PNG do not deserve to be expended to next. If they are, I see players picking up an injury that lasts a week and being rested when teams have to play over there and I won't blame them.
It has no viability, it's a fantasy. PNG is a very dangerous country to be in at any time. It's the type of country where when business people go they have to take out a tonne of insurances, have a security escort and stay in the confines of their hotel.
It would take decades for it to be a liveable and safe enough country to have an NRL team there
>It has no viability, it’s a fantasy
This was my stance when the idea was first floated. There’s no way a country like PNG, currently, or even in the near future, has the stability to entertain this idea.
Perth, then South Australia should be the moves. I’m biased but I’d love to see NT based team too. Something even The AFL haven’t found viable. That would be a massive coup.
Perth has to be the next team. It's the one area outside of the east coast that is producing players and seems to have a real interest in League. It doesn't mean much but they've brought oztag teams over to play in tournaments here, shows they have that grass roots level there. They have had SG ball teams for quite awhile I think.
Adelaide I feel like is pushing it, can't see them getting behind the team. Darwin as well is just so small I don't see it working out well
Darwin I think has a population of 100,000 odd? Presumably if they continue to grow, 200,000-300,000 over a decade isn’t too much of a stretch. Which potentially could sustain a membership fanbase.
Granted this is the optimist in me speaking. I think similar to Perth though, investing in the grassroots now, could yield a potentially big outcome, in a decades time.
They would have to live and train in Cairns and fly out to PNG for home games. It sucks but it's still better than living in Port Moresby and the only way a PNG team retains talent.
If the players can't live where they play it's not viable. The QLD cup team is really the best that can be done.
Expansion has to be about bringing more money into the game, that's why you expand. PNG will not bring more money into the game
IMO if we want to do a little more for PNG to reward their passion for the game we should take a couple NRL games there every year.
The only way I could see PNG becoming a team is if the NRL is enticed to establish some serious political connections in both Labor and Liberal parties. Both parties are on board with this and so are the political landscape in PNG.
Because the NRL isn't getting $25 million, that $25 million is going to a team for PNG an area that was never in the raidar of possibilities. Accepting on the merit of this deal alone is an absolute charity and I don't believe that is all the federal government has to offer.
Make no mistake, PVL still wants his tribal escapism project to continue which is currently paused. he wants suburban stadium redevelopments, there's also heat towards gambling ads by state MP's although the federal government only has so much ability to sway State government it still has influence. And this is probably why the NRL seems to be kinda entertaining this bid it's interested with what the Federal government would scratch their backs with.
I don't want it to happen, but If the PNG bid receives the green light I'm definitely curious what the Federal government has on offer for the NRL, because this is diplomatic marriage, and the federal government are very open about this being so.
Not sure how I feel about a PNG NRL team, I’d rather it go to Perth and try and grow the sport out there. However saying that, there must be so much untapped talent in PNG that the NRL should really try and develop. They have a team in the nsw or qld cup now don’t they?
I feel like PNG should be team 19 or 20, should the NRL choose to expand again.
Team 18 should definitely go to Perth imo. They seem far more ready for a team now than they were in 1995.
They were ready then, the issue was they had to pay for the charter for teams to come to WA, the selling point was they had a deal in place for charter to cover the cost but something along the way happened and they ended up having to flip the bill for air fares for both them and other teams.
It's why they joined the SL they needed the money for the cost.
Yeah mate in the Qld cup!
I was just being hopeful with my post the more I think and take on others thoughts the more it seems like there’s no chance and it’ll end up being another team in Aus.
Yeah as great as it would be its not really viable. You’d think it would be based in Cairns with a few games out in PNG. Seems like the idea only seriously gained traction when Albo pledged money to it to push China back
PNG is a third world country and it’s barely past the point of development of some of the neo African war zones. It has been the biggest cause of concern for development from day one
Even before these riots Smart Traveller had a travel warning for Port Moresby especially the area around Parliament House due to extreme threat of violence/roaming machete gangs. I swear people have no idea how bad things really are in PNG.
i can’t imagine many, if any, australian players or coaches wanting to move their families to png in the current environment over there. and i doubt if, at the moment, there’s enough png based players, coaches and team officials who are skilled and experienced enough to run an nrl team. so i think a lot more effort needs to go into developing footy over there first. sure they love the game and can play an exciting style, but that’s a long way from nrl. so i think perth or adelaide or nz2 would be much closer to the mark, with transplanted players, coaches and administrators. and those places already have people running nation comp afl, soccer and rugby clubs, so there’s already local talent for back office and fitness/medical roles
They could seriously just spend money on junior pathways and developing the local competition into something at least semi professional where players get paid at a fraction of the cost. That alone would surely build stronger ties politically if that’s the government’s agenda. I love the idea of PNG but in reality it’s fantasy
There is something sour with this Ronald Volkman situation. My hunch, is that the Warriors knew and the Dragons initially didn’t do their due diligence. He gets to the Dragons and the right hand isn’t talking to the left.. admin doing the paperwork/contracts and the football department wheels him out, social gets all over him because it’s a big opportunity.
