The Barry you undersell your NSW by a large amount, every player is just as talented as his QLD counterpart, desire and motivation is another story though. In 2006 NSW media and experts were questioning the Origin format and if QLD could ever truly be competitive again. It was years into the streak before QLD wrestled the favourites tag off of NSW.

Before the Broncos were in the NSWRL is pretty much irrelevant to this conversation, the QRL was a completely different structure to what it is now whereas NSWRL is still pretty much the same.

When the Broncos were admitted into the NSWRL QLD was actually poorer for it as far as development goes for a long time. You had one top line team for every kid in the state to dream of playing for. Brisbane does not represent the whole of QLD, Cairns is 1700km away, the Torres Strait is 2300km away. The comp in Cairns used to be crazy strong before the Cowboys because you had all these gun payers that had been picked up on scholarships but came home homesick, or never left at all.

Before 1988 there used to be a inter-town rep comp in FNQ called the Foley Shield that dated back to 1948 and even before that was called the Carlton Cup. This comp used to provide QLD and Australian Kangaroo reps on it’s own merits.

The Broncos being added to the NSWRL hurt the Foley Shield and adding the Cowboys killed it. They tried to start it again in 2000 but it was just never the same and didn’t work out.

The pathways and opportunities with NQ Cowboys took a while to rebuild after 95, and adding the Titans in 07, and the Q Cup rejuvenating regional QRL in place of the Foley Shield had completed this rebuild.

You may not want to believe that the Titans adding further depth and opportunity has had an effect on QLD for the last 9 years mate, phycologically or otherwise but it seems simple to me

Justin Hodges (Cairns), Sam Thaiday (Townsville), Billy Slater(Innisfail), Nate Myles(Cairns), Dallas Johnson (Herberton), Dane Gagai (Mackay), Michael Morgan (Townsville), Dane Nielsen (Mackay), Neville Costigan (Mackay). There are more but I can’t be bothered digging.

In FNQ it is technically all the Cowboys system, they pour the money in and do all of the junior talent camps and hold all the carnivals. Their QLD cup feeder teams and their intiatives as well are all the Cowboys. They can’t catch all of the players because there is too much talent up here and all of the NRL clubs are poaching from the system that has been built, just business I guess. Plus some just get passed over who still make ie. Billy Slater.

The point is though that system was built from expansion the same as the GC’s system is being built. Without these pathways QLD Origin team would be all the more poorer and nowhere near the team they are today.

Making money is directly related to public interest and broadcast deals, how do you get more public interest and therefor a better public broadcast deal? Pretty simple really. Of course it is a risk but there is no time like the present

Comparing NRL expansion to the ARU and SANZAAR situation is like saying Bunnings shouldn’t open more stores because Masters went bust. Lessons to be learnt from their demise for sure but the NZ market is ready made for another team, especially needed to further support International growth and more respected Kiwi national side.

4 million population is plenty for 2 sides, Sydney has 9 sides spread out over 4.5 million…..

To have a relegation system you need a phenomenally strong at least three tiered competition, it would take league 50 years at breakneck pace to get to that point. I don’t understand why they have in the SL in England, you just burn fans, sponsors, and players for the team that drops down

That generation of players were raised with an expanding and successful RL, which had a positive effect on their confidence and mindset as QLD RL Players. QLD RL is a similar environment to what I imagine RU is like in NZ. Many of the players you mentioned come from Far North Queensland and were brought through Cowboys development and pathways despite landing at other clubs. Those pathways before the Cowboys were previously unavailable and it was much harder for an FNQ RL player to land a professional career than say a player of similar caliber born and raised in Sydney.

On the flip side RL in Sydney is a battle ground with diminished crowds, a crowded winter sport market place, and supposedly a drop in popularity and participation.

Adding the Titans in QLD further strengthened and underlined this effect for QLD players and RL organisations. So if you want a direct link or stats you won’t find it because we are talking about psychological strength which is hard to measure but makes a huge difference in the outcome of tightly contested games.

I’m technically a one eyed QLD supporter but when I run my eyes over NSW’s team list every year I have no doubt they are just as talented as QLD. Psychologically with what NSW players are exposed to in the Sydney sporting market everyday versus QLD’s belief in their orginisation. Confidence wins everytime

The AFL expanding is a completely different prospect to RL expanding. You are asking people to change their palate in traditional RL heartlands. Bloody hard ask.

RL in NZ is not a change of palate at all just a slightly different flavour. Adding further interest in NZ with a second team has nothing but a positive effect.

The Titans may not have a direct tangible effect on QLD through player representation but the mere fact that we have an extra team allows for greater player development, pathways, and public interest.We still have far less of a player pool to chose from but psychologically having a third team instills further belief in your own strength as a team and also the whole QRL organisation. Adding more teams to NZ would have the same effect on their RL organisations

Which is why the AFL offers it’s new teams and regional teams ridiculous financial concessions to pretty much buy success in those areas

The NRL is trying to expand socio-economically, they took out the biff and the shoulder charge to try and ditch the “thugs and mugs game” tag, and encourage more mothers to let their sons play. They are encouraging more female supporters and bringing the female game through to broaden their demographic and bring more dollars to the table, sponsorship etc.

