Strong rumours NRL #18 team will be PNG

[NRLandSL]

On 20/10/2023 at 00:41, Bamboozle said:

Of course the elephant in the room being that PNG is a poor 3rd world country with a large part of its population living below the poverty line.

and then of course there’s the high crime rates.

Only reason I didn’t mention that is that australia are going to be pumping 100s of millions of dollars in Papua New Guinea, which will sure help.

[UTK]

5 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

The Federal Government have backed the Fijian Super Rugby team as well which is a bigger project than the Silktails.

Would have been ideal to see the NRL deliver a high performance pacific island series involving 8 teams from PNG, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, NZ and maybe even NC with performance centres delivering high quality training and playing opportunities, all for a fraction of the cost of an NRL club in just one of those countries (if even based in that country at all).

Instead, I expect we will look back at millions squandered on unsustainably propping up a club in the NRL for five or ten years.

 

I'm not sure how you could work out that 8 high performance centres would cost less than 1 NRL club, unless I'm reading that wrong. 

If the PNG club survives 10 years we'll have well and truly extracted ROI in respect of NRL player pool development, government funding/favour and strengthening the International game. A short-term failure of 2-3 years would be the worst-case scenario.

[Sports Prophet]

1 hour ago, UTK said:

I'm not sure how you could work out that 8 high performance centres would cost less than 1 NRL club, unless I'm reading that wrong. 

If the PNG club survives 10 years we'll have well and truly extracted ROI in respect of NRL player pool development, government funding/favour and strengthening the International game. A short-term failure of 2-3 years would be the worst-case scenario.

I’m not talking about performance centres in NZ and centres already exist in Port Moresby and I think Suva, or somewhere else in Fiji, so yeah, I do think it will be much cheaper for the development of one in Lae, Tonga and Samoa and staffing it, than it will to bankroll an NRL club out of Port Moresby. They would have their own commercial benefits as well.

I can’t see a PNG NRL team being anything other than a money pit for 20+ years, so if the NRL are on board with that and serious about it like the AFL are for GWS and Gold Coast, then ok. But I still think there are far better commercial decisions to be made before starting a project like PNG NRL.

[Copa]

2 hours ago, NRLandSL said:

Only reason I didn’t mention that is that australia are going to be pumping 100s of millions of dollars in Papua New Guinea, which will sure help.

Australia gives around $400 to $500 million a year already.

[Bamboozle]

https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/news-2023-papua-new-guinea-expansion-bid-andrew-hill-comments/72a7aa7c-1f2a-4b0e-bdd2-99d052f175fe

[eal]

PNG would be a disaster as an NRL team, the country is a basket case and nobody other than guys desperate for a contract would want to play for a Port Moresby-based team. The possible option of Cairns is also troublesome, I'm not sure many big name players would want to move to Cairns. It is hard enough getting guys to go to Auckland, Canberra, and Townsville.

[Damien]

I don't like talk about a PNG side playing in Cairns and other Pacific countries. That dilutes what could make it special and what it offers. Being a nomad side and playing the odd game in PNG just seems pointless to me and is an approach that will see it fail in my opinion.

[Bamboozle]

31 minutes ago, eal said:

PNG would be a disaster as an NRL team, the country is a basket case and nobody other than guys desperate for a contract would want to play for a Port Moresby-based team. The possible option of Cairns is also troublesome, I'm not sure many big name players would want to move to Cairns. It is hard enough getting guys to go to Auckland, Canberra, and Townsville.

It’s got disaster written all over it.

hopefully it gets punted to team #19 or #20 and by this time there’s been a change of government and policy in both Canberra and Port Moresby.

[UTK]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

I don't like talk about a PNG side playing in Cairns and other Pacific countries. That dilutes what could make it special and what it offers. Being a nomad side and playing the odd game in PNG just seems pointless to me and is an approach that will see it fail in my opinion.

Even in that article Hill makes pretty clear that their home ground will be in PNG. 