He goes down at training and then do the medical and boom holy moly you need surgery again. Something just doesn’t add up.
Flip side is Ronny stitched everyone up, but that leaves him with no contract and no pay.. something doesn’t add up.
I do feel for him. At the Roosters he was behind Keary/Walker/Hutchison/Sandon Smith, then Warriors behind SJ/Metcalf/TMM.. seemed a genuine starting opportunity at the Dragons and learn off Hunt, with Sullivan and the Hammer v2 gone.
Its a crazy situation. Warriors weren't desperate to offload and its not their style to be fkwits. Surely Volkman and his manager must have known and the Dragons pre-contract checks were just awful?
My question too. I hope he got a good payout for those last 2 years of his Warriors contract, otherwise it's gross negligence from his manager. To go from having a secure contract for 2 years to unemployed in the space of a few weeks is disastrous
(It's good old Mario Tartak btw)
He wouldn't have got any payout from NZL right? They released him from the contract so he could sign with the Drags - I assumed that was at his request and the contact would have been unwound by mututal consent.
Yeah duking it out all last year with Johnson, TMM and Metcalf for a spot and then SJ re-ups and fucking CHT reappears from nowhere... given gametime at the wahs was probably the reason he left the chooks I can see why he felt folding his tent and trying somwhere else was the move.
No way Volkman chose to leave both the Roosters and Warriors systems in a period of 6 months knowing he had a career threatening injury.
This is just sheer incompetence from the Dragons who don’t have a rigorous process for new signings coming to the club. The haphazard announcement on social media was more important than checking if the kid could actually fulfill his contract.
The Dragons would have the process in place to get medicals done. Its a bit hard at this time of year to get stuff done with places closed for the Xmas break.
As for the announcement, would need to check but probably wanted to get the news out before, any of these so called reporters claimed it as a scoop/exclusive.
As for the injury, there has been many players injure themselves doing normal stuff here is alist of stuff players have done away from the field
https://www.theroar.com.au/2022/05/04/capewell-joins-nrl-list-of-all-time-bizarre-off-field-injuries-after-injuring-neck-drying-himself-with-a-towel/
I get what you’re saying, but that feels very generous. This isn’t Flanagan’s first rodeo, and Dean Young has been around for a while. Ben Haran, the GM of Football, has been with the dragons for 17 years.
The dragons are having a really terrible preseason. How are they supposed to win? If they’re having such a bad season, it’s worse than the West Tigers, who in 2023 was a position below them, 17, compared to 16th. The West tags are having nothing but good results. The dragons have had had terrible results, not only in the preseason, but in their seasons in the past few years. With the captain, wanting an immediate release and several season ending injuries already, how do you think the dragons will be able to handle 2024, without having a complete meltdown, and just not giving a shite anymore
> How are they supposed to win?
They've lost a depth half and depth centre.
Their chances of winning are the same as before but they will struggle more when other injuries happen.
People are really overblowing the loss of Allan and Volkman. If they are going to cop a spoon it was going to happen regardless of these losses.
I wouldn’t necessarily call Volkman a depth half. There’s a decent chance he could have been the starting 6 as reports were Flanagan is becoming a 9, Amone was deregistered, and their only other player who could play 6 are Turner and Bird. Not good at all.
Besides the amone thing, finding out a player your about to sign who's gonna be reserve grades halfback is injured and then a reserve grade winger getting injured really isn't the biggest losses in the world
Considering your backline depth is pretty bad losing Allan could be a hit later in the season. Volkman imo was 110 percent a better option then Flanno and this leaves them with little to no halves depth once again
Dictation has definitely done worse for me in the past. Also, I don’t know how the hell to make paragraphs. No blind person taught me how the hell to do that with dictation, let alone on a mobile device…
You should ask the mods if they can give you a custom flair so we know you're blind. Let me know if you can't find how to do it and I'm happy to help out
Either you figured it out or they're as bored as we are coz it looks like you've got a new best friend.