Targeted socio-economic expansion is a riddle that is hard to crack. State of Origin transcends the every day RL supporter to the greater community and therefor has a huge financial footprint to achieve success like the RU has in NZ or NFL in the US.

SOO did that by hitting a tipping point of popularity where it was impossible to ignore, which is also the only true way RL gets there as well. The biggest part of getting to that point is adding new teams effectively

Someone always has to come last, there is always one or even two teams in the comp that aren’t up to NRL standard. This is the same in every sporting competition across the world, much of it has more to do with confidence and belief than actual talent.

There is huge amounts of unearthed talent in RL in QLD, and in NZ you would flogging alot of RU’s top end schoolboy talent which are players that we would not have seen in RL anyway, win-win.

If you take the argument of look at this team they are doing badly so how can we add another team, then you will never ever add another team. It’s that sort of negative outlook that inhibits growth in any business. It is my strong belief that another NZ team would grow naturally with the bare minimum of assistance form the NRL

Yes it does just ask Dick Smith Electronics

I completely agree with you Peeko, the AFL is going to wear some hard times in GWS and the Gold Coast but they will most likely come through it because of their financial strength, the NRL on the other hand may not find it as easy to get through a lack of local support for a team for a few years.

There actually is fairly good grass roots support for in WA but I think the decision with the most impact would be one or even two more NZ teams. It is a much easier transition for supporters, junior players, coaches, and even referees to flip from Union to League so extra NZ teams would be a lot smoother to add logistically. Plus the benefits for the national Kiwi side and further public interest in clashes would be huge for the NRL

Of course they don’t have the knowledge on the nuances of Union mate that is bloody obvious, they have played and coached their full careers in Rugby League, the article and discussion was surrounding what if they had played and coached Union instead. Australia’s Rugby Union coaching pool is small, whereas Leagues is huge in comparison. Change that up in Australia with Union being the dominant sport then of course the coaching pool would also be much larger and the WB’s would benefit from that.

On a separate discussion Rugby League coaches are held in very high esteem in Union and are brought on as consultants all the time. Phil Blake and Peter Ryan to name a few.

I’m not trying to denigrate the Union coaches we have now, they are very capable. It’s just a simple discussion of if you add depth of competition in the Union top coaching ranks by it being the more dominant sport, would the current coaches still be the coaches or would it be someone else? In my opinion it would be someone else.

Mackenzie you and pretty much all of the All Blacks fans who have commented here have completely lost the plot and missed the point.

We are not talking about NZ at all, we are talking about Australia and asking the question would the WB’s be a superior side than the mess they are now if Union was more popular than League in Aus the same way it is in NZ.

I think the answer is a simple yes our player strength would be better, yes our coaching staff would be better, and more importantly double both of those yes’s because our confidence, motivation and focus would be far higher due to increased importance to the success of that side in Australia.

Jesse Bromwich, Ben Matulino, RTS, Jordan Rapana now that he is back to his best, Solomone Kata could be in contention. The AB’s could pick a seconds side and flog anyone in the world at the moment though so they definitely don’t need any held.

Hansen hasn’t put a foot wrong as coach of the AB’s. Cheika would go in my opinion though, there is a huge amount of coaching talent in the NRL that could do a better job. Craig Bellamy, Paul Green, Trent Robinson, with the strength of the international game in Union you put your best foot forward so probably Wayne Bennet

Why wait when the NZ league team is doing so well? NZ are ready for another League team now

All ancient history and irrelevant to the modern day. Maybe NZ would win, the last paragraph was a bit much and you AB fans can’t even deal with the though of losing ever again, causes panic attacks. What no one can refute though is that the majority of our talent pool is in League and the WB’s would be a better side if League was a secondary in Aus as it is in NZ, which in turn means we would mount a better challenge and maybe topple you. If pigs could fly

NRL scouts raid NZ rugby juniors, there are 16 NRL teams with more established pathways with a professional under 20’s system vs 5 Super Rugby teams. If your a good player then the smart money is to have a crack at league

That sprint was a joke, he was almost 15kgs over weight and injured, shouldn’t have even been there. Didn’t say Inglis was quicker than Barret, but he definitely has better straight line speed. Big difference between quickness and speed. Johnson beats Barret on both counts

Fifita, Taumololo, Papalii, Sam Thaiday. Maybe not more explosive but definitely better players

Very true I just did some quick research and by all accounts Barret challenges the wingers in his team for fastest at the Hurricanes so I stand corrected. I would still back Johnson to pip him though, you can’t use getting run down as an indicator of speed I just watched highlights where Barret got ran down plenty of times. I am the fastest on the field most of the games I play but it doesn’t mean when I make a break I am home free, it is much harder running with the ball and keeping top speed so naturally fast guys have a good chance of catching you and Greg Inglis is no slouch

Greg Inglis has excellent straight line speed, he would run down Barret as well with his stride. Johnson has world class speed, he has been clocked at 35km p/h on GPS, up until last year the fastest soccer player was Theo Walcott at 35.7km p/h. Arjen Robben did 37 km p/h and the world went nuts. Marika Korobete has hit 37.3km p/h and they reckon they had Kevin Gordon at over 41km p/h.

Either way I very much doubt that Barret has that speed

I get physically I’ll listening to the League commentators rave about Jonathon Thurston but even so there is no way Barret comes close to his game craft

So true Chris