Every NRL club takes at least 2-3 games on the road each year, whether that be to play in country towns, alternate NZ locations, non-NRL states, etc it's standard practice for every club in the league. For the PNG side those 2-3 games naturally would be Cairns given they're based there and by the sounds of it the likes of Suva, Apia, etc. might form other options the government would support to broaden the reach of this commitment into the Pacific. Assume the likes of Lae might be included in that as well to cover the entirety of PNG.

Being based in Cairns is a non-negotiable though, we're decades away from a team that resides in Port Moresby like the Hunters.

[UTK]

1 hour ago, eal said:

PNG would be a disaster as an NRL team, the country is a basket case and nobody other than guys desperate for a contract would want to play for a Port Moresby-based team. The possible option of Cairns is also troublesome, I'm not sure many big name players would want to move to Cairns. It is hard enough getting guys to go to Auckland, Canberra, and Townsville.

Side will definitely be based in Cairns. 

There's no real difference between Cairns and the other major expansion options of Perth/NZ2 in terms of attracting "big name" players. A Perth side will spend half their lives on planes and are much further from the player pools on the East Coast/PNG than Cairns is, NZ2 would face the same alleged problems as Auckland. 

[eal]

Perth is a major city, so is Auckland. Cairns has 169,000 people and is quite isolated.

Also, a team based in Cairns will be nomadic and not really feel like a PNG team.

[UTK]

3 hours ago, eal said:

Perth is a major city, so is Auckland. Cairns has 169,000 people and is quite isolated.

Also, a team based in Cairns will be nomadic and not really feel like a PNG team.

Townsville is a very comparable size and isolation to Cairns, will definitely have challenges as the Cowboys do in attracting players outside the region but it's really not a big deal in the scheme of things. 

As long as they're playing their games in Port Moresby they will represent PNG fine, it's a necessity of the circumstances presented.

[Bamboozle]

3 hours ago, UTK said:

Townsville is a very comparable size and isolation to Cairns, will definitely have challenges as the Cowboys do in attracting players outside the region but it's really not a big deal in the scheme of things. 

As long as they're playing their games in Port Moresby they will represent PNG fine, it's a necessity of the circumstances presented.

Cairns is also cowboys territory.

can’t see them being too happy about this either.

[Damien]

9 hours ago, UTK said:

Even in that article Hill makes pretty clear that their home ground will be in PNG. 

Every NRL club takes at least 2-3 games on the road each year, whether that be to play in country towns, alternate NZ locations, non-NRL states, etc it's standard practice for every club in the league. For the PNG side those 2-3 games naturally would be Cairns given they're based there and by the sounds of it the likes of Suva, Apia, etc. might form other options the government would support to broaden the reach of this commitment into the Pacific. Assume the likes of Lae might be included in that as well to cover the entirety of PNG.

Being based in Cairns is a non-negotiable though, we're decades away from a team that resides in Port Moresby like the Hunters.

No he said Cairns was consideration. The rest is just your opinion and far from what is going to happen.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Damien

[UTK]

3 minutes ago, Damien said:

No he said Cairns was consideration. The rest is just your opinion and far from what is going to happen.

"If we are based in Cairns, obviously Souths have been playing there for 10 years quite successfully so a game or two there, those things are still up for consideration, but definitely playing most of our games in Port Moresby."

Verbatim quote from the bid director himself, "base" is quite clearly referring to where they will live and train. This is widely reported in just about every single piece of media that has come out about the bid team, this particular article is not revolutionary at all. 

[UTK]

1 hour ago, Bamboozle said:

Cairns is also cowboys territory.

can’t see them being too happy about this either.

Cows don't care about Cairns, they don't take games there and have ###### off every one of their feeder relationships this year by attempting to run their own reserve grade side and in turn intend to shunt their remaining connections with the Northern Pride (Cairns QCup side).

[Bamboozle]

Just now, UTK said:

Cows don't care about Cairns, they don't take games there and have ###### off every one of their feeder relationships this year by attempting to run their own reserve grade side and in turn intend to shunt their remaining connections with the Northern Pride (Cairns QCup side).

Wasn’t aware of this.

more fool them then.

[Damien]

30 minutes ago, UTK said:

"If we are based in Cairns, obviously Souths have been playing there for 10 years quite successfully so a game or two there, those things are still up for consideration, but definitely playing most of our games in Port Moresby."

