Perth and Perth only, for more than one reason.

I believe that the focus should be then to clean up the second grade and have a merger between QLDRL and NSWRL.

The second grade should be a clean cut NRL 2nd Grade. Extend the number of contracted players to 40.

After that,
A second division can be created (no, not promotion relegation to the NRL) and can be filled with NRL hopeful teams who can have time to play on the field and also sort out back of house finances. Roughly 8 teams at this stage.

PNG
STH Island Team
Fiji (take from the silk tails playing Jim beam cup)
Bears (want to join nrl)
Newtown
Blacktown
Ipswich (previous bid)
East’s Tigers (current bid)
Sunshine Coast / Adelaide

The remaining qld cup teams and Jim beam cup teams can become regional representative teams, and play in divided nsw and qld competitions. Even have that as the new state cup winner game on grand final day. Teams who are waiting and getting ready to put together a half decent outfit to enter the second division when the NRL is ready for a 19th team.

Currently
17 nrl teams
15 qld cup teams
13 nsw cup teams
9 Jim beam cup teams
54 teams

New model
18 nrl teams
18 second grade teams
8 second division teams
44 teams
Plus amateur third division

Just a rushed thought, apologies for the grammar.

No draft, trading, proper free agent windows or any other trends popular in US sports will happen in Australian or New Zealand Rugby League whilst there is still a divide in NSWRL and QLDRL.

It all begins with jersey Flegg/QLD colts and works its way up.

100% agree.

Would’ve thought magic round is the best time to test the new expansion locations.
See if Perth can fill 60,000 seats over three days.

Could even split it up, 4 games in Perth and 4 games in PNG to really test out logistics, security and desire.

More on the topic of eligibility than the nature of the sport.
I believe that Australians playing overseas and representing the Wallabies (with passion) is more than possible, and get to get the results too! As said, it can’t get too much worse than the current model.
However, it won’t be achievable if say a superstar u20 player took a contract in the URC and three years later he is Scottish or Irish.
Maybe the Giteau law could be trimmed down to a lot less tests, and a higher number of players for selection too.

Or they injure themselves playing super rugby, and still have to travel to South Africa?

Just a quick thought of,

Player
Comes through the Australian system
Gets his start in juniors
Plays super rugby as a junior
Is a superstar in the making
Gets poached to O/S
stays playing for Australia, also for international club
Australia rugby ups the payments for test matches, but still has the ability to invest in the next crop.

Admittedly there are grey areas
Such as
Rugby has such Mickey Mouse nationality eligibility laws

I can ask though, how does it differ to football in terms of eligibility?

Why not just give the players the option to play in Europe full time.
I know the obvious as to why, but is the current system working?. The Wallabies results aren’t exactly glowing.
The sooner Rugby Australia (and NZR) start focusing on growing a club/franchise competition (not a glorified season of wallabies trials) as the first priority, the better it will be for Rugby.
Players might actually have more passion and pride in wearing the green and gold if they are coming back purely for test match rugby.

As mentioned before,
Any idea on how many club games a northern hemisphere international plays? That’s would be the insight

Yes again, not ideal but keeps a tradition to those clubs, also keeps within the populations.
No offence to say country NSW or QLD but how much commercial hope does a team have?, also attracting players from nz to play for Australian clubs and still represent the all blacks.
Manly and Bondi certainly seems nicer than Palmerston North or Invercargil for a young man. Not sure if country towns would have the same appeal.

Reference. I grew up in country nsw.

I believe there should be one cross hemisphere window, one window for six nations and one for a southern hemisphere competition (rugby championship for now).
I believe that rugby is getting further and further away from being a traditional autumn winter sport, this isn’t new.
If the crossover window would be in say October/november it’s lovely (and yes I know potentially hot!) conditions to go the rugby in the southern hemisphere but also not a gnarly winter in Europe!.
But it’s a whole new dreamworld kettle of fish talking about northern hemisphere clubs releasing players

If world rugby can just please cap at 12 tests a year. Say the average player is now playing 32 games.
An all black or wallaby would play 15 for their club, 5 for their super rugby team, 12 tests.

Any idea on how many club games a French international plays for their top 14 team, or are they playing half the season, plus Heineken cup, and finals?

To me (an Australian living in NZ for 20 years) the problem is that people call for tribalism but people don’t like manufactured teams with no history and a silly nickname.

I’m a very big advocate for this style of competition and have for many years bored my friends to death with how it would work.
So here’s the skinny.

Shute shield becomes the unofficial second grade (think nsw cup)

Top tier

Brumbies
Force
Rebels
Two Brisbane clubs (maybe a merge of north of the river and south of the river of the current clubs)
Gold Coast (bond university in disguise)
Northern Suburbs
Gordon
Warringah
Manly
East’s
Randwick
Sydney (university in disguise)
Harbour
Parramatta
Eastwood
Southern Districts (including Illawarra and the shire)

This looks contradictory to what I said above with the Brisbane teams, but what I gather is that the problem with the NRC is that the Sydney clubs don’t play ball, Brisbane had no problem making teams.

So start a national comp with high expectations and give the Sydney clubs a feeling of importance. A Tooheys New Cup on steroids. Think mid 90s NRL. High expectations to be a professional club. Either they will, or better yet, for a lack of a better word they’ll “merge” and get over their hatred for one another whilst then also having the Shute shield to keep history.

