Ballin was the number 2 hooker in about 2007-2009. He is and was nowhere near as good as Smith.

It is bound to happen yeah. But i think Lockyer still was. There was no 5/8ths running around that were anywhere near as good as Friend is as hooker to pass him though. He had been passed as best player in the game though.

I don’t think Cam Smith should be counted out. Wonderful player. I still think the Storm could win it all this year and it is largely due to him.

You are a fool. Cameron Smith is still undoubtedly in the top 5 or 10 players playing Rugby League. Still really good.

Origin is the greatest thing in RL for any fan who lives outside of Sydney… Even more so if they are from an are without an NRL team.

I like it!

I propose we name two of these teams the Marble Bar Mud-crabs and the Betoota Baboons.

1. That was intended as a joke mocking the Sydney RL fans desperate pleas for not culling teams under the guise of tradition. Seeing as like some of my article was serious and some wasn’t I think some people kind of missed my point in some parts.
2. I don’t really like the Dragons so maybe i am just biased. but i think Illawarra would be a huge area to have a pro team playing in full time.
3. Relocation is a bad idea in my opinion. Areas want their own teams with their own traditions. I really think that Perth and Brisbane should be in at the expense of 2 sydney teams or that Perth, Brisbane and CQ should be in at the expense of one so that we have a 18 team competition. We can’t go any bigger than that right now.
4. So do I, I think it is really something that could work. I like that most of your schedule would be identical compared to teams that you are competing against to make the finals. And though fans would hate a shorter schedule now once they saw it in action I think they would learn to love it.
5. I am torn on it. I think that it needs to change from what it is now, but i think it has to stay midweek for financial reasons. It was just another suggestion on what we could do with it.
6. As a Qlder who was only 5 at the time the year of the Superleague was one of the fondest in my memory. Though i can’t remember the fighting in the background and the finer details of the SL war I know from talking to my grandfather and father QLDers felt we were finally getting the amount of NRL (or professional rugby league) that we deserved. Once we got shafted following the conclusion of the war (I know this was largely due to the Broncos killing the crushers and the GC teams ineptitude) a lot of the hatred has been directed at the NRL that we feel never gives us valid representation.
7. So will I. I quite enjoy the test. it is a quality game of RL that is improving every year. Even as a QLDer i watch the city country with mild interest. This was also intended as a joke mocking the people constantly death riding anything other than NRL games and Origin.
8. QLDers can’t stand that guy man… he is an annoying biased tosser. The only person worse is Hadley. Seriously an all QLD commentary crew for Origin is the best idea ever. You guys (if you are from NSW if not i apologise just kind of an assumption i have made based on some of your points) wouldn’t get it because you support NSW and would overlook it. But you guys whinge about Wally basically cheering for the Maroons in the commentary box when something amazing happens. We have to listen to Goulds last minute pep talks and a constant biased commentary throughout the entire game… Just because they are more subtle than Lewis doesn’t mean they don’t do it.

By far my best idea (in terms of validity and ease of application), and one of only a few i mentioned that i actually think should happen.

Cheers Dutski, I think i missed a memo on the seriousness that every article here must be aspire too. I wrote an article suggesting a slight culling of Sydney teams, considering trades and a conference system and optimising the schedule by putting on as many afternoon games as possible, as well as getting people who aren’t intolerable to commentate. Thought it was the most boring thing i had ever read (as well as something everyone on this site had written) so i scrapped it and just took everything to its most extreme conclusion.

A lot of what i put in was also to make fun of some various sections of the Australian sporting community but it seems to have gone over their heads mostly *sigh*. Like when i suggested every team had their own stadium, none seems to have got it but i was actually attempting to poke fun at the people constantly calling for games at leichardt and reminiscing of the days when souths played at Redfern, even though these places are dumps. The joke is that they say they want to go to all these old dumps, but if anyone fixed them up and teams played out of them they would whinge about that too…

Ultimately i wrote a few serious points that were valid but boring and then just decided to write something fun and absurd. I am glad you too got some enjoyment from it.

