NRC Expansion

[starkz]

The NRC hasn't even started yet. Who knows whether it will be a success or a failure, yet people like me are already thinking what teams would join if it were to expand to 12 as Bill Pulver had apparently hinted at (I read that he had in another forum). I was just wondering what teams the G&GR community thinks would be added if the NRC were to expand to 12.
Personally I think they might add Newcastle since Bill Pulver did hint at adding them at a speech in Newcastle, would probably add another Brisbane team and maybe a team from South Australia. Yet it seems more logical for there to be a team from the Central Coast or greater Melbourne than South Australia where nobody seems to care about rugby.

 

[TOCC]

It makes no sense to expand in the near future if ever.

Quality of play
The NRC is supposed to bridge the gap between club rugby and Super Rugby, this is achieved by consolidating the best players into a tournament featuring a higher quality of play. This won't be achieved if the quality players are spread too thin across the teams. Currie Cup in South Africa which has access to more players then Australia features 1 less team in their 3rd tier. New Zealand with infinitely more player and coaching resources has 14 teams in the ITM Cup.

Broadcast Rights
Commercial factors will drive professionalism, the current broadcast agreement of $1.5million/season will see only 1 game per round been broadcast, so its irrelevant if there is 8 teams or 16 teams in the competition the broadcast rights funding won't change because they are only broadcasting 1 game per week. Until demand see's fox sports broadcasting all 4 games each weekend then there is no broadcaster demand to expand.

Commercial Support
Then you look at the financial stability of the teams in the competition now, from memory 3 of those teams lack a major sponsor and only 1 team has a shorts sponsor. There are a large number of commercial vacancies in the NRC and i question the financial viability of a number of teams.

Player Payments
Players are making some massive sacrifices to play in this tournament, player payments are minimal with a salary cap of only $50'000 for each team, if the commercial viability of this tournament improves over the next 3 to 5 years then the first course of action should see that extra funding directed into increasing the player payments before considering funding an expansion team.

 

[starkz]

It makes no sense to expand in the near future if ever.

Quality of play
The NRC is supposed to bridge the gap between club rugby and Super Rugby, this is achieved by consolidating the best players into a tournament featuring a higher quality of play. This won't be achieved if the quality players are spread too thin across the teams. Currie Cup in South Africa which has access to more players then Australia features 1 less team in their 3rd tier. New Zealand with infinitely more player and coaching resources has 14 teams in the ITM Cup.

Broadcast Rights
Commercial factors will drive professionalism, the current broadcast agreement of $1.5million/season will see only 1 game per round been broadcast, so its irrelevant if there is 8 teams or 16 teams in the competition the broadcast rights funding won't change because they are only broadcasting 1 game per week. Until demand see's fox sports broadcasting all 4 games each weekend then there is no broadcaster demand to expand.

Commercial Support
Then you look at the financial stability of the teams in the competition now, from memory 3 of those teams lack a major sponsor and only 1 team has a shorts sponsor. There are a large number of commercial vacancies in the NRC and i question the financial viability of a number of teams.

Player Payments
Players are making some massive sacrifices to play in this tournament, player payments are minimal with a salary cap of only $50'000 for each team, if the commercial viability of this tournament improves over the next 3 to 5 years then the first course of action should see that extra funding directed into increasing the player payments before considering funding an expansion team.

Despite this it still wouldn't surprise me if Pulver decided on adding some more teams.

 

[Omar Comin']

I think they'll go to 10 teams when they can. Maybe 12 in time.

 

[Dave Beat]

Double the team numbers next year - make it 18.


as we have now plus U20's - utter stupidity now trying to increase teams so quickly - not meant to be a dig, but a reason Vic is still almost all NSW & QLD. If we create an U20's team that may provide the underlining growth to acheive growth in teams going forward.

Or imagine playing this Tongan team - would no doubt give the island a community a team to get behind




https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-AK (Andrew Kellaway)-xaf1/t31.0-8/10549209_343931015765819_2882168660611156944_o.jpg

 

[Train Without a Station]

Dave, I think you are spot on the money on U/20's teams but I personally hope we hold off only for commercial reasons. It would cost basically what the NRC does (minus match payments probably) and bring in almost nothing.

We already have the state Under 20's do we not which serves the same function?

We need to look at why the NRL are looking to dismantle their Under 20's comp. Which is because the best players play Senior footy anyway, and it just because a soft breeding ground for the rest. Club rugby would prepare young players more than playing Under 20's would. If you're not good enough to play grade as a colt, you'd be in a small minority if you made it as a professional.

 

[wamberal]

Baby steps, chaps. Let us learn to crawl before we start toddling. Who knows, in time we might walk, or even run!!!

 

[Braveheart81]

After the NRC has been thriving for four years or something let's talk about expanding it.

The only change for next year that wouldn't be crazy would be adding a 10th team from somewhere other than NSW to remove the bye. Even that shouldn't be a high priority.

 

[Train Without a Station]

Or cutting one from Sydney? There's already complaints that there is not enough Super Rugby talent to go around after all.

 

[Gibbo]

Away jerseys..... Priority #1

 

[Braveheart81]

Or cutting one from Sydney? There's already complaints that there is not enough Super Rugby talent to go around after all.

True story.

That said, if you'd added Dave Dennis, Tolu Latu and Tom Carter to that Stars team last night I think they would have been pretty close.

Of course Brisbane City were missing more quality players than that.

Anyway, we'll see how the season plays out. The Stars certainly seem to be the lineup most lacking depth.

 

[Train Without a Station]

I was just trolling really. Despite the moans from the Peanut Gallery, I doubt the Stars, Sydney Uni or anybody involved will be making complaints even if they finish dead last. They'll just work on being better next year.

