Sports Prophet

It’s certainly grim in the background. Looks much more like a northern pit town than Perpignan.

In my opinion, nothing can replace good governance and good community engagement, no matter the club. Unfortunately I don’t have confidence is the RFLs or SLs governance capabilities to help attract more big destinations and big investors, nor do I have faith in said club’s community engagement capabilities in which they can reach their ceiling quickly.

Phil your boots and make a go of it mate. Keep us updated on the progress

I can’t help but think a few lazy people have seen Portugal’s performance in the RWC and thought, “great, here’s a place we can recruit Union players to run a three team, four week league”.

It wasn’t a stab at the supporters either, but my point was, I don’t trust the RFL to be utilising the partnership properly to make it worth while, whilst they devalue their “marquee events” by having the supporters take advantage of vastly reduced ticket prices.

When the few RL fans we have attending internationals are almost doing so for free, it’s little wonder these internationals are so financially unappealing.

I don’t understand how that can work. There is just too much reliance on the support of one partner which at a guess contracts approx. 75% - 80% of the players at the last World Cup. There would be no room to move the international window to a more desirable mid year date. I don’t really understand what an investor would do, or would be allowed to do differently to what the NRL do already.

Still is as far as I’m aware

Good news. Warms the heart to see the loss of one US Billionaire sports investor to soccer but gaining a richer Aus Billionaire investor into RL. My biggest concern with Twiggy is whether his millions are long lasting after his divorce sees that fortune drop to a miserly $16b.

Oceania exists. It’s a region. It’s not a continent.

I will sometimes praise and sometimes condemn the actions taken within our sport and despite people disagreeing with me at times, I think I post my opinions with fair appraisal. I don’t get direct enjoyment from the negatives in our sport, but I do enjoy discussing the topics of the day with others who like me, have a strong passion for the game of RL. As to the opening post, NRL expansion is contemporary discussion and I thought the expansion of another sport into one of the NRLs key markets off the back of a billionaire investor is something worth discussing. My point being, I wish the said billionaire had the interest in investing in pacific RL instead of soccer. As to your question, I don’t go on other forums.

Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing, but he wouldn’t be paying for this himself in whole. With government influence, I would expect a 30k stadium would be a good size for an Auckland CBD stadium, hosting Warriors and Blues too.

Neither are accurate. The name of the continent is Australia.

Rd 1 Thursday Night - FC v KR Friday Night - Wigan v Leigh Saturday Arvo - Catalans v London Saturday Evening - Leeds v Castleford Sunday Early - Saints v Warrington Sunday Arvo - Hudds v Salford Its imperative matches are spread over the course of the full weekend to keep a steady stream of newsworthy stories from Thursday to Monday.

Yeah, sorry bout the click bait, but I thought it an interesting story in light NRL expansion is an ever present topic of discussion amongst Aussie RL circles.

You could replace the words New Zealand with Australia and Silver Ferns with Diamonds and that statement would be accurate.

Who’d have thought it, the A-League would have a second NZ side before the NRL would. They have managed to recruit US billionaire owner of the Las Vegas Knights and Bournemouth FC to head up a new A-League team to start in the 2024/25 season. It’s hard to fathom how such a sports entrepreneur and expansionist would see A-League as the pacific destination of his growing portfolio.

Chris is an intelligent visionary who should be listened to more often.

I agree. The regularity of the collision and the physical toughness with such a lack of stoppages really is RL’s most unique difference to other team sports and is instantly gratifying which makes it perfect for advertising where five big hits can all be shown in five to ten seconds. Other extremely successful sports also have the collision and physical toughness aspects as major features as well, so I too get frustrated that we continue to make more effort to minimise the regularity of these key moments. Yeah, I think a big stink early in each game would have the yanks, and myself alike, creaming ourselves. Time for PVL to get some influence on the disciplinary panel. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

You seem overly sure of that. I think you are underestimating the pulling power of prolonging and potentially successfully carving out a lucrative sporting career in one of the world’s leading lifestyle choice locations.

I think we need to consider good money vs bad money. Good money is getting immediate headlines and a ten year champion. Bad money is headlines finishing as soon as they started because said player can’t crack first grade. Rather than spending $1.4m a year on one player, I think there is a lot more to be said for paying NRL minimum wage to highly skilled, highly motivated and highly routined sportsman who haven’t made the transition from College Football to NFL. Bring 10-20 of them a year into camp for a 1+1+1 programme including playing opportunities in lower grades as well as work opportunities ideally suited to their subject of study during College. Said players get 12 months to impress, 6-9 are retained for another 12 months and then 3-6 are retained for a final 3rd year if they haven’t been picked up by an NRL club already. If anything, I feel the motivation of the man who has been given a second chance after being cut from his dreams will be far greater than a highly paid, high profile code swapper. Let alone how much better it would be for the dynamic amongst amy playing group where a potential untested player comes to the sport and club as one of its highest paid players.

Bloody hell, I found that so hard to listen to. Guys talking over each other, Shane Richardson mainly. Unfortunately almost everything which came out of Richardson’s mouth was just fluff. He just came out with generic statements any enthused supporter off the street could make. I certainly didn’t end that podcast thinking, I listened to some really insightful discussion, led by a former NRL CEO.

It’s got failure written all over it

Much better. It should have been played at Parra Stadium. they are known to the rugby league public. A few curious others would jump in too no doubt, but there should be enough RL fans to fill 40k seats for a big event.

I often hear of people declaring “clubs have earned the right to play at home”. I heard it a lot when Cronulla earned the right to host a home semi final at their restricted capacity Shark Park. My position on this has completely changed. As far as I am concerned, clubs are required to show some more balls and ensure the bigs games are featured in venues befitting the occasion. Wigan’s home ground isn’t befitting the occasion of a World Club Championship fixture. Not for a sport striving to breakthrough into mainstream popularity it’s not.