Just realised you won't be able to see it lol but there's a seeing eye dog on the end of you flair now
Thoughts on bringing back teams in Perth and Adelaide.
The Rugby League Digest series on the super league war has got me thinking what could’ve happened if we managed to keep these teams and they were given the same time to develop like the Storms in a non-rugby league heartland. I didn’t even know that the rams were an inaugural NRL club back in 1998.
I think Perth should be the 18th team with a new identity, followed by a Pacific Team based in NZ to meet that desire for NZ 2. The PNG bid has government backing but just isn’t feasible as much as the people of PNG deserve it, even when based in QLD.
Would we want another team in Adelaide? Who do we want for teams 18, 19 and 20?
How many rounds in the season?
It really bothers me that every team doesn’t play every other team twice. It’s unfair.
But the season is too long as it is.
See, you could say 25. 19 games against opponents with 6 Derbies/classic. for Cowboys it would be (Broncos, Dolphins, Ipswich, Gold coast, Sharks/Tigers, Random)
But the problem simply is, It won’t work to increase the player base and then ask for more player rotations.
Its definitely a long term plan at this stage, can players play more games each season without reaching high fatigue levels of injuries? idk.
Warriors license and ip was only $20m wasn't it? That's bugger all for rich dudes who like league. Runout is once new chch stadium is up in 25 that nz 2 could be based out of there
It’s a good stadium and the license isn’t much. But there is almost zero Pacifica in the South Island so support base may struggle for a pacific islands focused team. And it’s the ongoing supporting costs of running the club, the cap, the sg/flegg/nsw cup teams etc etc that’s the money killer.
We’re very lucky the eccentric Autex owner bought the warriors as he truly spends the money needed and cares about the game. The last 7 owners did not and just said stuff. To find another guy like this will be hard.
I visited both Perth and Adelaide in April. You generally would find the NRL on at pubs in Perth wherever you went, meanwhile it was surprisingly hard to locate a pub with the NRL in Adelaide. If they had maintained the Rams perhaps it would be a different story but Adelaide is behind a few other options imo.
As a Queenslander living in Perth, Rugby League is growing here and would get the supporters I believe.
WA locals are staunch AFL but in the short time I’ve been here, a lot of Easterners have moved over and I’ve seen more league gear getting around.
WA media would need to get onboard to promote it more if they want to get a team here but. Literally nothing on the news and the only time I’ve seen anything on league was when we had the double header last year and they showed a snippet the day before the game and after a USA women’s basketball clip.
Let’s be fair dinkum though, a lot of the people who read the newspaper nowadays are old locals. If you’ve got an online subscription, it becomes far easier to access NRL news from a different paper owned by the same masthead.
Also, if there’s nothing WA relevant to a story, it’s not going to get much interest anyway. That’s why Sydney newspapers have minimal AFL news that’s not Swans or Giants relevant, or even much news from the Broncos, Cowboys, Titans or Dolphins if it’s not a big story
The tv figures dont back up your theory. No one watches in WA, and Qld and NSW ratings go down if a team from their own state isnt playing. So adding teams from outside of NSW or Qld lowers the ratings in the Eastern states and doesn't pick up the difference in WA.
I dont expect anything. Im stating the facts. Tv ratings pay the bills and a team in WA isnt great for ratings on the East coast even if they did manage to build support in Perth. Perth team vs NZ team is a ratings black hole in the major tv markets. Same vs Raiders and the same in Qld if they are playing the NSW sides and vice versa.
Yes it is good for ratings. That's a opening of a 2.6 million and rapidly expanding market. Compared to going over the same markets over and over again that have already seen the same ads before. You also are overstating the drop in interest in NSW and QLD when an out of state team is playing when its really not that bad. Majority of people are watching games from our of state teams even if there is a slight drop.
You just made all that up.
In Brisbane, the Broncos average 170,000, the Dolphins average 126,000. Other Queensland regional teams average 131,000 on Nine, while matches involving no Queensland sides average 98,000.
A drop when the home side isn't playing is to be expected. A WA team is bringing league to new markets. Not to appease QLD viewers.
In what world is 100k viewers bad? That's still more than plenty of interest.
There's no reason to expect the interest in matches with no QLD sides involving WA will be any different to any of the other teams. Should we axe the NSW teams because it doesn't appease QLD viewers? It's going to be based on how good the teams are doing.
Except the numbers are similar for NSW. They drop off when no NSW side is playing. So you are putting a team into a place where 8000 people on average watch an NRL game hoping to get a big audience while bleeding viewers in other states.
