Money root of all evil I'm afraid

Yeah but it's irrelevent to the average fan. No one goes to the games or really care. To spend half a mil on a team in that comp seems like such a waste. Imagine what that money could do elsewhere. And in this case the NRL club doesn't want this reserve grade side. So if they have few fans, few sponsors and their NRL club doesn't want them it says quite a bit really. On the broader issue of reserve grade versus u20s I think the clubs would be split. Some would rather have u20s and some prefer reserves. And some would change their mind more often than they change their jerseys.

how true.

1/2 mill would be about right. When the plan for the WA Reds was to move up to NSW cup from Jim Beam they were going to need a budget of around $800k to run a squad and pay for travel and accommodation. We wisely decided we could do alot more good with that money by investing it in our jnr set up.

Given ABC screens womens cricket I am surprised there isn;t national FTA covg of NSW cup, that would make it more attractive to sponsors and fans. Hopefully the IC will set about soerting out the 2nd tier of our game after they have sorted out the NRL.

True, but it is on Fox Sports midweek. As is a QLD Cup game's highlights.

The ABC goes out of its way to broadcast women's sport as some kind of effort to bring sexual equality to the TV sporting scene. Of course most of it would rate dismally, but that's not the point. We're lucky they still show the Qld Cup in Qld at all considering the direction ABC sport has gone in recent years. It's probably only tradition that keeps it going, even though it would rate better than most of the basketball. netball, bowls and the like they show. The likelihood of them expanding their RL coverage in the future is virtually nil. Especially as the NSW Cup is a bit of a farce. At least the Qld Cup maintains the facade of being a selection of clubs independent of the NRL from across the state. The NSW Cup is just a reserve grade for Sydney clubs that the clubs don't even want to play in in some cases. It's not a state league.