Yes, it was, it just didn't have a pro team.

So you'd relegate actual real teams to make way for fictional ones?

I think you are confusing fantasy rugby league with reality.

Actually, Toulouse and South Wales have teams

Your dillusional



Why does expansion have to be at the cost of a club in the heartlands of RL, these clubs are still on the go after a hundred years and will more than likley be here in another 100 when the experiments with your suggestions will be a distant faded memory.

I have no objection to new teams from other areas coming into RL, but it should NEVER be at the expense of an established club, after all the criteria you set (the weakest, which might still be perfectly viable as a club) will mean eventually we will be looking at getting rid of strong, viable heartland clubs just for the sake of making room for a newer club.

Let these new clubs start off in the bottom division and build up, if this is not acceptable to them then do we really want them in the first place.

We should create a Super League of a Balanced Number of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Expansion Clubs, then expand the league.

You make a good point until your last sentence which deserves

far morethan anything I put.

quite right - the potential catchment area at Toulouse is pretty widespread - regarding the other options,Dublin etc - don't just plonk teams into a system just for the sake of saying 'we are trying to expand the game' etc etc go only to the places which have a realistic chance of making a fair fist of it IMO

One of the silliest things I've ever read. FTR I grew up and lived there before the Cowboys came along...

Regional Queensland, Townsville/North Queensland and Toowoomba/the Darling Downs especially, have always been incredibly strong heartlands of the game.

NRL style expansion? As in, sit around and wait for cities to organise bid teams, tell them they're not wanted and if the bid team doesn't get disheartened and improves the bid you add them?
I think you might mean ARL style expansion.

They're the ones who realised the need for more teams in QLD and how important expansion to new markets (Auckland & Perth) was. The NRL is far more conservative.

Also, didn't Richard Lewis/the RFL have a plan a few years ago to have a SL club in 11 regions of the UK or something? Is that still the long term plan for the game over there?

You're the one arguing that North Queensland wasn't a heartland of RL. Which area do you think has more people playing RL - North Queensland (population approaching half a million) or Northern England (population over 10 million)?

They do but Dublin and Edinburgh don't.

I think he said semi-pro team. This is ambitious but realistic. Saying that each UK region should have a SL side is insanely overoptimistic.

are you trying to show everyone how clueless you are? Townsville is as 'heartland' and fanatical as it gets, as it was long before they had an NRL team.

As for Auckland, RL has never been #1 there, but it hasn't been a completely foreign concept either. They've always had a decent presence in RL.

Milton Keynes

Come on you Redcliffe Dolphins !!! Good luck to John Dixon & the lads for 2011

How about the collective organisation that is HM Prisons?

England & Wales: Current male population: 79,633 (84,545 total)
Scotland: Current total population: 7,835
Northern Ireland: Current total population: 1,465

Gotta be summat in this?

Quote ="Hedgehog King"They do but Dublin and Edinburgh don't.'" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Eagles en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_League_Ireland

Quote ="Hedgehog King"They do but Dublin and Edinburgh don't.'" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Eagles en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_League_Ireland

I think it might take 5 years in Edinburgh to have a sustainable fan base and have a substantial number of home grown players in the first team. As for Wakefield, Salford ect we could give them another 50 years and they would still be proping up the league getting 4k watching them and holding the game back

We have a similar problem to the NRL. They have too many Sydney clubs, we have too many Yorkshire/Lancashire clubs. The weakest of those need to drop down to championship level.

I agree that expansion clubs should build from the bottom and be brought in at championship/championship1 level as has happend with Toulouse and South Wales.

2012 Toulouse in Super League, South Wales in Championship, Edinburgh in Championship1
2015 South Wales in Super League, Edinburgh in Championship, Dublin in Championship 1
2018 Edinburgh in super league, Dublin in Championship
2021 Dublin in super league

Quote ="Toulouse for super L"en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Eagles en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_League_Ireland'" You do realise that I wrote much of those articles.

Quote ="Toulouse for super L"en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Eagles en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_League_Ireland'" You do realise that I wrote much of those articles.

Edinburgh Eagles don't even play in the Rugby League Conference National Division and IIRC don't turn up for play-offs in North East England and yet by 2012 you think they'll be able to join Championship 1! Will you be financing it or have you made alternative arrangements?

As for Dublin, exactly which team do you think will step up?

By 2015 South Wales might hope to be a strongish (solid mid-table) Championship side but SL I don't think so.

I wasnt saying these clubs should aim for super league, I was pointing out that there are rugby league clubs there as you stated there was not.
New clubs should be introduced at championship 1 level, as with South Wales Scorpions, initially financed by the RFL for the good of the game.
The best players from the current existing clubs can then move up to championship 1 level

This is a fine assertion but, given that London hasn't managed "a sustainable fan base" or "a substantial number of home grown players" in 30 years, I think it's probably just fanciful bollox.

To be fair london do have a fair amount of home grown players and a lot of schools/amatuer's playing the game.

As for why they havent been successful in getting a sustainable fan base. Bad management of the club, constant re-location and name change cant of helped.

But as I said earlier Wakefield/Salford ect havnt managed this also. It wouldnt take much for a new club to overtake them

Why is it some idiots on here can only see RL expansion as SL clubs ?

Is the amatuer or Championship level not expansion ?

You could finance 4/5 Championship clubs for the cost of 1 SL club

Quite obviously to many SL is RL , and anything else is nothing , then they wonder why some of us seem a tad ' peeved ' with this