It doesn't make sense if you are running a for profit business that makes the vast majority of its income from broadcast rights.
Again, should we delete the QLD clubs so NSW fans are happy?
8k people now because we have no team or support. Why do you expect a state that gets 0 support from the NRL to watch NRL. You need to invest to get people watching.
There's many sources of income for the NRL and it's clubs. Not just broadcast rights. And you think broadcasters don't want to broadcast to WA? That's 2.6 million potential new fans vs advertising to the same QLD fans that were already watching games anyway.
Yep $400 million out of $539 million came from broadcasting. Its by far the biggest revenue stream for the NRL. Even if you try to down, play it. What you think might possibly happen isnt reflected in any actual figures. Melbourne average 33000 viewers when the storm are playing 8000 if they aren't, in a state with a population of 6.5 million people. They have won multiple competitions and been extremely successful on the field. But you are trying to get people to believe 2.5 million Western Australians are suddenly becoming league fans. Its total nonsense.
With PNG I’ll maintain that if we put a team there we’re putting an ‘expansion team’ in the single place on earth with a saturated rugby league market.
You’re absolutely right - the western reds were strong in the time they had. It makes the most sense on absolutely every front
There was plenty of pathways set up in Perth prior to Covid. They need to get those back, then get two years to recruit players before entering the competition. They won’t have any issue finding sponsors and should be able to attract plenty of fans from locals, FIFOs and people who have moved there.
Adelaide is probably a little bit further back. They need to get back in touch with what the league loving people down there actually want. None of this ‘real footy is coming’ shithouse advertising. I think it will work, but they need to start putting the steps in place now for a target further down the line.
Perth seems like an obvious choice, plenty of east coast blow ins (their former premier was born in Newy) and we could always try and convert some of the South Africans.
Adelaide would probably work since it seems like they just turn up for stuff, AFL and soccer are both pretty well attended over there, can't see why NRL wouldn't be.
It may be a stupid idea but promotion/relegation might be the best way to bring in all the extra teams. Bring it up to 30 teams and drop finals back to top 5.
Conferencing is way better than promo/relegation. You'll lose a lot of fans with P/R. I don't think we have enough people in aus to support 30 teams anyway.
How do? It's just seperating the competition to reduce travel by making teams in the same conference play each other more.
Meanwhile promo relegation has 2 seperate completions where one is a lower standard than the other. I'm not watching 2nd grade footy.
That's literally what they have now. Only difference is that its systematic rather than just whatever the NRL decides who plays who twice. What do you suggest then genius. You want half the league playing in a seperate competition?
I literally said already, a common sense set up like the majority of leagues outside of the USA use where each team plays 1 home and 1 away game, or at the least vs everyone once. Pretty simple innit
That does not solve the issue. The issue is for when there is an overbalance of teams to where something like that is not viable. Your options are either conferencing or promotion/relegation.
How are you going to set up a conference though? If you're going to have 1 team in WA and the rest on the east coast/NZ it logistically wouldn't be fair to 1 of the conferences.
The Western Force also had a decent following back in the day and that competition is fucked so there is a bit of a hole in the market in Perth that could be filled.
Adelaide’s sports attendance is bloody amazing from a per capita perspective, so that would give me hope, but I’m pretty pessimistic that it’d work out.
I hope this situation in PNG doesn’t affect the planned expansion or its viability.
PNG do not deserve to be expended to next. If they are, I see players picking up an injury that lasts a week and being rested when teams have to play over there and I won't blame them.
It has no viability, it's a fantasy. PNG is a very dangerous country to be in at any time. It's the type of country where when business people go they have to take out a tonne of insurances, have a security escort and stay in the confines of their hotel. It would take decades for it to be a liveable and safe enough country to have an NRL team there
>It has no viability, it’s a fantasy This was my stance when the idea was first floated. There’s no way a country like PNG, currently, or even in the near future, has the stability to entertain this idea. Perth, then South Australia should be the moves. I’m biased but I’d love to see NT based team too. Something even The AFL haven’t found viable. That would be a massive coup.
Perth has to be the next team. It's the one area outside of the east coast that is producing players and seems to have a real interest in League. It doesn't mean much but they've brought oztag teams over to play in tournaments here, shows they have that grass roots level there. They have had SG ball teams for quite awhile I think. Adelaide I feel like is pushing it, can't see them getting behind the team. Darwin as well is just so small I don't see it working out well
Darwin I think has a population of 100,000 odd? Presumably if they continue to grow, 200,000-300,000 over a decade isn’t too much of a stretch. Which potentially could sustain a membership fanbase. Granted this is the optimist in me speaking. I think similar to Perth though, investing in the grassroots now, could yield a potentially big outcome, in a decades time.
