00 pm, 4.00 pm (Fox) 2.00 pm, 4.00 pm (9)
Northern division, North conference
Nth Qld Cowboys
Moreton Dolphins
Brisbane Broncos
Brisbane Jets (2030)
Gold Coast Titans
Northern division, Syd West conference
Newcastle Knights
Wests Tigers
Canterbury Bulldogs
Parramatta Eels
Penrith Panthers
Southern division, Syd East conference
Manly Sea Eagles
Sydney Roosters
Sth Sydney Rabbitohs
Cronulla Sharks
St George Dragons
Southern division, South conference
Canberra Raiders
Melbourne Storm
NZ Warriors
NZ Orcas (2030)
Perth Bears
Originally I was so keen on seeing an Adelaide team in the competition, but not so anymore. A Brisbane Jets and a second NZ team would be better.
The Jets would represent the Western Corridor of South East Queensland, Ipswich through to Toowoomba and beyond. This is rugby league territory, a stronghold of the game, let’s reward them with representation in the top tier of the game.
With the Cowboys ensuring pathways for North Queensland, the Dolphins looking after the Sunshine Coast though to Rockhampton, the Titans looking after the Gold Coast through to Coffs Harbour (I know it’s NSW, but who is looking after this area now?), Brisbane looking after Brisbane and finally the Jets looking after Ipswich through to Toowoomba. Queensland would have fantastic pathways for junior talent, for both the men’s and women’s game.
A second NZ team in Wellington or Christchurch would be fantastic. My preference would be the South Island, another huge market with great potential, plus providing a real NZ rivalry, North Island v South Island.
This expansion concept accomplishes two things – firstly, it establishes teams in the markets who support the game and have been asking for opportunity for years now and it strengthens the vision the game had in the 1990s and the markets it wanted to grow into.
Furthermore it gives us 18 Australia based teams and two in New Zealand – it doesn’t over-saturate the Australian market with teams.
Scheduling wise, we would see the reintroduction of the Friday evening game, a 5.30pm kick-off. With two New Zealand teams this time slot allows for the 7.30 pm (NZ time) game to be televised live at 5.30 pm (Australia time). The other games would still fit my proposal for scheduling of the 18 team competition. In a 20 team competition each team would play each other once, 19 rounds, then they would play each team in their conference once more, giving us 23 rounds of home and away league. With two bye rounds we have a 25 round competition.
When it comes to finals time for the 18-team competition you take the top five from each division. We have three weeks of finals where the teams from their respective divisions play each other, this culminates with the winners of each division meeting in the NRL GF.
As for the 20-team competition, the top two ranked teams from each conference progress to their respective division finals, we then have a Wild Card, the fifth-highest ranked between the two conferences makes it through to their respective division finals. Three weeks of finals begin among each division culminating in the winners of each division meeting in the NRL GF.
People will argue that the Rabbitohs will never get to play the Roosters in a GF, well these teams haven’t met in a GF since the 1930s – we have survived this long without that happening, it certainly hasn’t taken away from the rivalry.
Marata Niukore and Shaun Johnson celebrate. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
If my team eliminates their rival and denies them a spot in the GF, that is as satisfying if not more than beating them in the decider.
There you have it, my vision for the NRL moving forward. Let’s hope the ARL Commission can give us some clarity sooner rather than later – what’s wrong with announcing the expansion pathway now? It gives teams time to be ready for NRL, also it gives excitement and stability to the game.
For what it’s worth, I have also listed my vision for the state based reserve grade competitions below.
Queensland Cup:
Fiji Kaiviti Silktails (2025)
PNG Hunters
Northern Pride
Townsville Cowboys (2025)
Mackay Cutters
Central Queensland Capras
Sunshine Coast Falcons
Redcliffe Dolphins
Norths Devils
Brisbane Tigers
Souths Magpies
Wynnum-Manly Seagulls
Gold Coast Titans (2025)
Tweed Heads Seagulls
Ipswich Jets
Western Clydesdales
NSW Cup:
Newcastle Knights
Manly Sea Eagles
Sydney Roosters
Sth Sydney Rabbitohs
Cronulla Sharks
St George Illawarra Dragons
Wests Tigers
Canterbury Bulldogs
Parramatta Eels
Penrith Panthers
Canberra Raiders
Melbourne Storm (2025)
Adelaide Rams (2025)
Perth Bears (2025)
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