I supose this could be a whinge. But maybe its time for them to start helping the international game. Maybe this could work : 1.A player that starts his career at country other then the big three (Aus, NZ or Eng) not be counted in a clubs salary cap. But with a rule in place if that player switches allegiance to one of those three his full salary gets counted in the cap it would force clubs to stop encouraging players to play for NSW or QLD. To stop a Uate situation happening again(I'm a blue through and through but we stooped to Qld levels when they allowed him to play). The RLIF have rules put in place and they circumvent it and I've seen people whinge about the English team having the likes of Heighington, Reed and Chase in it when we have done the same to some Island nations and stripe them of players. We all know that union's international comp leaves ours (leagues)for dead so this maybe a way to strengthen it by using what we have over them a better club system. In saying that the 4 Nations just played was really good. Could workout well for the game by giving them more publicity to say if an American makes it in to the full time NRL squad straight from their College system (would give the NRL positive promotion with the likes of ESPN coming over to interview him). 2.The RFL allows French(Catalan, Toulouse, Lezignon etc), Welsh(North Wales Crusaders, South Wales Scorpions), Irish, Scottish and in the past Russian teams to enter in their Challenge Cup At the moment the NRL (the premier comp in the Southern hemisphere doesn't really do anything). Maybe its something the IC could look at hosting a knockout tourny with the likes of Qld Cup teams, NSW Cup teams, Bundy Red Cup teams, PNG teams, NZ teams, and Fijian teams
I like your second idea, the problem is that where's the money and suitable grounds to play the games on going to come from?
if the first point was to be adopted could you imagine the amount of players signed by clubs with money i.e. broncos,roosters & so on from other nations.
Maybe we could have an after season tournament. With the bottom 8 of the NRL and invite 8 other teams such PNG, Maroi, Aboriginal, Fiji and four northern hemisphere teams to come and play a knock out comp. It would be all over in 4 weeks being played as a knock out at say SFS while the NRL semis are on. Sell it to pay TV and offer $200 k in prize money. Get a sponsor like Harvey Norman and market it. Try any rule changes (including international rules) that could come in next year and see how they work. For example you'd probably get a lot of interest if the final was Souths v P/matta or Easts v Cronulla at the SFS.
Some grounds may not be up to NRL scratch but could host these games - Henson Park, Belmore, Morrie Bean etc The AFL got something similar to what I'm advocating in their last tv deal so why can't we.