Verbatim quote from the bid director himself, "base" is quite clearly referring to where they will live and train. This is widely reported in just about every single piece of media that has come out about the bid team, this particular article is not revolutionary at all. 

And what about the bit you ignored before that stating Cairns was a consideration? It's very disingenuous leaving that out.

Even in what you quote the very first word "If" is doing an awful lot of heavy lifting and it certainly doesn't prove what you said.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Damien

[UTK]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

And what about the bit you ignored before that stating Cairns was a consideration? It's very disingenuous leaving that out.

Even in what you quote the very first word "If" is doing an awful lot of heavy lifting and it certainly doesn't prove what you said.

Yes they are considering being based in Cairns, this idea is not being contested at all.

When they are talking about being "based" somewhere they are referring to living and training there - the "If" in the quote is implying that they might not be based in Cairns - ie they might be based in PNG (highly unlikely that will happen and yes that is just my opinion but a fairly reasonable one I think). 

There has never been any suggestion that they will play the majority of their home games outside PNG - you've entirely misread this article.

[Damien]

8 minutes ago, UTK said:

Yes they are considering being based in Cairns, this idea is not being contested at all.

When they are talking about being "based" somewhere they are referring to living and training there - the "If" in the quote is implying that they might not be based in Cairns - ie they might be based in PNG (highly unlikely that will happen and yes that is just my opinion but a fairly reasonable one I think). 

There has never been any suggestion that they will play the majority of their home games outside PNG - you've entirely misread this article.

You are clearly just looking for an argument for the sake of it and are trying to shift the goalposts just to argue. You've gone from replying that Cairns is a non-negotiable to this. I never once mentioned anything about a base in the post you replied to either, this is a bizarre argument you seem to want to have for the sake of it and frankly I'm not interested in it.

You quoted an article as backing up what you said and it doesnt in any way shape or form. That is clear. It is also clear there is much to finalise so stop presenting your opinion as fact. I have certainly not misread anything and my opinion is just as valid as yours. 

You quoted me saying I'm not kean on PNG being a nomad team and diluting what can make it special. Taking games away from PNG is something I have seen in various articles. This should be a PNG team representing PNG. Anything that takes even a small number of PNG games away from PNG makes the venture pointless to me. Trying to be an islander team and appeal to completely different cultures, such as Tongans and Samoans and playing games in those countries, won't work either. Other teams could arguably do that better anyway.

[Keith989]

I don't think taking a few games away from Port Morseby is a bad thing at all, nor would it dilute their identity. The Drua does something similar and the team doesn't feel any less Fijian.

It's unrealistic to expect PNG to be able to get big crowds Week in week out, year on year too. This eases the pressure on that front a bit. 

Edited October 22, 2023 by Keith989

[Bamboozle]

Just now, Keith989 said:

I don't think taking a few games away from Port Morseby is a bad thing at all, nor would it dilute their identity. The Drua does it and the team doesn't feel any less Fijian.

It's unrealistic to expect PNG to be able to get big crowds Week in week out, year on year too. These eases the pressure on that front a bit. 

I think the main issue is where the team will be based rather than taking a few “home” games on the road.

[Keith989]

Just now, Bamboozle said:

I think the main issue is where the team will be based rather than taking a few “home” games on the road.

Again, that isn't a issue IMO and makes it more attractive for players to sign for the side. 

We need to remember how everyone (including myself) thought it would be near impossible to have PI sides in top level professional competitions. You're going to have quirks in order to make them work. 

[Bamboozle]

3 minutes ago, Keith989 said:

Again, that isn't a issue IMO and makes it more attractive for players to sign for the side. 

We need to remember how everyone (including myself) thought it would be near impossible to have PI sides in top level professional competitions. You're going to have quirks in order to make them work. 

Can’t see many players been keen on constantly flying for both “home” and away games.

[Keith989]

1 minute ago, Bamboozle said:

Can’t see many players been keen on constantly flying for both “home” and away games.

I think you'd be surprised what players are willing to do. Beggars can't be choosers so to speak.