A discussion thread on the future of RL and where we fit.

[Guest]

shoe1  i agree  i too miss the jets, bears & magpies.. the old traditional footy foes..we never ever got to repay those jets back for what they did to broadhurst,,  we owe em..   ..  that year but they were tough i think phil gould even played for them & tommy was their half back..lol(the thing i like about gould  even though some **** he says contradicts what he has said earlier in  some of he arguements.. he altleast played in the era it was tough therefore deserves some acknowledgement)

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Bob, as you know I am from Moree originally (the old Group 5 and now 14 I think)...many players came out of those areas including our very own Crusher Cleal, and I agree it's a shadow of it's former self (CRL) these days, no money flows from the city as it's all needed to run the 16 NRL clubs and the country boys suffer, sad days indeed.

 

[Guest]

[quote author=Mark from Brisbane link=topic=184357.msg279562#msg279562 date=1280374728]
No mate the CQ bid is based around Mackay, and that;'s the richest mining area outside of WA in the country

it may be the richest mining place but once you get north of Bundy, towns start to thin out and are further apart and less population.

I just don't think it has the population to make it successful and central queenslanders Mackay - Rocky really probably don't know how to spell NRL let alone follow the game
[/quote]whats wrong with mackay & rocky  i went through there in 98 lol at that time they were into  country western music lol..i was unloading  & setting up  gear  for these two guys who we a band .. they were impersonators lol  1 was elvis the other was johnny o`keefe ..  i did the lights & done thier intro music.. anyway  all i know is theres a brothers club around every corner the further you go up lol..  
theres enough good indigenous players scattered all over that part  they should have an all indigenous side definately in the comp..  they dont have to have all indigenous players a bit like auckland  have a mix..

 

[MadMarcus]

Mark, if over a number of years we eventually evolve into a comp with the teams you have suggested I have no problem with it.  However, any forced 'rationalisation' will set the game back 10 years.  Its all well and good for us if Manly survive on their own, but the majority of fans in Sydney would be disenfranchised if their team were forced to merge.  Let's face it - We are a long way off being a national code.  If we lose Sydney we have nothing.

Fair enough if a club is on the way out - I'm all for the NRL encouraging a merger or relocation (eg. Sharks to Adelaide or Perth), but the game can't survive mass mergers even if the resulting competition may look appealing on its face from a commercial perspective because it will suffer in its heartland.

I think the one of the main problems with the SL war was that the decisions were effectively taken away from the clubs.  The other problem being that the Sydney ARL teams were unfairly disadvantages against the Sydney SL teams - In my view the ARL should have fought for a peace deal which provided for no Melbourne Scum, a merger of the Sharks, Dogs and Panthers to form the Sydney Super Sellouts and kick out the Broncos in favour of the South Queensland Crushers!

Btw - how popular is Alfie Langer in China these days?  I think that would be a fair measure of the success of Ribot's 'vision'.  In my view the whole concept showed a complete misunderstanding of what drives RL culture.  That's why the ARL comp was more successful than the SL one - we had all the teams that people actually cared about.

Sorry Mark, I know this isn't the kind of respose you were looking for and I got off topic (especially in the above 2 paras) - but apparently I'm still very angry about the SL war!!!

 

[Dan]

Mark, if over a number of years we eventually evolve into a comp with the teams you have suggested I have no problem with it.  However, any forced 'rationalisation' will set the game back 10 years.  Its all well and good for us if Manly survive on their own, but the majority of fans in Sydney would be disenfranchised if their team were forced to merge.  Let's face it - We are a long way off being a national code.  If we lose Sydney we have nothing.

Fair enough if a club is on the way out - I'm all for the NRL encouraging a merger or relocation (eg. Sharks to Adelaide or Perth), but the game can't survive mass mergers even if the resulting competition may look appealing on its face from a commercial perspective because it will suffer in its heartland.

I think the one of the main problems with the SL war was that the decisions were effectively taken away from the clubs.  The other problem being that the Sydney ARL teams were unfairly disadvantages against the Sydney SL teams - In my view the ARL should have fought for a peace deal which provided for no Melbourne Scum, a merger of the Sharks, Dogs and Panthers to form the Sydney Super Sellouts and kick out the Broncos in favour of the South Queensland Crushers!

Btw - how popular is Alfie Langer in China these days?  I think that would be a fair measure of the success of Ribot's 'vision'.  In my view the whole concept showed a complete misunderstanding of what drives RL culture.  That's why the ARL comp was more successful than the SL one - we had all the teams that people actually cared about.

