Expansion is a contentious word in rugby league. Expanding and removing teams has been part of Australia’s rugby league landscape since its inception. Cumberland played in the foundation year of 1908, and did not play in 1909. Newcastle, who joined as one of the competitions first teams did not play in 1910, making room for Annandale; and so on.
Dominant teams of the current NRL competitions are expansion teams. In fact every club, in one way or another, has had to go through identity changes throughout their history as rugby league expanded and contracted over the one hundred and twelve years here.
The question still rages today, “Should the NRL expand it’s number of teams?” Answering yes takes you into a rabbit warren of long problems and difficult solutions. Answering no takes you into a deep, dark well of stagnation and missed opportunities. Both propositions are challenging and worth defending.
Expansion seems to be the most exciting and positive way forward, and so is the direction this article will take.
Sixteen teams is a lot for an Australian/New Zealand competition. It already encompasses different time zones, different states, and the vast majority of the nations’ populations. Investing in just these teams for a long period of time endeavours to further strengthen their historical and cultural connections to their respective fan bases.
But where then does the growth happen? How can we still #GrowTheGame? The best place for growth is in the NSWRL and QRL competitions.
This is not a new idea, and it is certainly not this writer’s original idea. We have seen the successful application of the PNG Kumuls into Queensland’s top grade competition. Recently the Fiji Silktails successfully applied to play in NSW’s top grade. Even more recently the collection of Pacific Islands have put in a bid to also join Queensland’s Intrust Super Cup competition in 2023. This is the way forward. This is where successful growth can happen in rugby league. And this proposal is not limited to island nations around Australia. This is an open invitation to all of Australia and New Zealnd reions. The developing regions of South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, and more.
The creation of a large and welcoming second tier system, similar to the ones run in other sports that have minor leagues, would be greatly beneficial to the game of rugby league.
A large ‘farm system’ underpinning the NRL would have several positive impacts:
- A larger pool of players to select from, improving the quality of play;
- Larger sections of different cultural group playing, improving the inclusivity of the game;
- A larger audience watching and supporting the game, generating more cash flow;
- An endless list of possible teams and areas, as places like the Northern Territory and Tasmania, Northern parts of New Zealand, who would all see there is an achievable goal to reach.
There are flaws and pitfalls in this simple plan. With cooperation from the NRL, NSWRL and QRL, these could be negationed and navigated. With the additions of PNG, Fiji, and hopefully soon the Pacific XIII, this will be the great redevelopment of rugby league.