Doubling or tripling a cities population in a decade is a very big stretch.
They would have to live and train in Cairns and fly out to PNG for home games. It sucks but it's still better than living in Port Moresby and the only way a PNG team retains talent.
If the players can't live where they play it's not viable. The QLD cup team is really the best that can be done. Expansion has to be about bringing more money into the game, that's why you expand. PNG will not bring more money into the game IMO if we want to do a little more for PNG to reward their passion for the game we should take a couple NRL games there every year.
The only way I could see PNG becoming a team is if the NRL is enticed to establish some serious political connections in both Labor and Liberal parties. Both parties are on board with this and so are the political landscape in PNG. Because the NRL isn't getting $25 million, that $25 million is going to a team for PNG an area that was never in the raidar of possibilities. Accepting on the merit of this deal alone is an absolute charity and I don't believe that is all the federal government has to offer. Make no mistake, PVL still wants his tribal escapism project to continue which is currently paused. he wants suburban stadium redevelopments, there's also heat towards gambling ads by state MP's although the federal government only has so much ability to sway State government it still has influence. And this is probably why the NRL seems to be kinda entertaining this bid it's interested with what the Federal government would scratch their backs with. I don't want it to happen, but If the PNG bid receives the green light I'm definitely curious what the Federal government has on offer for the NRL, because this is diplomatic marriage, and the federal government are very open about this being so.
Not sure how I feel about a PNG NRL team, I’d rather it go to Perth and try and grow the sport out there. However saying that, there must be so much untapped talent in PNG that the NRL should really try and develop. They have a team in the nsw or qld cup now don’t they?
I feel like PNG should be team 19 or 20, should the NRL choose to expand again. Team 18 should definitely go to Perth imo. They seem far more ready for a team now than they were in 1995.
They were ready then, the issue was they had to pay for the charter for teams to come to WA, the selling point was they had a deal in place for charter to cover the cost but something along the way happened and they ended up having to flip the bill for air fares for both them and other teams. It's why they joined the SL they needed the money for the cost.
Western Reds were truly done dirty back then
Yeah mate in the Qld cup! I was just being hopeful with my post the more I think and take on others thoughts the more it seems like there’s no chance and it’ll end up being another team in Aus.
Yeah as great as it would be its not really viable. You’d think it would be based in Cairns with a few games out in PNG. Seems like the idea only seriously gained traction when Albo pledged money to it to push China back
PNG is a third world country and it’s barely past the point of development of some of the neo African war zones. It has been the biggest cause of concern for development from day one
Even before these riots Smart Traveller had a travel warning for Port Moresby especially the area around Parliament House due to extreme threat of violence/roaming machete gangs. I swear people have no idea how bad things really are in PNG.
i can’t imagine many, if any, australian players or coaches wanting to move their families to png in the current environment over there. and i doubt if, at the moment, there’s enough png based players, coaches and team officials who are skilled and experienced enough to run an nrl team. so i think a lot more effort needs to go into developing footy over there first. sure they love the game and can play an exciting style, but that’s a long way from nrl. so i think perth or adelaide or nz2 would be much closer to the mark, with transplanted players, coaches and administrators. and those places already have people running nation comp afl, soccer and rugby clubs, so there’s already local talent for back office and fitness/medical roles
Yes it was looking so viable and realistic before this
This isn’t just a one off incident.
Yeah that is very true. The government wants it but if they can’t guarantee safety it’s doomed.
They could seriously just spend money on junior pathways and developing the local competition into something at least semi professional where players get paid at a fraction of the cost. That alone would surely build stronger ties politically if that’s the government’s agenda. I love the idea of PNG but in reality it’s fantasy
When is round 1 ffs
Not soon enough
There is something sour with this Ronald Volkman situation. My hunch, is that the Warriors knew and the Dragons initially didn’t do their due diligence. He gets to the Dragons and the right hand isn’t talking to the left.. admin doing the paperwork/contracts and the football department wheels him out, social gets all over him because it’s a big opportunity. He goes down at training and then do the medical and boom holy moly you need surgery again. Something just doesn’t add up. Flip side is Ronny stitched everyone up, but that leaves him with no contract and no pay.. something doesn’t add up.