Sorry Mark, I know this isn't the kind of respose you were looking for and I got off topic (especially in the above 2 paras) - but apparently I'm still very angry about the SL war!!!

And think of what that would mean for Silvertails if we didnt get to stay.......

Though a market for a new site would be huuuuge

 

[sydsider]

Bring back all of it.NSWRL/ARL.All the lost teams back at their original grounds.And Tina Turner.Get rid of everything else.GO MANLY.And bring back Ken Aurthuson and Quayle.And while im at it PISS OFF QLDERS AND NEWS LTD.

 

[Guest]

Bring back all of it.NSWRL/ARL.All the lost teams back at their original grounds.And Tina Turner.Get rid of everything else.GO MANLY.And bring back Ken Aurthuson and Quayle.And while im at it PISS OFF QLDERS AND NEWS LTD.

mate spot on i wanted swear  ,,  but  i totally agree,, news  destroyed  all the hard work arko & quayle did for the game probably the best 2 administrators this game has & probably will ever see

 

[Guest]

[quote author=Spuds Bodyguard link=topic=184357.msg279593#msg279593 date=1280379298]
Why is it that you can see the pie diminishing Mark?

Come out and have a look at the standard and the diminishing numbers in Group 9 (I am sure its typical of any of the country areas), from which the likes of Daley, Sterling, Mortimers, etc etc etc has come from.

There are less teams, and those teams have failed or struggle to field 4 grades which has always been a breeze in the past, there was a second division and a pub comp just 20 years ago.

The standard of the NRL is at an all time low, there are 4 or 5 players in each teams 25 that shouldnt be allowed to play 1st grade.

16 teams is way too many, 12 is the right number but at the moment I dont thinks we have to talent for 10 teams.

So dont worry about too much the NRL, get the game going stronger in both QLD and NSW schools and country areas and the results will flow through.


[/quote] blame gallop  on that & news they arent putting in nearly as much as they should be back into the grass roots level of the game & supporting the country rugby league clubs ,, it would be good if they did city first & seconds like they use to give the country guys something to aim for also..

 

[mozgrame]

G'day Dan,
Mate don't get me wrong, i don't think we will get a team in the nrl, i think the central coast will get the nod.  There are a couple of points to consider however about the CQ bid.
The biggest distance a fan would have to travel to a home game would be from Mackay to Rockhampton.  That's about 3.5hrs one way.
Emerald to Rockhampton is about 2.5 hrs one way.
Gladstone to Rockhampton is about 1.5 hrs one way.
Central queensland is a sparse environment to live in and getting anywhere is a journey.  These are not considered long journeys by any means.  There are a lot of small townships between the four above mentioned and it is not unusual for country people to travel up to 5 hrs for groceries once per week.  It's all part and parcel of living in the region and is accepted as common place by all.
Mining and mining related industries are the key employers in the areas mentioned, add to this the cattle industry and you can see money for travel is not that big of a deal to most football fans.
Lastly, i use the term "fans" very loosely.  They are actually fanatics and get worse the further west you go.  We drive up to Townsville for the cowboys - Manly games (thats about a fourteen hour round trip) and love every minute of it.  We consider ourselves sane but some would beg to differ given the team we support  The only thing that would cruel a team in this region is on field failure.  Any team in any region would suffer that though i guess.
Cheers mate.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Wrong Marcus it's exactly what I wanted to hear,the whole idea of the topic was to get people talking...it wasn't my actual idea to merge all those teams, I was simply trying to extrapolate how it would look like under the Super League model and saying "maybe it wasn't a bad idea after all", and in fact maybe it IS a good idea BUT getting to it would be a disaster.

And isn't it good to have everyone having a democratic say in what is an important part of our game, where the future lies.

 

[sydsider]

Its the only way the saviour of the Blues Gus Gould is gonna come back.Gus is my ARL god and saviour.Hes the only one with any balls to see it and tell it as it is against the NRL/QLD/NEWS dictatorship.6 nil here we come.I could go on forever.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

You are fired up SYD!!

 

[The Eagle]

Good post but Des would also break the drought

 

[sydsider]

League in the country is on its knees.Thats why AFL is moving in.There was a time when league dominated by far/Pre News Ltd days.Thats why Peachey an company are out there doing what the useless NRL shouldve been doing.

[quote author=bob dylan link=topic=184357.msg279617#msg279617 date=1280382343]
[quote author=Spuds Bodyguard link=topic=184357.msg279593#msg279593 date=1280379298]
Why is it that you can see the pie diminishing Mark?

