Pacific Championship: New Zealand has stunned Australia's Kangaroos 30-0 in the final of the Pacific Championships, earning revenge for last year's World Cup semi-final defeat in a one-sided affair at Waikato Stadium.
It feels like only yesterday the NRL announced the Dolphins as the 17th team, but expansion plans have ramped up again and Peter V’Landys is determined to deliver an 18th team.
The NRL’s current broadcast deals run until the end of 2027 and it’s unlikely a new team will enter the competition before then, but V’Landys has plenty of experience renegotiating contracts. Then came rugby league tragic Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with his huge government funds cheque book.
Australia’s Pacific Minister Pat Conroy in July committed $5.5 million to help PNG prepare a business case for their NRL bid and develop a pipeline of players. “It could but there’s no doubt having both the Australian and the PNG government involved is a game changer.”The Brisbane Tigers missed out to the Dolphins last time and now they’re willing to join forces with the PNG bid and they want Wayne Bennett to coach.
Richardson believes the club could stand alone as an NRL franchise, but with PNG in the box seat he’s willing to join forces and share games between Suncorp Stadium and Port Moresby. “I could keep coaching, but one thing is I’m set in concrete for the Dolphins for next season and that’s not changing.”The North Sydney Bears losing $11 million in promised NSW government funding last month put PNG in the box seat, but they’re not completely out of the race.
“We will put forward our proposal in the coming weeks. The Bears would very much embrace those rugby league heartlands and hope we could be part of the NRL’s expansion plans.”“There is so much work to be done in those places and the expanding franchise has to be willing to think that this isn’t just an 18th team,” Dickson said.“The current Pacific Championships proves the game needs to consider expansion into multiple territories, not potentially just one.
“We’ve seen how engaged our players across the NRL are in representing their Pacific heritage, culture and families.The Bears are also willing to join forces with Perth’s bid.Perth was voted the most popular expansion choice in a survey of NRL club chairmen and chief executives last year. Sold-out Origin games in recent years prove there’s an appetite for rugby league in Western Australia, but whether it’s enough to sustain an NRL club remains the big unknown.
“What I can say is that we have a crowd of 60,000 people here for Origin, that will send a very positive message back to headquarters that there is a lot of interest in rugby league in Western Australia. V’Landys has declared if the NRL is serious about being a national game, it must expand its footprint. But Perth is also the most isolated city in the world and travel costs would cost the governing body a small fortune.The NRL are interested in a second New Zealand team to create a derby for the Warriors and the fact it will add flexibility to broadcasting schedules which means the rights can be sold for more money.
Chalmers believes it would cost $30 million to establish the side and has gone on the record numerous times saying he’d sign an All Black star as his marquee man.
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