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Message: [QUOTE="subsbligh, post: 2645542, member: 1950"] My preference would be a genuine National Premier Grade with promotion and relegation and no salary cap. Cronulla, Canberra and the Eels can **** off back to park football. The Warriors, and fascinatingly, their Under 20's team, have garnered a massive market. The Australian (or more succinctly, the NSW Rugby League) treats it as a gimmick, "nice to have" market that will always be second fiddle to Rugby Union. Or you could hit Rugby on their home turf and really make your own way on the North Island in a game that is much more entertaining and exciting than Rugby will ever be. Instead they pump money into making sure Souths win a premiership and that Cronulla stay in the competition. Because their heads are firmly up their NSW arses. Why not have North and South based Brisbane teams. Broncos have Red Hill and Lang Park on the North side of the river. I guess I'd have to suck it up and support a South side based Brisbane team :-(, but still. Imagine a Liverpool v Manchester United-esque derby at Lang Park. Fuelled by 20 years of hate for the upstart newcomers. The old firm of Bennett Broncos ('cos sadly that's all we're ever going to be) versus a south siders franchise born out of the defection of Milford in his prime in 5 years time. I can imagine kids my sons age being drawn to an exciting new South side franchise, filled with the Thurstons, Folau's, Milfords, Cam Smiths and the like. A boutique stadium or a downsizing and refurb of QEII. You've got to think big. Or you can be shortsighted like Dave Smith and Gyngnell and think **** it, 2 Friday night games. We'll just play 2 back to back every week and get 50,000 to Suncorp instead = all the dollars. Central Qld - the boys from Kingaroy North and West play two sports - cricket and rugby league. No other region has such a captive audience. Sunshine Coast - largest population growth region in Australia. Give NRL licences on performance merit. You want Hayne, SBW, Inglis, Folau and Hunt and the rest staying in league, you've got to annihilate the competition. Biggest bucks, best competition. It's got little to do with international opportunities and playing in a real World Cup (AFL is a one [I][B]state [/B][/I]game, yet dwarfs the NRL, Soccer and Rugby codes and has end of season piss up to Ireland for a scrap with some locals that it calls and international game). Christ, Rugby League was [I]the [/I]professional rugby code. Rugby Union stayed competitive for years being effectively an ametuer sport for rich private school kids. They had a moral issue with paying players money. Swing around 30 years and now they've priced the NRL out of the market for the big names. [/QUOTE]

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