Financially it would be near impossible to maintain this sort of model in Australia…

I was half serious absolutely…

I think Sydney should have less teams YES
I think the TV schedule should be optimised to hit all the TV spots but still have games on in better times than they do YES
I think Brisbane needs another team and Perth needs a team YES
I think the schedule should be worked in a fairer way YES
I think trades should be accepted and regulated YES

I think that NRL should fork out to build every team a new stadium NO
I think PNG, Hobart and Darwin should have a team NO

The berries thing was meant to mock tradition. but clearly people have taken that one seriously too. i will say though that the Bulldogs is the 4th dumbest name in the NRL (behind the 3 Queensland teams).

I was half serious in that some things I said are valid and based in reality. I was half joking in that i took everything to its most extreme conclusion and just had fun with it. I enjoyed writing it and my article title Quickly changed from 3 things the NRL needs to do, to who cares lets blow this thing up and start again!

Man as a Queenslander i can attest that a large part of us following the mighty maroons so closely is that a lot of relatively large areas have no local league team and a lot of the old Bridbane RL fans hate the Broncos.

It isn’t meant to stand up. Just enjoy it and have some fun with it. If you could change anything about the NRL right now what would you change?

p.s. I also love watching Thursday night football on TV. That is why i have made it a weekly occurrence in my competition.

I pointed out that they weren’t matched up. Only real deliberate match up i did was Souths to NRL and Broncos to super league. Other than that i just filled in the teams into places where (if they were a team with history) they would be with a team they could hopefully develop a rivalry with.

You do realise when sports split into conferences. Even with ones like the NFL who had two comps already in place they do move the teams around right? Steelers were always NFL yet are in the AFC.

Like posted in the first paragraph it basically is all about me hahaha in a purely hypothetical universe.

Up in qld the super league is nowhere near as maligned as it seems to have been in Sydney. I’d imagine that this has a lot to do with the Broncos though. No one is pining for the comp to split again though.

It is funny though. Because even though almost all of these ideas are not actually viable. I think lowering the amount of Sydney teams is definitely a must. But if finances are considered, they weren’t in this hypothetical, there is no way in hell it will get to 4. I would say 6-7 would probably be the ideal number.

The only thing I think would work in the real world is the way I organised the weekly program. We need to hit the prime time slots on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday, reality is the comp needs these tv dollars. Then we have an afternoon game Saturday and 3 on Sunday, with two starting at 2 and a FTA one at 4:30. Fans love these arvo games and turn out to them much better than for the night games. I think that would really work. Or is atleast something worth looking at.

And the people who organise such things are groups of men all of which are more knowledgable about this stuff than me. So if a group of them sit down rather than having 10 ideas that they would like but are bad for the game and one genuinely good idea they could get together 15 or 20 really good ideas.

And On the accusations of stupidity:

I am aware PNG isn’t ready. All the real world problems this would cause aren’t relevant here. Purely because it is a hypothetical.

I am aware of the Gold Coast dolphins naming problems. Again though. Not necessary to a hypothetical.

I think that being first into Darwin or Hobart could be huge. Especially if they have that Victorian culture of turning up too live sport. Plus Townsville is only about 180000 from memory. But that could be wrong. I still don’t think pure population is the issue there.

Sydney being the centre of the rugby league universe is of no importance to me at all. I’m a QLDer. I am aware there is no way they go to 4 in Sydney (plus 8 within a 2-3 hour drive mind you) but removing one Sydney team and relocating the Dragons to Illawarra would be a massive improvement for the NRL (except for the fans of teams effected). Then you could add 3 new teams instead of just 2. Perth and B2 are happening. Then you could look at NZ2 or CQ as the third. Central Coast really should have a team. But they are so close to Sydney putting another team straight back in that bubble would just be done.

If I considered finances I would do a lot of things differently obviously. But I think that we all have just a few good ideas in us. So it’s time for us to figure out what they are and put them into action.

No i haven’t there is still 8 teams within a 3 hour drive. I am sure they will get over it. If you seriously think that every suburb in sydney needs there own team or even that all the current Sydney teams should stay you are even more crazy than Commisioner Matthew.

