Tony Angelino

I visit that site regularly as well and many posters on there all talk about the AFL investing heavily on grassroots in south east Queensland. I think this weighed heavily on the NRL’s decision to pick another south east Queensland franchise as their “expansion” pick.

AFL are investing heavily at grassroots in Queensland. Right? soccer and basketball are growing threat to grassroots RL also?

That’s a very bleak picture you paint mate. Are you a Aussie?

Is the NRL even shown in the US? The NRL should concentrate on shoring up the pacific nations and increasing their profile and footprint in New Zealand.

I’d like to see York city knights target North Yorkshire more and position themselves as North Yorkshire’s club as there is a huge potential audience out there with not much competition in terms of other RL clubs and other professional clubs be it football or rugby Union etc.

Unfortunately expansion in the NRL these days is taking origin to Perth or regular NRL games to Darwin, cairns and Christchurch etc.

I see. Thanks.

Cool. why the limit?

For what?

I was replying to a post about Aussie&kiwi expats in and around London but as for a NRL follow up plan or any plans for that matter in North America then forget about it.

Maybe these expats aren’t interested in watching substandard rugby league? A regular NRL season match or even origin series game would be a whole different ball game. imo Im sure if marketed and promoted right by the NRL you could get a crowd in the low 20k to attend along with southern based RL fans and curious newbie sporting fans.

Both teams were cut but I was specifically talking about the National sides of both Argentina and Japan who are in the case of Argentina a genuine tier 1 nation and Japan a team that has beaten tier 1 nations like South Africa, Ireland and wales in recent years.

If somebody stumps up some serious $$$ then maybe. If not it’s not happening.

The fact that these fixtures weren’t sorted and planned out before the season makes me doubtful that they’ll actually go ahead but I’d love to be proven wrong.

Talking about US/North American RL what’s the latest with the proposed professional league that was cancelled last year due to covid. Is it still going ahead or was it all what many of us feared at the time just bullsh#t?

Indeed. Those that try and try again have a greater chance of succeeding than those that don’t try at all.

“Trying” being the operative word. In where they fail they go away and learn their lesson from past mistakes before coming back stronger.

That was way before union going professional and the MLR. Rugby Union plays the long game which is starting to yield results in countries like Argentina and Japan etc. won’t be long before the USA starts to see improvements alongside the likes of Uruguay and Brazil.

At least they back it up with long-term development. We’d kill to have an equivalent to MLR. Just wait until they start taping into the huge college football talent.

I guess I’d be more supportive of the idea if there was an actual long-term pacific plan/strategy by the NRL which btw for me is a no-brainer.

This again is true but I’d add did the RFL actually do any meaningful promotion amongst the aussie&kiwi expat communities? Because of the better profile and media exposure of RU and cricket in this country touring Aussie and kiwi RU and cricket sides are better attended.

To be honest I’m split about the decision as like you it makes for a potentially competitive World Cup but I’d just wish that there wasn’t any allegiance hopping between countries. Interesting to note that I believe rugby Union is going down the same path allowing dual representation at international level which indicates to me the threat of Tonga RL and RL in the pacific in general poses to RU.

That’s Potentially good news regarding the World Cup if not this proposed match during origin.

Most definitely but in true RL/London broncos fashion they did it backwards. The broncos should have stayed in Ealing when going part-time and should have only moved to Wimbledon as a fulltime operating club.

Not upto date with all the latest origin eligibility rules but can you represent either NSW or Queensland and a tier2 nation like Samoa?