Fresh expansion talks to bury NRL’s promised land once and for all

The NRL has a golden opportunity to finally live up to its name with a bold expansion move - however rumours suggest the game is thinking otherwise.

Ball’s in your court Mr V’landys. Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

COMMENT

Rugby league continues its expansion strategy that focuses on one rapid growth area: its own paranoia.

Whenever a new team seeks entry in to the NRL, Peter V’Landys and the rest of rugby league’s administrators are always fixated on the bid’s ability to deliver on one key metric: Can it get up the nose of the AFL?

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Wednesday saw the latest proposal for entry in to the big leagues, with the Brisbane Tigers offering a rich history, a throbbing wallet, and another sandbag against the apparent surge of behind posts popping up around Ipswich, which for all we know could merely be the state’s new 3G towers.

Doesn’t the NRL already have a new QLD team? Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

Doesn’t the NRL already have a Tigers? Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images

Nobody denies trolling the AFL is tops, but if rugby league wants to counter-attack in growth areas under serious threat from Aussie Rules, why not have a geeze at Western Australia?

Everyone knows Perth is filling up with people at an alarming rate, all with enough disposable income to afford an $8 latte — and all are falling victim to Aussie Rules.

It’s so grim, some even say that if rugby league doesn’t act soon — and this may shock you — Perth could be a full-blown AFL town by the end of the decade — or even earlier.

Shamefully though, rugby league’s fat cats couldn’t identify a fertile growth area if it sprung up and dacked them at the trough.

For years, the game has ritually treated Perth like an afterthought.

We drip-feed them the occasional Origin and then flee town before the sun rises the next morning like the whole thing was a shameful sexual encounter.

59,358 turned out for game II of Origin in Perth in 2022. Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Whether it’s the Brisbane Tigers for the 18th franchise, or the Pasifika model with more home grounds than the Wests Tigers, a second Kiwi team, a third Brisbane team or a pointless new Melbourne team, all have one thing in common: they don’t tick the boxes like Perth.

Not only does a WA franchise offer a neat time difference for television and a proven appetite in crowd figures and corporate support, the government has also stumped-up funding for a feasibility study — so even a protectionist madman like Mark McGowan is craving Steeden.

With the state boasting a Vegas-like trove of mining wealth, Western Australia also speaks to V’Landys core vision for the game. Surely he could squeeze some of that uranium cash in to a punting stream.

But of most appeal, dropping anchor in Perth would stop rugby league BS’ing everyone about being ‘national’ by upgrading its footprint from a geographical index finger to an actual footprint.

The NRL have done it before. Photo: Ernie McLintock

Regrettably, all the whispers emerging from head office is the newest club will likely hail from Queensland, with the governing body desperate for a fifth team to capture the last remaining 14 fans in the state who don’t support the Broncos, Titans, Cowboys and Dolphins.

And why are we shoring-up an area that is already nuts for rugby league?

Because Wayne Bennett worked his witchcraft with the Dolphins? And we can’t stand the thought of Suncorp sitting dormant three weekends a year without rugby league?

Might as well change the ‘N’ in NRL to ‘Neighbourhood.’

Dane Eldridge is a warped cynic yearning for the glory days of rugby league, a time when the sponges were magic and the Mondays were mad.

He’s never strapped on a boot in his life, and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Originally published as Fresh expansion talks to bury NRL’s promised land once and for all