Come out and have a look at the standard and the diminishing numbers in Group 9 (I am sure its typical of any of the country areas), from which the likes of Daley, Sterling, Mortimers, etc etc etc has come from.

There are less teams, and those teams have failed or struggle to field 4 grades which has always been a breeze in the past, there was a second division and a pub comp just 20 years ago.

The standard of the NRL is at an all time low, there are 4 or 5 players in each teams 25 that shouldnt be allowed to play 1st grade.

16 teams is way too many, 12 is the right number but at the moment I dont thinks we have to talent for 10 teams.

So dont worry about too much the NRL, get the game going stronger in both QLD and NSW schools and country areas and the results will flow through.


[/quote] blame gallop  on that & news they arent putting in nearly as much as they should be back into the grass roots level of the game & supporting the country rugby league clubs ,, it would be good if they did city first & seconds like they use to give the country guys something to aim for also..
[/quote]

 

[Dan]

G'day Dan,
Mate don't get me wrong, i don't think we will get a team in the nrl, i think the central coast will get the nod.  There are a couple of points to consider however about the CQ bid.
The biggest distance a fan would have to travel to a home game would be from Mackay to Rockhampton.  That's about 3.5hrs one way.
Emerald to Rockhampton is about 2.5 hrs one way.
Gladstone to Rockhampton is about 1.5 hrs one way.
Central queensland is a sparse environment to live in and getting anywhere is a journey.  These are not considered long journeys by any means.  There are a lot of small townships between the four above mentioned and it is not unusual for country people to travel up to 5 hrs for groceries once per week.  It's all part and parcel of living in the region and is accepted as common place by all.
Mining and mining related industries are the key employers in the areas mentioned, add to this the cattle industry and you can see money for travel is not that big of a deal to most football fans.
Lastly, i use the term \"fans\" very loosely.  They are actually fanatics and get worse the further west you go.  We drive up to Townsville for the cowboys - Manly games (thats about a fourteen hour round trip) and love every minute of it.  We consider ourselves sane but some would beg to differ given the team we support  The only thing that would cruel a team in this region is on field failure.  Any team in any region would suffer that though i guess.
Cheers mate.

Granted, but within your information there you highlight a key flaw in your original argument.

Given the majority of people in the region are either miners or farmers, and by far this is the largest part of your population, is catchment and talent/junior base as rich as it might appear on paper?

I really can't see this as a successful way to go, it's a shame, but another part of having to live in the region.

I do know what you mean about travelling, I don't even bat an eyelid at a return journey to brisbane/gold coast these days (8 hour round trip) then again that's about the same as I use to spend driving from mosman/neutral bay to Brookvale, but that was the traffics fault

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Travel for country people is nothing Dan....I spoke to Manly fans in Townsville that had driven from somewhere up at the Cape to be there for the game.....I believe 3000 km round trip

 

[MadMarcus]

I was simply trying to extrapolate how it would look like under the Super League model and saying \"maybe it wasn't a bad idea after all\", and in fact maybe it IS a good idea BUT getting to it would be a disaster.

I think this is spot on.

 

[bob dylan]

Bob, as you know I am from Moree originally (the old Group 5 and now 14 I think)...many players came out of those areas including our very own Crusher Cleal, and I agree it's a shadow of it's former self (CRL) these days, no money flows from the city as it's all needed to run the 16 NRL clubs and the country boys suffer, sad days indeed.

Sad days indeed.

We in Junee are lucky Adam Perry (former Dogs) is our current captain and Mark Elia (NZ Test Players) is our coach.  But still no Under 16's side for the first time in many years, maybe ever.

 

[ayjay007]

Not enough of 'their' type over here mate. Wouldn't work.

That would be a team for you to support,WAMF....NOT..just kidding!At least you'd have Manly over there once a year to play them(if the draw worked that way).

 

[Jerry1]

[quote author=Mark from Brisbane link=topic=184357.msg279625#msg279625 date=1280383765]
Bob, as you know I am from Moree originally (the old Group 5 and now 14 I think)...many players came out of those areas including our very own Crusher Cleal, and I agree it's a shadow of it's former self (CRL) these days, no money flows from the city as it's all needed to run the 16 NRL clubs and the country boys suffer, sad days indeed.

Sad days indeed.

We in Junee are lucky Adam Perry (former Dogs) is our current captain and Mark Elia (NZ Test Players) is our coach.  But still no Under 16's side for the first time in many years, maybe ever.
[/quote]

Jeez Bob - I just looked up where you are. Nearly Wagga -  How did ya become a manly follower?

Great part of the country down there - good for taking the land rover for a bash.