I’ve always thought why not Tasmania? I can promise you now, that if Melbourne didn’t get in from the Super League war, people would be saying the same thing about a adding a team there now. The Storm have been a success and a greater success for rugby league in general. We shouldn’t be scared about a lack of grass roots, and be brave and build. I don’t think people realize how powerful a sport could be if it reached every corner of Australia.

I think there’s a level of genius too it. If you gave them a name like “Sunshine Coast Dolphins” that’s what people around Australia would call them. Who knows Redcliffe in NSW/Australia? The new name would stick. Without the Geographical reference, commentators, media pundits. QLD fans will be forced to subconsciously call them the Redcliffe Dolphins, and they’ll get their real “name” without being allowed to have it… It’s just so ingrained in sport to use the “geographical name” before the mascot, that its going to happen naturally. I was a teenager when the Auckland Warriors entered the comp, and that’s what I still call them today… never swapped to New Zealand and never even realized they’d “dropped” the location altogether, until this came up. Has anyone ever called the Roosters the “Sydney Roosters”? How long have actually been called that? They’ll always be the Auckland Warriors, Eastern Suburbs Roosters etc.. If you’re not allowed to use “Redcliffe”, the best way to retain that legacy is to use nothing at all. Brilliant.

Maybe that’s the genius of it? By giving them no name, everyone will call them Redcliffe by default, thus retaining the name incognito???

Have they officially announced that? My assumption is they will announce the official name soon? With a new logo… E.g. South Queensland Dolphins… I’m assuming they’ll still field a team with the Redcliffe name in the QCup.

Yep, I’m thinking the same. I’d replicate the UK model as much as possible, opening up to the lower leagues etc, and time the QCup/NSWCup teams playing the NRL teams during the Origin period. Half the NRL teams play one week, the other half the next etc. The eggheads could do the numbers, but you’d get at least 8 games a week for at least 3 weeks, and avoid the split rounds while still giving the NRL teams a week off etc. There’s a lot of lost interest and complaining in that period, and instead of an understrength Storm team playing the Bulldogs etc, you’d have the Bulldogs taking on Wynnum Manly. Of course player movements from feeder teams would need to be worked out… but it would be good to give those teams some exposure and yes, have the final in October. It works in the UK and teams would love to have the double etc.

I think everyone would love to see the Bears back, but it only exacerbates the Sydney glut… maybe cull the Tigers, move the Sharks to another state and free some space up… but its probably best to keep them in NSW Cup and somehow make that comp lets reserve gradie and more unique/premium… for example is there anyone (even fans of the opposing club) who wouldn’t support the Jets or Bears in any match vs one of the same name reserve teams?

I’ve always thought they should scrap the current process and just play each team once. Alternating home/away from year to year. Old super rugby style. As the current process has never been fair. Of course that would only be 16 games a year (17 with 18 teams), but the gap could be filled with an Australian Challenge Cup, Rep weekends, yearly international tour. I do recall the players complaining that there were too many games a few years a back…

Long overdue. They really should have just added Ipswich at the same time and South Queensland would be sorted for high level league coverage.

There’s talent in QLD, and this provides a much needed pathway for QLD players. There’s still not enough pathways for QLD, but this helps.

Imagine being a kid tying to break into the Broncos side, when they’re covering 4 feeder teams? Someone pulls a hammy for Sharks, and you’ve got an opportunity to prove yourself in the big time…

Expansion article on the roar? Prepare for the worst… most won’t even read it of course, but the Roar crowd love to hate them!
Either way, I enjoyed it. Long, but good points made.
NRL does need to expand, and I’m glad Pete V has got the ball rolling after so many years of wasted time. The reason they’re doing it is because Origin has got them terrified. Queensland’s lack of depth is a direct result of the limited pathways and with the crown jewel looking less and less competitive each year they’re trying to act now (albeit way too late of course).
Living in Queensland, it really is sad when a colleague who immigrated to Australia a few years ago, is asking me about AFL and how his children are is some “auskick program” and want to go to a Lion’s game. AFL are not holding back, and they’re laughing their behinds off at the NRL’s inaction, over confidence and absolute failure to look more than 12 months into the future. Worse thing is the majority of fans encourage and endorse this behaviour… read some comments here for example…
Either way, in regards to you point about NZ/Pacific teams, I think the NRL needs to put expansion outside Australia on hold and sort out Australia first. Put a team in Perth, Adelaide, Darwin and Hobart. Yeah yeah… that’s “complete madness”, but the Storm are the perfect example of an AFL heartland being successfully invaded. It can be done. League should be aiming to be the true national sport… beat the other codes to the punch. Have some ambition… but it won’t…

Perth needs a team and rugby league needs to be more national, but I’ve always felt that it’s a bit rotten to lump a Sydney basket case onto another city… do they really deserve a team with all that baggage?