 

[Braveheart81]

I was just trolling really. Despite the moans from the Peanut Gallery, I doubt the Stars, Sydney Uni or anybody involved will be making complaints even if they finish dead last. They'll just work on being better next year.

I agree. Realistically, they're the weakest team on paper and even then they're not that weak.

If their goalkicker had done better last night and kicked say 3 from 4 it would have been 45-29 which is hardly a flogging. The Stars certainly butchered plenty of opportunities in the second half too.

From that first game there are quite a few non-contracted players who look like they wouldn't be out of place in a Super Rugby squad. It's good to see and obviously a big part of what the NRC is about.

On the other hand, players like Kerevi are certain to be stars of the NRC and he should start the 2015 Super Rugby season far advanced from a guy who just played a couple of games at the end of 2014.

 

[TOCC]

Im going to make the call now, an even number of teams is the best.

I think there will be some changes in the Sydney teams for next year at least with the potential of some shuffling and the 4 Sydney teams becoming 3.

I think the biggest issue will be whether Sydney Stars continue to push on by themselves, I think they lack the player depth which may become even more prominent as the seasons pushes on. So if Sydney Stars decide they want to merge then Randwick proves a natural selection and merging with Sydney Stars could be an attractive option for Randwick as well, this would have ramifications on the viability of the NSW Country Eagles though.

 

[qwerty51]

I think they should look at 12 eventually. Addition of Adelaide, North QLD and central coast NSW.

Sydney teams need a change. I would get rid of both NSW Country and QLD Country (play one in Brisbane and one in the GC). One Western Sydney (Parra Stadium), one south (Jubilee) which includes Wollongong, one City (Leichhardt) and one North (Brookvale).

Teams can rotate on taking games to the country but if the comp becomes bigger it needs fixed stadia.

 

[TOCC]

Interesting that the proposal around 18moths ago of a tournament based on universities has come to fruition in one form with Universities representing the major sponsor of 5 of the 9 teams and official partner of Melbourne Rising and Greater Sydney Rams.

NSW Country Eagles - Charles Sturt University (Major Sponsor)
Canberra Vikings - University of Canberra (Naming Rights Sponsor)
Queensland Country - Bond University(Naming Rights Sponsor)
Sydney Stars - Sydney Uni (Major Sponsor/joint owner)
Melbourne Rising - University of Melbourne (Official Partner)
North Harbour Rays - Macquarie University (Naming Rights Sponsor)
Greater Sydney Rams - University of Western Sydney(Official Partner)

Brisbane City - Nil
Perth Spirit - ?

 

[TOCC]

I think they should look at 12 eventually. Addition of Adelaide, North QLD and central coast NSW.

North Queensland need a team in the Premier Grade competition before they could even be considered for an NRC team, there isn't the player depth to support a team.

 

[kiap]

North Queensland need a team in the Premier Grade competition before they could even be considered for an NRC team, there isn't the player depth to support a team.

Yes and no. It's interesting to go back and look at when the Premier Rugby competition was started:

While the introduction of Premier Rugby was a great step forward this year, the new competition structure is not the final model. Queensland has long supported the concept of a National Championship to provide the next level of rugby (below Super 12). This will only be achieved with the support of the NSW Clubs, although opportunities also exist through the engagement of Asian Pacific and New Zealand teams in the future. The QRU will continue to pursue the full range of options to improve this next level of competition and to fill the void in rugby viewing through the middle and latter part of the season.​

​

— David Crombie, QRU Chairman, 2002 QRU Annual Report p. 3.​

I think the natural limit of the QPR competition is now contained within about a 160 km radius of the Brisbane Town Hall (as featured on the Bris City team's logo); in other words driving distance, not flying distance. Flying in teams from Canberra, or other State League teams from around Queensland, and so on, was justifiable in the past as a means of building depth towards a national championship. But it's not feasible now for what would, frankly, be a fourth tier competition.

If an NQ team was viable in a 4th tier then it could just about be as viable in a 3rd tier. It probably won't happen for a while, though.

 

[RugbyFuture]

Interesting that the proposal around 18moths ago of a tournament based on universities has come to fruition in one form with Universities representing the major sponsor of 5 of the 9 teams and official partner of Melbourne Rising.

Greater Sydney Rams - ?
Brisbane City - Nil
Perth Spirit - ?

Rams had UWS on the back bottom of their jersey today.
Brisbane city I suspect would be investigating partnership with griffith considering that institution is an official partner of the reds.

When I was involved in sponsorship negotiations at the rams an interesting thing came up that RUPA had been speaking to them all for months and had already garnered initial support for the varsity comp. This is most likely why these partnerships exist.

Also interesting is UNSW sponsoring randwick and not the eagles. I heard that because they went country UNSW pulled support from the initial bid, the support then went to CSU

 

[FiveStarStu]

Away jerseys... Priority #1

This guy knows what's up.

At this point (and not knowing or caring about the Sydney political ramifications) I'd probably merge North Harbour and Stars to create a single North/East Sydney team. That gets us to eight and a pretty even spread of talent.

I'd love Adelaide to get a team, but I'd hesitate to have a mercenary-type team a la the ARC Rebels. That served a purpose back in 2007, as it ensured high-quality rugby for a community still smarting from losing a Super licence.

Now, the difference with the NRC is that all the Rising (regardless of their origin) are local club representatives. It serves as both an outlet for high-quality rugby, and a developmental pathway for local players.

If we were to go to Adelaide, we would need to ensure that the 'mercenaries' were visible in SA (ie played for local teams some of the year) and that local players made up a portion of the squad. It all depends on the gap between SA Rugby and the rest of the country.