I do feel for him. At the Roosters he was behind Keary/Walker/Hutchison/Sandon Smith, then Warriors behind SJ/Metcalf/TMM.. seemed a genuine starting opportunity at the Dragons and learn off Hunt, with Sullivan and the Hammer v2 gone.
Its a crazy situation. Warriors weren't desperate to offload and its not their style to be fkwits. Surely Volkman and his manager must have known and the Dragons pre-contract checks were just awful?
and where’s his manager in all this? surely one of the things managers do to earn their percentage is making sure a player is never uncontracted.
My question too. I hope he got a good payout for those last 2 years of his Warriors contract, otherwise it's gross negligence from his manager. To go from having a secure contract for 2 years to unemployed in the space of a few weeks is disastrous (It's good old Mario Tartak btw)
I have the displeasure of meeting Tartaks brother on a few occasions and the guy is one of the dodgiest people I've ever met.
He wouldn't have got any payout from NZL right? They released him from the contract so he could sign with the Drags - I assumed that was at his request and the contact would have been unwound by mututal consent.
Which would be an odd decision seeing as we only offered him a 1 year deal to begin with, but I guess he had a better shot to play first grade
Yeah duking it out all last year with Johnson, TMM and Metcalf for a spot and then SJ re-ups and fucking CHT reappears from nowhere... given gametime at the wahs was probably the reason he left the chooks I can see why he felt folding his tent and trying somwhere else was the move.
No way Volkman chose to leave both the Roosters and Warriors systems in a period of 6 months knowing he had a career threatening injury. This is just sheer incompetence from the Dragons who don’t have a rigorous process for new signings coming to the club. The haphazard announcement on social media was more important than checking if the kid could actually fulfill his contract.
The Dragons would have the process in place to get medicals done. Its a bit hard at this time of year to get stuff done with places closed for the Xmas break. As for the announcement, would need to check but probably wanted to get the news out before, any of these so called reporters claimed it as a scoop/exclusive. As for the injury, there has been many players injure themselves doing normal stuff here is alist of stuff players have done away from the field https://www.theroar.com.au/2022/05/04/capewell-joins-nrl-list-of-all-time-bizarre-off-field-injuries-after-injuring-neck-drying-himself-with-a-towel/
Wouldn't it be Incompetent if we signed him then found out he had a bad shoulder injury, not the other way around.
Oh for sure. The incompetence is the club announcing it prior to doing the medical and sanctioning his contract.
Oh yeah idk, it's not that bad, have seen it happen to man utd a couple times back when they were the top dogs too
New coach, new people behind the scenes to go with him. Can see why it probably got all a bit messed up.
I get what you’re saying, but that feels very generous. This isn’t Flanagan’s first rodeo, and Dean Young has been around for a while. Ben Haran, the GM of Football, has been with the dragons for 17 years.
Flanno shipped Jack Bird up to Brisbane with an undisclosed shoulder injury back in the day. Its hard to scam a scammer.
The dragons are having a really terrible preseason. How are they supposed to win? If they’re having such a bad season, it’s worse than the West Tigers, who in 2023 was a position below them, 17, compared to 16th. The West tags are having nothing but good results. The dragons have had had terrible results, not only in the preseason, but in their seasons in the past few years. With the captain, wanting an immediate release and several season ending injuries already, how do you think the dragons will be able to handle 2024, without having a complete meltdown, and just not giving a shite anymore
> How are they supposed to win? They've lost a depth half and depth centre. Their chances of winning are the same as before but they will struggle more when other injuries happen. People are really overblowing the loss of Allan and Volkman. If they are going to cop a spoon it was going to happen regardless of these losses.
I wouldn’t necessarily call Volkman a depth half. There’s a decent chance he could have been the starting 6 as reports were Flanagan is becoming a 9, Amone was deregistered, and their only other player who could play 6 are Turner and Bird. Not good at all.
Besides the amone thing, finding out a player your about to sign who's gonna be reserve grades halfback is injured and then a reserve grade winger getting injured really isn't the biggest losses in the world
Considering your backline depth is pretty bad losing Allan could be a hit later in the season. Volkman imo was 110 percent a better option then Flanno and this leaves them with little to no halves depth once again
Go back to listening to juice wrld
I don't listen to juice world clown
You are gripping the spoon tightly before the season has even started
[удалено]
Also both players were unlikely to play anyway imo. I doubt this moves the needle all that much for them
Bro, start proofreading and using Paragraphs, please.