But the old 2 for 1 is just too tempting – sydney consolidation (without losing the history) and expansion.

If a team is to be picked, it has to be the Tigers, as they just tick so many boxes…

1) Basket case (poorly run and needs the cash).
2) Saturated western Sydney market (dogs, eels, panthers are all clubs no one wants to take the axe to).
3) Already divided fan base (the fans that stuck around after the merger are used to it)
4) Ordinary home grounds (they’ve already scheduled games out of Parramatta’s new ground next year).
5) “Wests Tigers” – name change not required.
6) Just like all the other non-sydney clubs, they’ll play a bulk of games in Sydney (their fans might turn up… which is no change really.).
7) They are a relatively new club, only 6 or so years older than the Titans which im guessing makes them the 2nd youngest in the NRL (aka they lack the history and tradition, meaning we’re not losing much from the game)
8) Stagnant (have they really ever been a contender since 2005? If I’ve ever seen a club in need of a fresh start, it’s the toxic tigers).

Either way this has all been said before, and will be said again, but really it is the most logical option.

With the Sydney glut being one of the key issues facing the NRL and rugby league’s growth, and now that the Sharks have finally got a premiership, the Tigers are sitting very high on the chopping block.

With such a toxic history would anyone really miss them? Robbie and Benji are not much of a legacy…

Balmain Tigers and Western Sydney Magpies in the NSW Cup where they belong.

“Wests Tigers” can live on in Wikipedia.

I think every rugby league fan knows the sport is in the shadow of Union across the globe, with the exception of Australia (and PNG).

I think I speak for most that we’re just happy there are few people out there spreading our sport around the world and it is good to hear they are making progress. It doesn’t always have to be compared to Union.

Although with league’s superior speed, flow and simplified rules, being the exact opposite of union, it could come to be embraced in some places.

As for the 7s, league would do well to unofficially attach itself to this rugby 7’s emergence and introduction to the Olympics. As like league, it is just another version of rugby, however 7s is a lot more similar to league than union. If anything, league is perfect blend of both.

Also not to forget the under 20’s comp – those players have to move somewhere if they are not going straight into first grade. I think there is a lot of talent in the QCup, Just remember Jake Granville was in the QCup for a few years and he’s now tearing them up for the Cowboys. The only reason he probably got that shot for the Cowboys, was that Paul Green coached him while in the QCup (they won 2 premierships together).

If Green didn’t get the Cowboys gig, Granville might not have had that chance, because the Broncos weren’t really giving him a go. He’s proof enough that there are quality players in the QCup, let alone the NSWCup and Super League. The question is if there are enough of them and I think there is. Giving a semi-pro player with talent a shot at the big time and he could just develop into a star.

Regardless, there’s a reason why expansion comes up every week, and it’s just not on the roar, is people want more teams. Lovers of the game want to see it grow and take on other sports in new areas. We don’t want it to be an “exclusive” club. We want our sport to be as grand as we all know it could be. Besides, although I’m a Queenslander who is trying to put my maroon blood aside, it really is boring watching Sydney vs Sydney week in, week out.

This week:

Townsville v Sydney
Brisbane v Sydney
Sydney v Newcastle
Sydney v New Zealand
Sydney v Sydney
Canberra v Sydney
Sydney v Gold Coast
Sydney v Melbourne

Two more teams won’t hurt the player depth and if it does league is strong enough to adjust. Really do we all think league is that weak?

I don’t. I have faith in Rugby League.

In truth rugby league is a decade (if not more) behind AFL in terms of a national presence or even attempting to be recognized as a national sport. Calling the competition “National” does not make it national.

League’s power comes from large population bases in NSW/QLD – that’s the 1st and 3rd biggest states making up about 50% percent of the Australia’s population. Yes, states like Tasmania don’t know the difference between League and Union (it’s always just “Rugby”) but they only make up 2% of Australia. That’s why there is an AFL team on the Gold Coast and not Hobart. But in total AFL hold roughly the other 50% and if league didn’t have NSW or QLD it would be a low key sport and if AFL didn’t have VIC it would be a low key sport.

