What would you do if you were starting the NRL from scratch tomorrow?

These are the types of stupid questions you ask yourself when your team is no chance of making the finals, and your interest in rugby league wavers towards boringly predicting the premier (surely it will be Melbourne), looking forward to next season, or fantasising about drastic changes to the competition.

Indulge me for a minute, and pretend that club loyalty, nostalgia and self-interest all magically disappeared. Better still, pretend that fans and powerbrokers put the actual game of rugby league above their personal love for their team.

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While we’re dreaming, let’s add that the NRL was given a chance to completely restructure overnight. C’mon, just play my game with me for five minutes, that’s all I ask.

What then, would the ideal National Rugby League competition look like?

By ‘ideal’, I mean set-up for future growth. I mean making the game truly national. I mean having teams in rugby league heartland, but not so many that it counter-productively suffocates the game.

Though this season of NRL provides evidence that we don’t actually have enough talent to support 16 quality teams, let’s keep that number for now, as that’s a conversation for another time. Wouldn’t the perfect National Rugby League competition be made up of the following locations?

Sydney North

Sydney East

Sydney West

Sydney Greater West

Sydney South (and Wollongong)

Newcastle

Central Coast

Canberra

Brisbane

South Brisbane

Gold Coast

Townsville

Melbourne

Adelaide

Perth

Auckland

Apart from the inclusion of teams from the Central Coast, South Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth – we’ll come back to those in a second – the biggest changes come from the disbanding of the nine Sydney clubs.



Sure, if that were to ever actually happen, it would cause a lot of pain. There would be an outpouring of emotion. I have no doubt that some fans would be lost to the game, such would be their level of heartbreak at ‘losing’ their club.

The strategy would be that the volume of new fans that the changes would attract over time would easily offset those that are lost. Yes, bold, if not ill-advised.

However, if these fans truly love rugby league and elite level sport, there will be something new for them to throw their passion into, in the shape of five new Sydney teams representing their region.

Though I admit the geography is a little rough, and certainly open to some debate or modifications, this is how it would pan out:

North – representing the North Shore to the Northern Beaches.

– representing the North Shore to the Northern Beaches. East – representing the City, and stretching to Drummoyne, Marrickville, La Perouse and Bondi.

– representing the City, and stretching to Drummoyne, Marrickville, La Perouse and Bondi. West – representing Kogarah to Bankstown to Leichhardt.

– representing Kogarah to Bankstown to Leichhardt. Greater West – representing Penrith to Baulkham Hills to Parramatta to Liverpool.

– representing Penrith to Baulkham Hills to Parramatta to Liverpool. South – representing Cronulla to Campbelltown to Wollongong (and yes, I know The Gong people will hate being included in anything ‘Sydney’, but it’s just a placeholder name for now).

We’ll park the names and mascots of the clubs, but it would be important that there is little to no link to the current teams. To that point, all existing boards and ownerships are gone. Dead. Goodbye.

The five licences for the new clubs all go up for auction, with these teams being brand new franchises, not mergers.



Sydney North would play out of Brookvale Stadium, with perhaps a cameo at North Sydney Oval. Sydney East would call the SFS home. Sydney West’s games would be at Homebush. Sydney Greater West would alternate out of Penrith and Parramatta Stadiums. While lastly, Sydney South would switch between the three home grounds located in the Gong, the Shire and Campbelltown.

Who the hell knows what is going on with all the supposed stadium upgrades – as it seems to change every week – but while we’re dreaming, let’s add that they’ve all been renovated and modernised.

Sydney and surrounding regions get enough teams to satisfy their hunger for rugby league, but not so many that they eat each other’s lunches. They also spread the young talent of Sydney into fewer teams, making the first-grade squads stronger.

Well, apart from the fact that Perth and Adelaide would obviously need some players.

Which brings me nicely to the expansion teams.

South Brisbane and the Central Coast just make too much sense.

Brisbane is arguably the game’s new heartland, and it’s crazy that it only has one team. Not only can it support an additional club, but it’s also well past the time that the Broncos had a little competition.



Meanwhile, the Central Coast is a rugby league nursery ground that deserves its own team.

Just hurry up and give them a franchise already.

Perth and Adelaide would need some initial propping up from the NRL, but that shouldn’t be seen as favouritism, which is a short-sighted viewpoint.

I’ve seen the idea floated of the NRL jumping in the Western Force’s grave while the body is still warm, and to extend the analogy further, raise them from the dead in the guise of a rugby league team. Though not without its challenges or issues, it’s far from the worst idea you’ll ever hear.

Rugby league needs to play the long game here, and have a strategic blueprint for growing the game. That includes having teams in the two capital cities of South Australia and Western Australia, making the competition truly national, which invests in the future, rather than being stuck in the past.

So that’s my harebrained scheme, which I’m sure has more holes in it than Swiss cheese, but I feel it’s worth debating and/or pondering.

It sure as hell beats thinking about just how bad my Bulldogs have been this year, along with the fact I’ll need to cheer for Aaron Woods next season.

Trust me, you’d be daydreaming about such wild fantasies as well.

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