Who would be the team with the most junior teams? If you mean St. George i do hope you realise the vast majority of them are Illawarra?

And Easts stay because Politis is paying Commisioner Matthew under the table to keep them in. Politis is floating Darwin and Hobart. Holding an imaginary NRL team isn’t cheap.

Commissioner Matt disagrees with you and thus thrusts apon you the lifetime ban shared by Stuart Buzz and Rabbits.

Of course I am! Mad speculation. Having some fun with it. Hence the constant smarts comments and genuinely just having fun with it. Originally My comp had 18 teams with no Hobart or Darwin. But then i was just like ‘HEY! This is just an imaginary competition. You can be more creative than that!’

Not meant to be a series of genuine options. Just a bit of fun speculation. I had fun writing it.

Hell yeah i will. I’m not from Sydney. Couldn’t care less about your clubs history. In saying that The tigers and St. Merges 15 odd years of history are largely unimportant anyway. And i think we will all be glad to forget sharks history of ineptitude.

In reality there is no way the NRL will or should cut as many teams as i did. But they need to cut some. Getting rid of the tigers and moving St. Merge back to Illawarra would be an awesome start.

Hey man… Hey… The Berries are legit. My grandfather is like a original Canterbury fan. Those old guys love that stuff… It isn’t like they would actually have a berry as a logo or even that it would be written anywhere. They would just be the Canterbury-Bankstown Rugby League Club. They would use that awesome CB logo. It would be sweet.

On a serious note though i should have pointed out. A better article title would have been: What if the NRL cared about fans who didn’t live in Sydney or the Queensland South East Corner.

Your NSWRL Comp would be crushed under the weight of my hypothetical billions! Whats that SBW? NSWRL is offering you 800000 a year. here we will give you 2 mill 😉

You need to chill out man. Just a lot of fun hypothetical speculation. Chill out and make some of your own. If you could change some things what would you change?

Only one that mattered in my hypothetical was me. Commissioner Matthew works for free and turns up to games wearing a tracksuit! No men in suits in my league though. I am aware a lot of these changes are awful for a league that is trying to make money. But i think that out of my changes one or two would genuinely work.

The QLDers generally don’t have a problem with the best teams being from Sydney. The problem is that Sydney has 3x as many teams as the whole of QLD first and foremost. And the fact that the NSW fans and media members write crap like this not acknowledging the fact that a fair portion of these teams are made up of QLD players. Until the competition is more evenly balanced amongst the 2 states QLD will continue to have this chip on our shoulders. The fact that the sydney-centric media has pushed for a perth side over brisbane 2, western corridor and Central Qld has only increased the problem for those of us from outside of Sydney.

You are right. It must be really hard supporting a team that has been runner up in two successive seasons.

That isn’t the point and you know it.

It was the point though. it was pointed out that Eels played the ‘lesser code’.

This is why supporters of the 2 larger codes have so many problems with soccer supporters. Soccer fans bait them until they bite and then they act all holier than thou and blame AFL and NRL for the code war against soccer. I don’t care at all and it is really starting to rub me the wrong way.

I have read a tonne of your comments on this thread. You are just so wrong all the time… You constantly are baiting AFL fans with incorrect information and making generally incorrect claims.

I am not a troll mate Infact i would say you are the troll. I am just pointing out how you are wrong.

Here are the facts:

WSW memberships are cheaper.
Ticketed WSW members sell out.
Non-ticketed WSW members exist.
WSW represents a much larger area of Sydney than Parramatta does.

from this you make the jump that somehow WSW don’t have any non-ticketed members and that somehow these non-ticketed members are in the 15000. Even though i could become a non-ticketed member at any point i felt necessary.

You also conclude that WSW are the more popular club. Despite the fact that Parramatta are among the most supported clubs outside of Sydney. Parramatta have a massive group of followers derived from people who were children during their success in the 80’s. Same with the Bulldogs. Same with the Roosters except for the early 2000’s and the dragons for the 50’s and 60’s.

You just don’t get how the world works man and it is baffling.

They aren’t actually homesick. They just don’t want to play for Ricky Stuart. Can you blame them? the guy is an insufferable git