Right now they are about equal, with the only real difference being that AFL is smarter. It sucks, but it’s true. League had a plan 20 years ago, but it sacrificed its national presence for the sake of Sydney. Which is trying it’s hardest to keep it that way by keeping expansion down. If we had kept Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane 2 we would be on a solid national footing. The argument they could never have been successful is moot, due to the fact that Melbourne has been consistently the best team in the competition for over 10 years – they proved it’s possible.

League needs to start taking risks, that might mean a new team in Perth and it might mean risking the backlash of booting out or re-locating the Tigers (or other Sydney clubs). One advantage league does have its got Newcastle, Canberra and Townsville. These niche teams that have either had great success or a great following (or both), but they are dots on a map that are difficult for other sports to follow. For example it’s easier putting a league team in a capital such a Perth than AFL putting a team in Newcastle.

Which league needs to start doing. Put teams in all the capitals, feel the pain and wait for success. Perth/Adelaide are a must, but I would use that same niche formula for smaller cities and place a team in Darwin and even consider Tasmania (a state that has no sporting team other than cricket aka no winter team).

Yes, I did mention that AFL put a team in GC rather than TAS. A larger population and solely of financial reasons. While making money is important, is shows that what AFL is only interested in is the big bucks and don’t care about the passion of the sport. Something that I think the AFL is losing. Rugby league has passion, hence why state of origin is so huge. League needs to tap and import that passion by embracing the smaller, neglected cites and building a national pressence.

Embrace it with the knowledge that is simply reinforces the fact that channel 9 and it’s coverage of rugby league is an absolute joke.

Well channel 9 got the result they wanted – a rooster’s win and controversial finish against the cowboys. I felt sick that they were talking about sending a commentator straight to Thurston for a reaction before the game was even over. There will be no shower longer enough for Tallis to wash that regret for that behaviour… he just sold out my state for channel 9.

The argument of international rugby league is always really a moot point. This is due to one defining factor, which is we’re still yet to establish a National game in this nation (let alone the other 2 strong league nations). It is clear that rugby league’s stronghold is Australia. Therefore how can anyone argue strategies and ideas to grow the game internationally, when we have failed to do so nationally?

It’s simple. Add the 4 teams needed and strengthen their second tier comps to establish a national rugby league competition and then start the discussion around international rugby league.

The NRL are leaving it late to turn around the refs this season. These poor decisions are really accentuating the negativity that is surrounding the NRL in 2014.

Greenburg coming out tomorrow with “a mistake was made (again)” is only going to make matters worse.

With these two particular teams, you think there would have been an element of caution used, but to actively display this level of bias beggars belief. Hats off to the Cowboy fans to sticking it out through this rubbish for nigh on 20 years, and to NRL, please learn the sport of rugby league comes before both Sydney and Manly.

Well the current financial situation of Australian union seems to contradict your statement.

The true fact is that union is a boring sport. People can argue until they are blue in the face, but the reality is that it is a boring sport.

Any sport that encourages negatives tactics to win is ultimately going to be a boring sport.

Boring sports don’t get on free to air TV because they don’t achieve TV ratings. Why no TV ratings? Because not one wants to watch it because, surprise surprise, it is boring.

What choice does Australian union have? It does not have the power to adapt the international sport to be more exciting, even to make small adjustments to its primary competition because SA and NZ don’t have the problem of competitor with the more exciting product of Rugby League.

Yes, the international element is union’s biggest asset, yet does little to encourage the typical Australian to sit through the boredom when their representative team plays not only extremely poorly, but obstinately negative. Thankfully McKenzie is trying to change that, but really look at the players he has to work with? The other harsh reality is that all the talent in Australia is running around in the NRL.

That is with the exception of Australia’s best and most exciting union player, ex-Rugby League player, Israel Folau. How many games did he play before he was in the union national team? A hell of a lot less than he would need to make a Rugby League representative team again. Why doesn’t union poach more Rugby League players? Because it can’t afford to, because it has limited revenue because boring sports fail to find the fan base that fund its existence.

Union is a stubborn sport that festers in its own tradition. Although the tradition of its upper class fans providing its fiscal backing appears to be well and truly drying up. The working class man will always pay for what he loves, yet the modern day aristocrats quickly turn their backs on their fickle loyalties.

The moral is simple. An upper class sport that revels in its own tedium will never win the hearts of the common man. Union is finding out the hard way that their traditional target audience won’t provide the cash when times are tough.

They have been “tampering” with the Sydney clubs since league’s conception in NSW.

You seem to forget that teams like the Bears, Newtown Jets and numerous others are no longer in the top tier and guess what? Rugby league life goes on.

