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New Brisbane NRL team


Davo5

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42 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

I used to go to Bears games in the mid 80`s, there were no 15-20 000 crowds, more like 5 000, I am not exaggerating, the bloke who owns the Dragons is based out of the Illawarra, you couldn`t have both, and Newtown, have you been there, it`s the size of a postage stamp and is full of Uni students and alternatives. It`s a hobby of John Singleton. No mate, maybe you are joking, but all we would end up with is a bunch of impoverished clubs.

One thing I do agree with though, what a pity that Norths Sydney Leagues club can`t see its way clear to join forces with Manly now, take that whole north of the harbour, northern peninsula region over to the Sea Eagles. Maybe if Manly get a decent 20 000 seater stadium the Bears fans will vote with their feet or should I say bums on seats.

Admittedly, I was a bit young at the time, so don't really remember much about which teams got big crowds etc.

I guess the team I feel for most is Illawarra.  Their whole identity got completely swallowed up by St George in what was supposedly a joint-venture.  They have a population almost the same as Newcastle, a great stadium and consistently produces good rugby league talent.  Regarding the other teams, I think you will find many cases of people do supporting a team that do not live in the area.  House prices in Sydney especially, got so high that a lot of people have been forced out west.  But if you were brought up as a St George fan, for example, you are not going to suddenly change because you don't live there anymore.  You could even argue that every Sydney team in now from a 'gentrified area' except: Penrith, Parramatta and Bulldogs.

Regarding the thousands of Bears fans that protested, I think a similar thing happened with the Rabbitohs street rallies, that were attracting over 20k fans.  Then, after they got reinstated, not even half were turning up to their matches.

EDIT: I just did a quick search, 80k turned up to the protest, according to Rabbitohs official site:  https://www.rabbitohs.com.au/news/2020/11/12/on-this-day-the-people-marched/

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1 hour ago, Davo5 said:

And that's without mentioning Wakey's continued membership of Superleague !!

Likes a good rant does KP.

I can understand anyone feeling strongly about stuff & I don't take it personally.

2 warning points:kolobok_dirol:  Non-Political

 

 

 

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9 minutes ago, langpark said:

I think Brookvale recently got given a grant so they can do some upgrades.

Wasn't the Central Coast Stadium supposed to be the home ground for the previous attempt at a joint venture?    Good stadium, 22k capacity, next to the rail station and on the main road through Gosford, with a big Leagues Club across the road.  

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7 minutes ago, Rioman said:

Wasn't the Central Coast Stadium supposed to be the home ground for the previous attempt at a joint venture?    Good stadium, 22k capacity, next to the rail station and on the main road through Gosford, with a big Leagues Club across the road.  

It was the home stadium for a year or however long the joint venture lasted.

Seems like an opportunity lost when the joint venture was disbanded 😔

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36 minutes ago, langpark said:

Admittedly, I was a bit young at the time, so don't really remember much about which teams got big crowds etc.

I guess the team I feel for most is Illawarra.  Their whole identity got completely swallowed up by St George in what was supposedly a joint-venture.  They have a population almost the same as Newcastle, a great stadium and consistently produces good rugby league talent.  Regarding the other teams, I think you will find many cases of people do supporting a team that do not live in the area.  House prices in Sydney especially, got so high that a lot of people have been forced out west.  But if you were brought up as a St George fan, for example, you are not going to suddenly change because you don't live there anymore.  You could even argue that every Sydney team in now from a 'gentrified area' except: Penrith, Parramatta and Bulldogs.

Regarding the thousands of Bears fans that protested, I think a similar thing happened with the Rabbitohs street rallies, that were attracting over 20k fans.  Then, after they got reinstated, not even half were turning up to their matches.

EDIT: I just did a quick search, 80k turned up to the protest, according to Rabbitohs official site:  https://www.rabbitohs.com.au/news/2020/11/12/on-this-day-the-people-marched/

That was one of the things that annoyed me about Souths. If all those people who turned up to rallies had simply bothered going to 2 or 3 home games each year, Souths would never have been in that position. George Piggins did as much as anyone to kill Souths. He just wouldn't pay players. I can remember walking through Redfern Park during the week and seeing Craig Coleman and a few other first-graders leaning on shovels next to a South Sydney Council truck. That was their contract - a council job and a Housing Commission flat that had been passed down by some club official's grandmother.

