LineBall

The Elephant in the room for the NRL is too many teams in Sydney. How they resolve this will be the biggest test for the administration over the next next few decades. The NSW government has already committed to improving Allianz, Parramatta and ANZ stadia, with no money to be spent on suburban grounds. Culling teams is not an option as seen by problems when North and South Sydney were kicked out of the competition. Moving teams is an option, but areas such as Brisbane where Rugby League is already popular won't accept a team from Sydney. Perhaps relocation is an option for sending a team to Perth, or Adelaide. Some painful decisions will need to be made at some point.

He could have been anything. Size power and skill, but laaazzzy. Doesn't have the greatest 'football brain' either.

Exactly.

No it wasnt the right decision. P&R will effectively do this to a team every year, and more than likely the same few teams every few years. What an utter mess, just so a few clubs can say they played with the big boys for a year.

Sorry. Thought we were discussing P&R? Is P&R different in the PL?

Exactly...the bottom of superleague. I take it you'll be happy seeing the same few teams go from one division to the other ad nauseum?

P&R really is a quaint notion that belongs in the history books. It would only ever work if every team in every division had the same finances, same resources, so that in effect there is a completely level playing field across all divisions. The only factor that would then determine a teams future is their talent. What pure fantasy! From reading some posts on here, it seems some get their jollies more from seeing teams go from one division to another, rather than watching quality teams battle it out at the top of the table. I suppose it takes all sorts.

P&R would never work here in Australia. After years of a club going up and down, from one division to another, fans lose patience. They want to be in the top league and stay there. How is the NRL a closed shop? They are looking at expansion after 2015. They will be playing at Least 3 games in Perth from next year onwards. Most likely they will have new teams in Perth and a second team in brisbane within the next 5 years. Most likely this will be followed by a second NZ team and a team on the NSW central coast - which would be a reincarnation of the old North Sydney Bears. Brisbane had a quite strong local League competition for many years, until the Broncos were formed and joined the NSWRL premiership in 1988. In fact the 1986 Kangaroos had 5 players, including the captain, who played in the Brisbane competition, and another two - being Mal Meninga and Gary Belcher, who only left the year before. Anybody with any knowledge of the game in Australia would know that Perth was under enormous financial stress due to the arrangements whereby they had to pay all the travel costs of visiting teams. Even then they were attracting good crowds before they were sacrificed as part of the re-unification of the game after the Super League War.

Sorry Mods if this is in the wrong forum, but thought it relates to the English game, Looks certain now that Australia will be without Lockyer, Thurston, Folau and Inglis for the 4 Nations. Does this fill the English supporters with renewed optimism for the upcoming tournament? As an Aussie, I think it will certainly blunt our attacking strength.

Agree.

There was ###### all promotion of the RLWC here in Australia, both by the ARL and the broadcaster Channel Nine. If it was promoted better, no doubt there would have been better crowds.

It all depends on how you define 'contested'. Union scrums are more physically contested than League, but if you are talking about contesting posession, then they are pretty much the same. The times a scrum is won against the feed in either code is very rare.

Let me start by saying hello to all the forum members. I have been a long time reader of the forum ( as my only way to stay up to date about the ESL ), and the passion the posters have for our great game is obvious. Anyway, was surfing the net and found some designs for Bradford and wondered what the Bradford fans think? http://gazzzaf.com/?p=940 I know that 2010 has a while to go yet, but may as well get in early.