So once they do (and hopefully they do before a ball gets kicked) the competition could look as follows

ACT Brumbies
Perth Force
Melbourne Rebels
Northern Beaches (Manly, Warringah)
North Sydney (Northern Suburbs, Gordon)
Randwick-East Sydney (Randwick, East’s)
Sydney (Uni, Harbour-Inner West)
Parramatta-Ryde (Parramatta, Eastwood)

To expand on this, let’s say NZ want to make their NPC number one again,
9 provinces (including the highlanders and the drua)

North Auckland (north harbour, northland)
Auckland
Counties – Manukau (S Auckland)
Waikato
BOP
Taranaki
Wellington
Tasman
Canterbury
Highlanders (Otago, Southland)
Fijian Drua

Manawatu, Hawkes Bay could join the heartland championship due to lack of population, etc etc

Instead of waiting till the end of year. Make the Super Rugby Pacific played throughout the year like the UEFA or Heineken Cup. A group stage, followed by knock out that happens during the season.

This gives the game time to non test players all year.

Representative. There’s talks above of making NSW AND QLD mean something again. To hate Queensland. They need to be full of QLD players. But let’s not copy state of origin, and remember a whole generation of people have grown up watching Super Rugby. So let’s keep that history.

Remove the boring July test window vs second string welsh teams etc.
Have (during the domestic season, just like nrl) the real super rugby
Through set criteria

NSW Waratahs (players from nsw)
QLD Reds (players from qld)
Blues (players from northland to south Auckland)
Chiefs (players from Waikato, BOP, Hawkes Bay and smaller unions in between)
Hurricanes (players from Taranaki, Whanganui, Manawatu, Wellington and smaller unions)
Crusaders (South Island)

Highlanders weren’t included due to the small population and player production

A round robin, 5 games each, mid season whilst the domestic games are still taking place. Think six nations intensity.

Player drain problems?

Let NZ players play for the Australia teams and vise versa, and if they want to represent NZ or Wallabies then they need to play rep footy that year.

Apply the giteau law to 50 tests to both countries, on the condition that they still play “Super Rugby”.
So the Riche Moungas of the world can play their rugby in Japan, have to play 5 games for the Crusaders to be considered for the All Blacks.

The next up and coming wallaby can find game time at Tasman Makos, then play for QLD Reds before being selected for the Wallabies.

That’s the quick rundown, and once that’s set you can include Japanese teams to compete in the Pacific Champs

Australian Comp / NZ Comp
Pacific Championships
Representative Super Rugby

All in a 30 week window to provide game time and develop talent.

Why don’t they go the opposite.

Make only Australian representatives eligible for selection. Have stand alone rep weekends including Origin. A Player must choose if they are playing for Samoa or Queensland.
They can have one chance to go from Australia to a tier two team and when that chance is taken to represent their heritage then that’s it, no going back.
It won’t happen overnight, but a pacific series that is played (without Australia) during Origin time can hopefully gather enough money to be able to pay all the players close enough to Origin cash.

Just playing catch up on all of this,

A lot of Kiwis dont support the Warriors, and there is great interest in other teams and ofcourse State of Origin. Always found it so funny that a kiwi can bleed blue or maroon because of a 3 month OE in one of the states.

An example, Manly still has a very large supporter base in NZ from the past generation who followed league pre warriors with the Lowe and Ridge era.

Melbourne Storm seem to have the good base now too, again for reasons such as the amount of kiwis living in Melbourne, success on the field, And kiwis playing for the team, a history going back to Tawera Nikau and Stephen Kearney.

Does this warrant another team?, I’m not sure, Wellington and Christchurch get their odd warriors games but they don’t hit capacity. Is this due to Christchurch’s stadium dilemma of being off the beaten track, the bad luck Wellington has with the weather or that the rest of NZ doesn’t really associate with the Warriors. They are an Auckland team, they changed their colours and jersey back to the nostalgic original look but to the rest of the Country, especially Christchurch, they are Auckland colours.

It would be interesting to see how a team would go in Christchurch once the new 30,000 person stadium is built the heart of the CBD. The city is great and developing nicely, but would it attract players?.

For a 20 team competition, I would add the existing historic teams in the mix
Bears – central coast, nth Sydney based

Ispwich/Brisbane Jets

Apart from a lot of the obvious reasons already discussed, I believe that it should be a criteria that if you are to want to enter the NRL your club/franchise has to do it’s time and development in either of the second grade state competitions.
These teams have been doing that, very same way the base of the Dolphins did and are still doing now in Redcliffe

Don’t give Perth the Bears, if they are wanting a team then get a team playing in the NSW cup now and they can experiment with logistics of what it’s like having a Perth team in an eastern state competition.
If NZ want a second team, they too should follow suit. Build the franchise that way, even be a feeder for the Warriors.

Under this criteria, PNG Hunters too would be in for an opportunity when there is a 20th team ready to be added to the competition.

An additional Pasifika team is just a terrible idea. The NRL are better off having Pacific round and moving games to the Islands, but with no actual hometown identity it would go down the path of Super Rugby. Which in my eyes will be an eventual fail with Moana Pasifika.

Speaking of hometown identity.
Before expansion begins, and bringing in the Central Coast team can we please shift Wests Tigers out to Campbelltown – I am a tigers fan, I was a Balmain fan but this team is currently a mess with identity issues, imagine playing a team in Perth and a recently converted AFL fan being explained what exactly does Wests mean.
The fact that Bulldogs country is in between both Magpies and Tigers catchments doesn’t make sense.
Free up the inner west, and either send them out to Campbelltown or let the Magpies return and the Balmain Tigers can resurrect in the NSW Cup (Ofcourse waiting in line behind the bears)
Same can be said for The Dragons.
Keep the history, but just move permanently down to Illawarra. Again, Sutherland is in between their catchments, from an outsider this just looks messy.
That’ll free up more of your Sydney market (slightly)