Demographics killed Balmain and Newtown. By 1990 there were more Balmain fans in Blacktown than in Balmain. When Penrith finally won a GF that was the death certificate for Balmain. All those Tigers fans in Mt Druitt finally had some pride in their local team. Newtown was slightly different demographic change. By the time Newtown folded there were about 4 or 5 State League and first grade soccer clubs in that area. The Greeks then Lebanese then Vietnamese didn't play RL.

The Warringah Freeway killed North Sydney. Where there is now a 16-lane entrance/exit for the Harbour Bridge and Tunnel used to be thousands of cheap houses full of Catholic working-class families who churned out RL players and supporters for the Bears. When they were bulldozed the whole base of North Sydney Bears went with them. Then all the office blocks came. North Sydney was about the only place in Sydney where the population declined 20% between 1960-1990.

Similar thing happened to Easts although probably earlier. When Williams Street was widened and the Kings Cross overpass was built, those houses that went were all former blue-collar Easts supporters. Then lots of houses in Darlinghurst/East Sydney were converted to commercial/office space. The Rushcutters Bay roadworks and Edgecliff Station killed off one of the last pockets of cheap workers housing in the area.

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1 hour ago, langpark said:

Admittedly, I was a bit young at the time, so don't really remember much about which teams got big crowds etc.

The Rocket is right about the Bears` crowds in the 80s. It was `91 when they made the finals that they started getting 15-20k. Their average that year was over 15k, the highest in Sydney. The propensity for the crowds of Sydney RL clubs to plummet when they are losing was sadly not unique to North Sydney.

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33 minutes ago, Farmduck said:

That was one of the things that annoyed me about Souths. If all those people who turned up to rallies had simply bothered going to 2 or 3 home games each year, Souths would never have been in that position. 

A recent article on NRL.com recounted that only 5% of Souths members live in their traditional catchment area. 30% were in Western Sydney, 10% Central Coast, 9% SEQ, 3% WA.

The extent of the diaspora has produced the phenomenon of "random Souths fan" prolifically popping up in the most unlikely of places. Someone should check the footage of the moon landing for a red and green jersey.

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9 hours ago, Omott91 said:

Some people aspire for our game to reach and be enjoyed by as many people as possible and find new teams exciting and real growth of our sport. Toronto offered hope of a brighter future, however UK administration and clubs scuppered that. Ottawa hopefully won't have the same issues.

  I am one of these people.  

Clearly you are not. 

Covid and David Argyles poor management scuppered Toronto 

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3 hours ago, Cumbrian Mackem said:

Why couldn’t the sea Eagles move to the north Sydney oval and call themselves the north Sydney sea Eagles?

At a time when all the world is trying to control the spread of a deadly virus how can you suggest this?

Hell will freeze over before north sydney oval is made the home for the vermin from warringah.

 

 

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6 hours ago, Davo5 said:

Is that even feasible given the amount of bad feeling that came out of the failed joint venture.(Manly takeover)

No unfortunately, very unlikely. Obviously there are still RL sympathetic types still involved with North Sydney Leagues Club, I suppose that is part of their charter after all, i.e. to support a RL team, but the animosity runs way too deep and their identities are far too separate for them probably ever to combine.

I just thought that since Manly are perennially short of funds and North Sydney Leagues club is a monster, but for other reasons can`t run  a first grade team anymore, that them throwing their resources behind Manly would at least greatly benefit one party. Even if Manly compromised on their identity a little. I think that Manly would have to be on their last legs before they agreed to have a Bear somewhere on their jumper, compromised on their jumper a little or even play out of North Sydney oval occasionally.

At the end of the day there appears to be people at Norths like Newtown who are just happy to have a RL team in the NSW cup. They are realistic and know for various reasons their days in the top League are over. And we are lucky to have them as it adds to the overall depth of RL in this state. At their own level they still invest a lot of money in RL.

I do think it is a very similar situation in your part of the world where some clubs realistically probably should see their future in the Championship, perhaps there is just not enough bigger wealthier clubs to replace them just yet.

 

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5 hours ago, Farmduck said:

That was one of the things that annoyed me about Souths. If all those people who turned up to rallies had simply bothered going to 2 or 3 home games each year, Souths would never have been in that position. George Piggins did as much as anyone to kill Souths. He just wouldn't pay players. I can remember walking through Redfern Park during the week and seeing Craig Coleman and a few other first-graders leaning on shovels next to a South Sydney Council truck. That was their contract - a council job and a Housing Commission flat that had been passed down by some club official's grandmother.

