NRL circa 2035

  • We had an issue with background services between march 10th and 15th or there about. This meant the payment services were not linking to automatic upgrades. If you paid for premium membership and are still seeing ads please let me know and the email you used against PayPal and I cam manually verify and upgrade your account.

Mark from Brisbane

“ Boomer still Booming”
Premium Member
Tipping Member
Firstly I know this has been bandied around on many occasions here on ST but in light of the situation with many of our clubs at present ( being run by the NRL), and the recent revelation that the Dragoons are also in financial trouble I wonder if the NRL are considering a real rethink of the competition make up in the years to come.

I know that with Greenslime in charge this won't ever see the light of day but he won't be around forever ( hopefully) and perhaps in the near future those running the game will gain some sense and think carefully about the longevity of the game.

Clearly Sydney is a very very crowded space , two AFL sides , two A League sides ( all doing pretty well) and with sponsorship dollars at a premium and sides like Brisbane benefiting from a whole city to themselves it's clear to me that a real shake up is needed.

Let's think about the obvious.

Brisbane needs a second side, located either in Logan or Ipswich.

For no other reason than being able to fit another live game in, Perth needs a side.

Central QLD is mad , in fact crazy mad on League and a side say based in Rockhampton would be a great success and add additional interest in RL mad Queensland.

Adelaide has been tried before but it would be no different to Melbourne, a long hard slog to get a side established BUT, it would make the NRL really " national" and from a TV perspective create additional opportunities.

And NZ is another untapped market ( other than Auckland) with say Wellington a possibility and also opening up another time slot to have early games live in a Saturday / Sunday.

I think the Titans are a lost cause but you can bet with the Suns going well they will still remain, and Newcastle ( despite their current issues ) is RL heartland so nothing's happening in either spot.

So we come back to Sydney , where we have Penrith / Parramatta / Bulldogs / Souths / Wests Tigers / Manly / St George / Cronulla.

To me it seems logical , Sydney needs only FOUR sides , one in the west, one in the south, one ostensibly east ( or central) and one north.

Now not one fan is going to want to see their sides gone , especially with some having plus 100 year histories BUT other than a gigantic **** fight how could this be done.

Well not easy but four brand new " super franchises" is one way, in essence everyone " loses their side" and we start again.

The other way is to offer mergers to existing clubs ( yes further mergers ) to create these four super franchises , another very hard excercise but not impossible.

Clearly this is just hypothetical and designed to create discussion , so for a moment take off your Manly goggles and voice your Independant opinion.
 
The NRL will eventually move to 18 teams IMO, however I do believe one Sydney team will fall from grace and there will be 3 new teams, most likely in WA, Qld and NZ.

I would also like to see an investment in the Pacific Islands. Have a 2nd tier comp, with 2 teams from NZ, and a side each from PNG, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.
 
Back to the future .NRL folds due to Greenturd running it into the ground.
3 separate comps ran by NSWRL ,QRL & an Islander league ,with a champions league final series at end of comp.
How good would a 10 team NSW comp be ?.
7 teams in suburban Sydney grounds & 1 in each of C Coast,Newcastle & Canberra.
Cant say I would miss the QLD teams ,Melb or NZers.See em each year in the final series.
 
Last edited:
Sydney definitely needs at least two clubs in the west, but I can't see any of them being eliminated/merged. All the State politicians are focused on the so-called 'Golden West' because of the population growth, booming economy and votes needed to be re-elected. That's why all the funding is going to the west - and none to the south or north.
Geographically it would make sense to merge St George-Illawarra with Cronulla; and Souths with Easts. The 'Riff should take over Parramatta, but I can't see this happening despite the fact that the Eels have brought the sport into disrepute more times than Greenturd has polished his chrome dome.
 
I am a big fan of conferences. Sydney teams and non Sydney teams. Each play a full round and finals then super bowl type play offs. Shorter comp rounds that way and spare weekends for rep rounds. Part of the future of rugby league is pacific islands and their tests should get more profile and could be more prominent with this system on the same weekends as origin.
 
Super League?

Just a point to debate ( which is why I put it up).

I think expansion is in fact a bad thing as I don't thing there's the talent there to have say 2 or 4 more teams.

Less juniors playing, and in fact they are cancelling the NYC comp from 2018 ( or next year), so where do the players come from.

Bottom line is we need less Sydney clubs , well at least I think that.
 
Rugby league is a very selfish environment, full of self interest. The whole game needs to change how it attracts income. Relying on tv has a limited cap as our population is capped, and there are two many fingers in the funding model. The spectacle is going backwards

Dave smith was in my opinion the last hope rugby league had in moving the game in a direction that would ensure its long term tenure. He was run out of town by self interest and selfish groups with limited vision and a reluctance to let go of the golden goose

Rl is dying as the product sucks. Its a day product sold at night. The quality suffers , big time. It restricts viewing and attendence Restricting revenue and growth,

Until the league produces its own product and sells it independently league will stagnate and die. Smith was working toward this model which would put rl in the driving seat and a campaign against him begun.

Greenberg is a corporate lackey with self interest who will take his slice and leave league on the scrapheap for a job and a round of backslapping at nine or fox .

For mine mark the teams matter little as the big game has already played out and broadcasting won the lot.

Poor viewing numbers will decrease the next deal the structure of the deal decreases attendence.
 
The NRL clubs have killed country football and that pool of players is almost gone with most competitions/clubs struggling for numbers.

I predict within in 20 years there will be no rugby league played outside of the nsw metro area.
 
The NRL clubs have killed country football and that pool of players is almost gone with most competitions/clubs struggling for numbers.

I predict within in 20 years there will be no rugby league played outside of the nsw metro area.

Not defending the NRL, or the clubs support of the bush, but what is a big factor in the drop off of numbers is the increasing physicality of the game.
4 man gang tackles and wrestling.

The local plumber, sparkie, chippie and farmer can no longer risk injury and time off work.
 
I don't think expansion and or moving teams will work, not properly anyway.

However I think if they do expand they need to spilt into conferences like they have in NFL significantly expand and then split into conference. Bring in another kiwi team, a Perth team, a PNG team a central coast and central QLD team as well.

It is a long way from that however.

One of its biggest barriers from gaining ground in virgin markets is that it's so close to rugby and has the word rugby in its name which means people immediately mistake it with rugby and can never get past that or it's stigma. Funnily enough a new name for the sport would really help, one that doesn't carry portions of another sport would help massively, "League" would even do.

I don't think the NRL know how to nurture their own product let alone how to grow the game. We have more people turning away from the game because they have made it harder to watch with their structuring and restructuring of the rules
 
I love manly but if they didn't exist I would have zero interest in the nrl. The product is ordinary now. It's just built for big bodies and collisions. It will be completely dominated by huge Polynesians soon and already is out west and in other areas of Brisbane. A lot of mums don't want their kids going near league these days. I think a better debate is how to improve the game itself rather than expand it. It was so good in the 90s and then SL happened. Also, there is no way league will succeed in WA or SA half the people there don't even know what it is. I still think interchange needs to be decreased to make the smaller more skillful players more relevant. Just my opinion
 
By 2035 there will still be an RL competition similar in many respects to what we have now, but it will probably be called something like "Fox~Nein International RL". 8 tackle rule, minimum weight of 100kgs, played on astroturf, only at night, 6 on-field officials and The Bunker will be FULLY COMPUTERISED, artificial intelligence adjudicating all decisions while Reconstituted chicken promos play ad nauseam.:oops:
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
Back
Top Bottom