Pulga

It's a good thing. I've spoken to literally hundreds of Latin Americans (because I cold call them). This is extremely common.

https://www.melbournestorm.com.au/news/2018/03/11/the-quickest-footballer-in-australia/ Josh Addo Carr is easily the fastest I think. James Roberts over 40m is real quick. Historically, you've got Steve Renouf and Rhys Wesser were lightning.

It's also not the most popular sport in Britain.

I'm not sure you completely grasp what the product is...

I think the Wolfpack are going to outgrow SL extremely quickly. This is almost too forward thinking for the English system. Just looking at the views on here, it's hard to believe how backwards English RL fans are.

Articles in very well read sites... https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/bj9j43/toronto-wolfpack-to-be-first-pro-sports-team-to-launch-a-line-of-cannabis-products

Beattie hasn't really done anything wrong. He's come out and said he's not in it for the long haul. He's there to make changes, ruffle some feathers and leave. I think it's great. Otherwise you have these career administrators that only make decisions on what it will mean for their career.

Interestingly, the RLIF sent out a survey to what I'm assuming is all nations asking their opinion on a 9s circuit at the same time this latest article went public. My colleague received it and filled it out for El Salvador. I don't know what the questions were unfortunately.

You wait. It will happen in Canada too eventually. It always does.

24%? That's almost certainly untrue. Broncos, Bulldogs, Panthers and Rabittohs are probably all ahead of the Warriors. An even spread would give a team less than a 7% share. Obviously they're not all even. But think of how ridiculous having a 24% share would be. On a seperate note, the NRL sells $215 million worth of licenced merchandise a year.

If they do break away with their own tournament I think SL is going to have some real problems. I think they would get the pick of players if they have a salary cap comparable to SL.

PNG for sure. We need to promote them a bit more as the Brazilian Soccer of Rugby League.

It's interesting. Rugby League in England is really reaping more than a century of not being able to grow the game outside the north. If you had a strong London, strong Manchester, strong West Midlands, this conversation wouldn't happen. They're essentially propping up poor businesses. SL needs to ride the NA expansion while they can. It's not going to stick around forever. Once they're strong enough or pushed out, they'll make their own competition that will see SL drain to nothing.

Here's something actionable and relatively easy: If you have social media, jump on there and follow the various emerging nations. Share their posts, like, retweet, whatever. Often these guys are up against the other code in their nations. Being the code with more followers/more engagement goes a long way to be seen as the legitimate type of rugby. Maybe think about buying a jersey and then take a pic of you wearing it. It's certainly morale boosting.

Can I ask how much the grant was? From my experience with a bunch of different emerging nations, there are a stack of different problems. The RLIF/APRLC/RLEF will not help in any way unless the nations are members of those governing bodies. Often getting to that point is the hardest part. For example you could very easily do a bit of paperwork yourself, online, and register as a nonprofit in Australia and fairly easily open up a bank account in the name of the nonprofit. In El Salvador you have to engage a lawyer and to do so which will cost you thousands. In a country where the average wage is $3,000 or so a year it becomes near impossible for them to self fund. Sponsorships also don't happen because nobody knows what the sport is. El Salvador is probably one of the most financially secure Latin American rugby league team though because we're able to draw on sponsors in Australia. Saying that though, we're talking about a few grand per year. Nicaragua has their own problems. To become a sporting body you have to found smaller bodies in at least 3 departments (states or counties) then you can qualify to create a national body that oversees the departments. So far we've been lucky because a university is helping us. Panama is another one I'm working on. It's very early days but I'm finding it difficult to get anyone on the ground to coach. The whole of Central America is difficult because the closest nations with any ideas about the game, Colombia and Mexico have no money to travel and the Central Americans have no money to help bring them over. Colombia to Panama is surprisingly expensive and difficult. I'm working on it though. I'm also trying to get something happening in Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica. But it's hard. El Salvador and Nicaragua haven't been able to play a game yet. There is no opposition except for themselves. We had a game planned which was relying on RLIF funding which was pulled at the last second. I'm helping Puerto Rico get a 9s team to the Carolina 9s. They're all US based players. The numbers are looking ok. Peru is looking to get a team off the ground based in Australia. They are very close to having the numbers. I'm hopeful they'll have a game this year. The main problem is there is no development officer for 600m+ people and the governing bodies want you to do all the development work first before they will acknowledge you and then reap the rewards...