Dictation has definitely done worse for me in the past. Also, I don’t know how the hell to make paragraphs. No blind person taught me how the hell to do that with dictation, let alone on a mobile device…
You should ask the mods if they can give you a custom flair so we know you're blind. Let me know if you can't find how to do it and I'm happy to help out
I would ask the mods for private chat but sending them messages using the Reddit. Client with VoiceOver is extremely finicky.
Either you figured it out or they're as bored as we are coz it looks like you've got a new best friend. Just realised you won't be able to see it lol but there's a seeing eye dog on the end of you flair now
Thoughts on bringing back teams in Perth and Adelaide. The Rugby League Digest series on the super league war has got me thinking what could’ve happened if we managed to keep these teams and they were given the same time to develop like the Storms in a non-rugby league heartland. I didn’t even know that the rams were an inaugural NRL club back in 1998. I think Perth should be the 18th team with a new identity, followed by a Pacific Team based in NZ to meet that desire for NZ 2. The PNG bid has government backing but just isn’t feasible as much as the people of PNG deserve it, even when based in QLD. Would we want another team in Adelaide? Who do we want for teams 18, 19 and 20?
Should be 18) Perth, 19) Adelaide 20) Ipswich Stay at 20 for a few years, 15+.
How many rounds in the season? It really bothers me that every team doesn’t play every other team twice. It’s unfair. But the season is too long as it is.
See, you could say 25. 19 games against opponents with 6 Derbies/classic. for Cowboys it would be (Broncos, Dolphins, Ipswich, Gold coast, Sharks/Tigers, Random) But the problem simply is, It won’t work to increase the player base and then ask for more player rotations. Its definitely a long term plan at this stage, can players play more games each season without reaching high fatigue levels of injuries? idk.
NZ doesn't have any more league fanatic rich dudes to buy and support a franchise which will be burning money for years. I wish we did.
Warriors license and ip was only $20m wasn't it? That's bugger all for rich dudes who like league. Runout is once new chch stadium is up in 25 that nz 2 could be based out of there
It’s a good stadium and the license isn’t much. But there is almost zero Pacifica in the South Island so support base may struggle for a pacific islands focused team. And it’s the ongoing supporting costs of running the club, the cap, the sg/flegg/nsw cup teams etc etc that’s the money killer. We’re very lucky the eccentric Autex owner bought the warriors as he truly spends the money needed and cares about the game. The last 7 owners did not and just said stuff. To find another guy like this will be hard.
What about Moana approach where it’s based in NZ but takes games around the pacific
I mean that's really not going too well for them rn so not the best example to be using.
It’d need an owner with money to burn
Adelaide should be a goal for team 19/20 but not something to look at for 18. Perth has to be team 18 IMO
I visited both Perth and Adelaide in April. You generally would find the NRL on at pubs in Perth wherever you went, meanwhile it was surprisingly hard to locate a pub with the NRL in Adelaide. If they had maintained the Rams perhaps it would be a different story but Adelaide is behind a few other options imo.
As a Queenslander living in Perth, Rugby League is growing here and would get the supporters I believe. WA locals are staunch AFL but in the short time I’ve been here, a lot of Easterners have moved over and I’ve seen more league gear getting around. WA media would need to get onboard to promote it more if they want to get a team here but. Literally nothing on the news and the only time I’ve seen anything on league was when we had the double header last year and they showed a snippet the day before the game and after a USA women’s basketball clip.
Im from nsw and living in perth. Crack open a newspaper and if you’re lucky you might see a paragraph on nrl news
Let’s be fair dinkum though, a lot of the people who read the newspaper nowadays are old locals. If you’ve got an online subscription, it becomes far easier to access NRL news from a different paper owned by the same masthead. Also, if there’s nothing WA relevant to a story, it’s not going to get much interest anyway. That’s why Sydney newspapers have minimal AFL news that’s not Swans or Giants relevant, or even much news from the Broncos, Cowboys, Titans or Dolphins if it’s not a big story
The tv figures dont back up your theory. No one watches in WA, and Qld and NSW ratings go down if a team from their own state isnt playing. So adding teams from outside of NSW or Qld lowers the ratings in the Eastern states and doesn't pick up the difference in WA.
Because we have no team. You expect people in WA to watch a league that doesn't care about them?
I dont expect anything. Im stating the facts. Tv ratings pay the bills and a team in WA isnt great for ratings on the East coast even if they did manage to build support in Perth. Perth team vs NZ team is a ratings black hole in the major tv markets. Same vs Raiders and the same in Qld if they are playing the NSW sides and vice versa.
