The Belmont Bear wrote:

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Cupie I will fully support your move to eject all of the NSW teams and send them back to the NSWRL , we could then disband these stupid amalgamated clubs and bring back some of the tradition that has disappeared from our game. Supporters of the Newtown Jets, North Sydney Bears, West Magpies, Balmain Tigers, St George Dragons , Illawarra Steelers would probably jump at the chance of supporting their own home grown products in a top tier competition again. You could then play your own finals in Brisbane every year with clubs from Brisbane, Gold Coast, North Qld and Melbourne without any interference (or support) from those of us south of the Tweed - you can even have the Warriors up there if you want them.

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 Ha Ha!!

Good luck in getting the media moguls with their mega dollars (that keep the game afloat) agreeing to that.  It would immediately decimate their watching audience .. who outside of parts of NSW/Sydney watch Balmain play North Sydney.  

We have long left behind the hamstringing era of chook raffle & pokie funded Sydney centric RL.

In an case I feel that many of the NRL (does that stand for National RL or NSW RL?) officials try to run the competition as a pseudo NSW RL.

AFL, Rugby Union & Soccer would certainly welcome your suggestion.

I would much rather see a reduction in the ridiculous number of Sydney teams and expansion into The Pacific Islands & PNG.   Perhaps even Perth & Adelaide too.  Had we stuck with Super League, by now that's where we would have been with the Dinosaurs of the old NSWRL consigned to the bin of history.

Of course the is a strong & vital place for local second tier (stepping stone) competition.  eg The Qld Grand Final today includes the Papua New Guinea Hunters team.  Expect to see lots more of their players in NRL in the future.

 Edit  .. BTW how could you have a 'Top Tier Competition" if you excluded the best Aus teams who are playing next week.  

In any case gone are the days when Sydney capital can lure all of the good interstate players to their clubs  .. I think that the Broncos club is the most profitable club at present.   How long would your pokie clubs continue to pour extra dollars into their 'Local' football clubs playing in a Sydney competition that will inevitably become second tier despite their illustrious names.

There is nothing to stop the Sydney (not NSW) supporters from moving towards a competition with clubs using those names ..   & stuff the NSW Country ... just as you are doing with the City v Country pre SOO games.

-- Edited by Cupie on Sunday 24th of September 2017 11:42:45 AM

Unfortunately Cupie I think that you are right gone are the days when tradition meant anything, when clubs used their own home grown players who played mostly for the love of the game then probably went to work after it. Now as you say rugby league is being driven by the media and the big dollars that they inject, there is no player loyalty with few of them staying at any one club for more than a season or 2. Of course there are exceptions to the rule like JT but players will go where they can earn the most money and who can blame them for that their careers are relatively short. They say that there is a salary cap and and therefore an even playing field but look at the playing roster of my club the Knights compared to clubs like the Storm, the Roosters, the eels etc, and tell me how it's possible to have such a big gap in top name players. All I see are homegrown players being continually recruited by the other clubs especially those based in Sydney but I guess they have been doing that for the last 110 years.

Newcastle was a foundation club during the first 2 years of rugby League in this country, was one of the main battlegrounds between the ARL and the super league and was regularly a graveyard for the international touring teams. If they don't start shoring up their traditional rugby league areas then the chance of an expansion into other non traditional areas will become remote as they aren't going to have enough quality players coming through to support it. 

A warning shot was fired last week when the Matildas played in Newcastle and drew a bigger crowd than the NRL finals that had been played in Sydney the previous weekend. If the Jets start winning you may well see the A league do what super league couldn't i.e. take over in this town - people have been so disappointed in the demise of the knights since that Tinkler debacle. Good luck to all you Storm and Cowboys supporters, enjoy your day unfortunately I won't be able to watch it unless I can find somewhere here in Sohar (Oman) with it on..

Cheers BB

Thanks Cutie well done the guys from PNG that would be huge for them up there.

It will be great for the game if NQ land win the good old under dog that's been writen of in all the finals ,coming through to beat a juggernaut that's invinceable fingers crossed it can happen...

Sorry GF.
Was meaning Origin.

Bear.

It's all tongue in cheek when talking sport.
Specially US and THEM. Red and Blue.

The End game. Is that we ALL enjoy.

Stirring is and always will be.
a big part of it. Half the fun.

When it boils down.
In my eyes. as I've said b4.

As long as it's a great game. No Nastiness\foul play
We ALL win.
Regardless of final outcome.

Just gives a little more reason for the winners
to stir the (That time) losers. Next time round.


ALl in fun mate. ALL in fun. Smile.

And when you look back down the 'decades" not yrs.

WE ALL have a go at the top. Them, US. Them, US.

From memory NSW has had Longer streaks at the top than we have.

Even if they bought all their good players from QLD to do it 

Chuckle...

When looking at the player availability pools of the two States.

you should thrash us every game, realistically.

Get the play for the TEAM, not the player mentality going.

and you will.

Unfortunately. Too many NSW players are "I AM's".

Get them to play together. FOR each other.

and watch the difference.

Cows. are a great example of that in action.

They ALL play together,.

FOR EACH OTHER. WITH each other.

There'in lies the difference.

Get yourselves a coach that realises that first.

B4 the  footy training begins.

and you will (maybe...... ) chuckle.

win again.

Cupie Newcastle are and have always been the worst recruiters in the comp. we let too many of our local players go to other clubs to become stars then we waste money on fringe players usually approaching the end of their career who break down early in the season and sit with the coach all year. I only wish the knights management would have a close look at the clubs like the Storm who are always up there and look at what they are doing differently. If I owned a company getting these sort of results every year I'm sure the management team wouldn't be around for long.

Anyway mate the sun isn't affecting me I'm just as smart as I ever was and I'm not making oil billions for the Arabs I'm restarting an Arab aluminium smelter so that they can put the Aussie ones out of business and make our greenies happy.   Just trying doing my bit for Australia

I think you would be a bit disappointed going to Melbourne to watch the Storm and the Cowboys, Macca.

The Grand Final is played in Sydney. 

Au contraire, Goldy. The Cowboys just keep aiming up every week and I reckon they are the team that nobody wants to play. They have the best forward in the game and the best half back (on present form) playing for them. The Storm have played well in patches but Parramatta showed how to rattle them, and the Cowboys are a far better side than Parramatta.

Imagine the pressure on Green if JT was fit and this was his first game back. He would be loathe to shift Morgan as this team is really balanced and focused. Everyone,me included, wrote them off when they lost Scott and JT, but look at them. They have nothing to lose and no one expects them to win. The pressure on the Storm will be enormous and I hope the Cowboys flog them. I think they will win.

Well done Dmaxer you are the only Queenslander I've seen with enough courage to say that your side is going to win instead of making excuses about why they won't  - hang on a minute don't you come from the north coast of NSW ?  I'm not taking my new Jeep up that way I want it to get used to handling tough unforgiving places not wimpy ones where everyone throws in the towel before a fight 

Yes BB. It has always been the case with some of the Queenslanders and the wannabees. Carry on about all the challenges before the event and then crow about it as if it was a foregone conclusion if they happen to win.

That has been the case in the past Rocky. I imagine this year with two interstate teams playing, the locals would rather watch on the TV than fork out for teams they dont support. I imagine it would be like two Sydney teams playing the Grand Final at Lang Park.

The other point Rocky is that the crowds and the finals series have been financial disasters this year. Just to get in the ground, have a beer or two and something to eat is expensive. The average punter with a few kids would need a second mortgage just to see a game.