Demographics killed Balmain and Newtown. By 1990 there were more Balmain fans in Blacktown than in Balmain. When Penrith finally won a GF that was the death certificate for Balmain. All those Tigers fans in Mt Druitt finally had some pride in their local team. Newtown was slightly different demographic change. By the time Newtown folded there were about 4 or 5 State League and first grade soccer clubs in that area. The Greeks then Lebanese then Vietnamese didn't play RL.

The Warringah Freeway killed North Sydney. Where there is now a 16-lane entrance/exit for the Harbour Bridge and Tunnel used to be thousands of cheap houses full of Catholic working-class families who churned out RL players and supporters for the Bears. When they were bulldozed the whole base of North Sydney Bears went with them. Then all the office blocks came. North Sydney was about the only place in Sydney where the population declined 20% between 1960-1990.

Similar thing happened to Easts although probably earlier. When Williams Street was widened and the Kings Cross overpass was built, those houses that went were all former blue-collar Easts supporters. Then lots of houses in Darlinghurst/East Sydney were converted to commercial/office space. The Rushcutters Bay roadworks and Edgecliff Station killed off one of the last pockets of cheap workers housing in the area.

I can read about this all day long - it's fascinating stuff.

Any other similar history much appreciated.

People called Romans they go the house

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5 hours ago, Cumbrian Mackem said:

It was the home stadium for a year or however long the joint venture lasted.

Seems like an opportunity lost when the joint venture was disbanded 😔

Yeah mate, nice sentiment but the Manly half of that venture where never going to make that work. Manly had won about 5 or so premierships in the last 20 years and the Bears hadn`t won one for 80. Manly are way too proud of a club to team up with the Bears, change their name or wear a different jersey. Manly are Brookvale, and if they get a decent stadium down there with decent corporate facilities they could well kick on.

The Bears days as a first grade team are done, North Sydney oval is a quaint tree lined hark back to yester year. North Sydney itself would be more union and soccer these days, it`s uber expensive and snobbish. I don`t think people even have kids down there anymore, it`s all careers, half joking.

No the Bears would have to have been totally subsumed by Manly for that venture to have survived, as is North Sydney Leagues club is still wealthy enough to put a competitive team in the NSW cup and they seem happy with that.

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15 hours ago, langpark said:

Again, I say Australia not comparable to UK.  But if you are trying to imply that the Tigers are located outside Brisbane, then you are wrong.

Easts Tigers are located in what is now considered inner-city Brisbane (Coorparoo).  I am not a fan of rebranding (and I hate the new logo), but I understand why they've done it, especially if they have NRL ambitions.  I will take a club founded in 1933 over a "Brisbane Bombers" fake entity any day.

I wouldn’t want them in as Brisbane Tigers though, nor would that be allowed to happen (Wolfpack and Wolves in the same elite comp, what were they thinking?).

Rebranded for NRL purpose as Brisbane Old Golds perhaps keeps some of the heritage.

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1 hour ago, The Rocket said:

 North Sydney itself would be more union and soccer these days, it`s uber expensive and snobbish. 

Is it not a little defeatist to assume that every time higher-income people move in that it sounds the death knell for RL in the area?

BTW, did you notice the phrase "vermin from Warringah" higher up the page?

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Perhaps I am thinking of this with too much of a British mindset, but who exactly would support a second team (apart from its existing supporter base, which I assuming is not enough to sustain an NRL side)? I would have thought if you are from Brisbane you will want to support the Broncos?

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4 minutes ago, giasf said:

Perhaps I am thinking of this with too much of a British mindset, but who exactly would support a second team (apart from its existing supporter base, which I assuming is not enough to sustain an NRL side)? I would have thought if you are from Brisbane you will want to support the Broncos?

We see all these posters from down under telling us how parochial and set in our ways and we should merge or change allegiance , but when you scratch a little under the surface over there you find they're just the same 🤔

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19 hours ago, langpark said:

I guess the team I feel for most is Illawarra.  Their whole identity got completely swallowed up by St George in what was supposedly a joint-venture.  They have a population almost the same as Newcastle, a great stadium and consistently produces good rugby league talent. 

The main reason the Dragons were awarded a NRLW licence ahead of the Sharks and Rabbitohs was the record of the Illawarra Division in developing a strong local women`s section. In terms of players and coaches the balance of the NRLW venture is more Wollongong than Kogarah. There are separate Dragons and Steelers teams in the under-19s Tarsha Gale Cup, same as in the male NSW RL junior rep grades. The Steelers won the S.G. Ball Cup in 2019.

It`s hard to work out how much popular buy-in there is for the Dragons in Illawarra. Then again the Steelers in the Winfield Cup was a slow burner compared with the Knights. Maybe there`s more RU down there.

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