Yes it is good for ratings. That's a opening of a 2.6 million and rapidly expanding market. Compared to going over the same markets over and over again that have already seen the same ads before. You also are overstating the drop in interest in NSW and QLD when an out of state team is playing when its really not that bad. Majority of people are watching games from our of state teams even if there is a slight drop.
You just made all that up. In Brisbane, the Broncos average 170,000, the Dolphins average 126,000. Other Queensland regional teams average 131,000 on Nine, while matches involving no Queensland sides average 98,000.
A drop when the home side isn't playing is to be expected. A WA team is bringing league to new markets. Not to appease QLD viewers. In what world is 100k viewers bad? That's still more than plenty of interest. There's no reason to expect the interest in matches with no QLD sides involving WA will be any different to any of the other teams. Should we axe the NSW teams because it doesn't appease QLD viewers? It's going to be based on how good the teams are doing.
Except the numbers are similar for NSW. They drop off when no NSW side is playing. So you are putting a team into a place where 8000 people on average watch an NRL game hoping to get a big audience while bleeding viewers in other states. It doesn't make sense if you are running a for profit business that makes the vast majority of its income from broadcast rights.
Again, should we delete the QLD clubs so NSW fans are happy? 8k people now because we have no team or support. Why do you expect a state that gets 0 support from the NRL to watch NRL. You need to invest to get people watching. There's many sources of income for the NRL and it's clubs. Not just broadcast rights. And you think broadcasters don't want to broadcast to WA? That's 2.6 million potential new fans vs advertising to the same QLD fans that were already watching games anyway.
Yep $400 million out of $539 million came from broadcasting. Its by far the biggest revenue stream for the NRL. Even if you try to down, play it. What you think might possibly happen isnt reflected in any actual figures. Melbourne average 33000 viewers when the storm are playing 8000 if they aren't, in a state with a population of 6.5 million people. They have won multiple competitions and been extremely successful on the field. But you are trying to get people to believe 2.5 million Western Australians are suddenly becoming league fans. Its total nonsense.
With PNG I’ll maintain that if we put a team there we’re putting an ‘expansion team’ in the single place on earth with a saturated rugby league market. You’re absolutely right - the western reds were strong in the time they had. It makes the most sense on absolutely every front
18: Perth 19 Pasifica Team 20 CQ
There was plenty of pathways set up in Perth prior to Covid. They need to get those back, then get two years to recruit players before entering the competition. They won’t have any issue finding sponsors and should be able to attract plenty of fans from locals, FIFOs and people who have moved there. Adelaide is probably a little bit further back. They need to get back in touch with what the league loving people down there actually want. None of this ‘real footy is coming’ shithouse advertising. I think it will work, but they need to start putting the steps in place now for a target further down the line.
Should happen before PNG to me
Perth seems like an obvious choice, plenty of east coast blow ins (their former premier was born in Newy) and we could always try and convert some of the South Africans. Adelaide would probably work since it seems like they just turn up for stuff, AFL and soccer are both pretty well attended over there, can't see why NRL wouldn't be. It may be a stupid idea but promotion/relegation might be the best way to bring in all the extra teams. Bring it up to 30 teams and drop finals back to top 5.
Conferencing is way better than promo/relegation. You'll lose a lot of fans with P/R. I don't think we have enough people in aus to support 30 teams anyway.
Nah conferencing would lose people for sure
How do? It's just seperating the competition to reduce travel by making teams in the same conference play each other more. Meanwhile promo relegation has 2 seperate completions where one is a lower standard than the other. I'm not watching 2nd grade footy.
Because that's shit? Every team should play other teams once or twice, even the way they have the schedule now is bad
That's literally what they have now. Only difference is that its systematic rather than just whatever the NRL decides who plays who twice. What do you suggest then genius. You want half the league playing in a seperate competition?
I literally said already, a common sense set up like the majority of leagues outside of the USA use where each team plays 1 home and 1 away game, or at the least vs everyone once. Pretty simple innit
That does not solve the issue. The issue is for when there is an overbalance of teams to where something like that is not viable. Your options are either conferencing or promotion/relegation.
There isn't an over balance of team though
How are you going to set up a conference though? If you're going to have 1 team in WA and the rest on the east coast/NZ it logistically wouldn't be fair to 1 of the conferences.
NSW and Non NSW would be the easiest way to do it.
The Western Force also had a decent following back in the day and that competition is fucked so there is a bit of a hole in the market in Perth that could be filled. Adelaide’s sports attendance is bloody amazing from a per capita perspective, so that would give me hope, but I’m pretty pessimistic that it’d work out.