sport, local-sport, Rugby league, NRL, NSW Country, Terry Quinn, Country Rugby League

Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie is the incoming chair for the Australian Rugby League commission and he hasn’t taken long to make waves. Beattie’s thrown NRL expansion back on the table ahead of a TV deal that will be negotiated prior to the 2022 season. What’s more, he’s thrown NSW Country in the mix as a potential drop zone for a 17th NRL club. Country Rugby League chief executive officer Terry Quinn is on board, too, but there’s a few somewhat small incidentals that need looking after. “Give me a $20 million a year for 15 years and we’re a chance,” Quinn joked. Beattie also threw areas like Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Perth and Queensland centres Ipswich and Redcliffe as potential destinations for another NRL team. In short, he says the game has to expand or it’ll fade into obscurity. “It’s early,” Quinn added, looking realistically at a possible expansion into NSW Country. “A huge investment is needed. We’d need a lot of backing and you need to look at a centre that could host games with reasonable crowds each week. “You could go to Dubbo, Tamworth, but there’s only 40,000 people in those places.” Quinn said the ideal transition for rugby league in the bush was to grow through the NSW Cup – the level below the NRL. It’s an avenue the CRL boss is exploring. Quinn said the CRL has held negotiations with all NSW-based NRL outfits looking to badge a club with a group competition, or region. He said Penrith’s current role in Western, more specifically the region’s under 16s and under 18s Rams programs, was the ideal model for other NRL clubs to follow. The Wests Tigers have shown interest in linking with Group 6, which is close to the club’s Macarthur region, while Newcastle has shown interest in the north west region of NSW. Similar interest is shared between the Raiders and the Riverina, while St George Illawarra and the South Coast and the Sydney Roosters and the Central Coast are currently in the middle of strong affiliations. With those connections in place, Quinn said it wasn’t out of the realms of possibility for those clubs to then base their NSW Cup outfits in those regional areas. But that move is still likely to be a year or two away, Quinn said. “You have to grow into it, and State Cup is the way to do,” he added. “Some clubs are looking at that at the moment. You’ve got to grow interest in it first and I think (the NSW Cup move) will help build memberships and supporter bases in those areas. “We’re keen to expand that way and certainly Penrith landing somewhere like Bathurst looks the most likely at this point.” Quinn said the CRL was gearing up for its under 16s and under 18s country championship to kick-off in February. A show of the Panthers’ commitment to bush footy, Penrith will field teams in the southern pool this year. They play Western in round one at Mudgee on February 24.

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