One great example is the West Tigers. They are now 15 years old and people talk about them like they are the heart and soul of rugby league. They are one of the newest clubs in Rugby League and seem to have found a great following (god knows why).

While I don’t believe in the format C of our “national” rugby league comp, the West Tigers is shining example of why it could work.

Regardless, the great Sydney cull must happen for the future of league growth. Someday soon I hope.

Driving long distances is a way of life in Central Queensland (and for that Queensland and most of Australia in general).

Don’t apply your Sydney ignorance of “I can’t be bothered going to live games” to the rest of Australia.

The selection of Farah makes little logical sense. The only reason he should be in the squad is as a backup hooker. Smith gets injured and Farah goes in. Many players have had to wait for an injury to get their opportunity. Why is he the backup hooker? Because he is the Blues hooker and rugby league is dictated by fractional powers the ensure NSW players must be in the squad, whether they are deserving or not. There is no doubt that Smith in the world’s best rugby league hooker, followed by Matt Ballin and Jake Friend as the next best for Australia. Farah is not even a finalist hooker.

Secondly, the only reason Farah gets a run on is because of his connection with Sheens. Why Sheens still has any loyalties to the toxic tigers, god only knows, but that is why he is on the field.

To even suggest Smith is not an 80 minute is simply ludicrous. His track record is matchless. If Queensland has not been beaten in this tactic for over 8 years, it suggests that we believe that the international side facing Australia would beat NSW. Essentially, why would anyone tamper with a proven winning combination/position that has beaten the 2nd best rugby league team in the world in such a devastating fashion?

DCE is a player who has proven himself as an excellent utility, not to mention being probably the most exciting rugby talent at the moment. He ticks all boxes and if he does not make the team it is only because the powers that be have made sure Farah is in the team.

Indeed. The hack richie wrote an article early last week stating the fans were up in arms about the poor world cup coverage… I want to personally shake the hand of any channel 7 employee for being part of an organisation that has shown the fans of my treasured sport respect. This is a concept that has almost been lost to our sport.

It makes me sad that the interests inside rugby league are always aligned to some commercial factor that puts itself before the sport. The corrupt elite that speak publicly of our sport, the rugby league “media” always have a hidden agenda, although I use the term hidden solely for descriptive purposes, as the vast majority’s arrogance and intellectual deficiency make it difficult for them to conceal their corporate motivation. Long live the Roar and the majestic Steve Mascord for providing a path for the truth in rugby league!

Unfortunately our sport faces many challenges, one such as this article accurately and timely describes – our many constant detractors. It is not surprising that the attacks occur when we want to simply celebrate our sport. It is not an unexpected theme to rugby league.

Some may ask why our sport? But all true fans know it is one of the sport’s characteristics, while we have speed, aggression and fantastic skill. We also have poor administration, bad refereeing and immoral sensational seeking self-interested media.

This is our biggest challenge, the inside detractors, the opportunistic dogs that write and speak to the benefit of their corporate overlords and NOT the sport of rugby league.

The sport of Rugby League is synonymous with contention. It is a sport that naturally breeds never-ending debate and examination of its every facet. Passionate fans furiously state their beliefs of the betterment of their beloved sport, illustrated on a daily basis by my fellow Roarers.

Whether this constant division that surrounds our game is its ultimate hindrance or its greatest attribute is simply one of these many contentious arguments. However, the one topic that unifies all Roarers (and, I would like to believe, all rugby league fans) is their comprehensive hatred for the broadcaster Channel 9 and its utter contempt for Rugby League and its fans.

For while we may argue about the many potential paths rugby league could or should take, we all clearly see Channel 9 for what it is. An entity that does not share in our passion, but prostitutes our sport to the betting agencies, new movies, their summer rubbish shows and the next player/clown they’ve signed for their degenerate team.

We see through their falsehoods and their lack of respect, no, once again their contempt for the fans. The ever growing list of their self-motivated decisions continues with no light at the end of the tunnel.

It annoys us that their coverage is beyond disgusting, but it makes us angry how they treat our game, as we know their actions are damaging our sport. We see them always put themselves ahead of Rugby League, abusing it as a finite resource that they will flippantly discard once it has out lasted their usefulness.

We want and we need a partner to rugby league who will embrace the sport as does its passionate fans, who puts the well being of the sport first, without any greedy motivations. We want live games, we want to see the best players and teams, but what we all really want is a broadcaster who shares our love for the game.

We, the league fans, do not agree on much, but this is what I believe unites us all.

I’m a Rugby League fan. I’m a Pro Rugby League expansionist who calls for the rationalisation of Sydney clubs and I hate Channel 9.