NBA, NFL, NHL... i think they'd go with NRL

I hope one of the new Franchises takes Meli off our hands as one of their marquee players. That would be epic.

i heard at the wknd, and it's been doing the rounds on here that francois isnt coming back from down under.
the second part of the rumour is that saints want matt king to replace him...

Taken from westcoast rugby league's website.


American [Rugby League History
In 1939 the Californian Rugby Football Union wrote to the RFL to tell them they wanted to switch from rugby union and affiliate to the RFL. In June 1939 the RFL made plans to send a delegation out to California but were unable to do so due to the outbreak of World War Two.

Pity that....




San Francisco Suzies
LA Gang Bangers
San Diego Border Raiders
Oakland Baysiders
Sacramnento Hillsiders
Berkeley U-Cal's
Long Beach Bums

LA crack heads

Whats happened to Taylor Welch who played for us (Wire) vs Cas last year
he was a yank

For rugby league to properly take off in the good ol' USA, it needs to get high school and college teams playing

Back In Union..

edited for accuracy

Well, the relation (number of tackles) is obvious, but I reckon Gridiron is more like union. More set plays, mote tactics, more coaches, more time-outs, less playing football.
Where RL can be a success is it can become an alternative route for college football players. The college level is far more fast-paced and less tactics and ad breaks. There is a market in the US that follow college football but don't follow the NFL.

The debate regarding college Football players switching to RL was had here:

[urlhttp://viewtopic.php?t=300599&highlight=[/url

Came about as a result of this article:

[urlhttp://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news/forget-nfl-nrl-is-dream/2007/06/16/1181414609893.html[/url

Not sure what ever happened to Mr Dawn though.

This thread is getting very far fetched.

Not exactly. Television is the reason why they have so many stoppages. If you go back a few decades you'd notice significantly fewer stoppages for ad breaks. Also, sports channels over here don't seem to mind showing soccer without breaking for commercials every five minutes.

Aye, College Football is massive in the US. Some of those games get bigger crowds than NFL games. It's also a lot more exciting to watch because they tend to just go for it. As you say, less tactics, more instinct and just pushing it.

8 Teams can't make a viable competition though. You would need 10 minimum.

you may call it beautiful but i like to think of sydney as the sewer of the south pacific... overflowing with scum and low life.

That's not true. The old American Football League started in 1960 with 8 teams (and a TV contract with NBC).

The college game may be faster, but televised NCAA games have just as many ad breaks as NFL ones.

College football players are the guys to target rather than union players. There are literally thousands in the college ranks for every one that makes it to the NFL. RL could conceivably give Americans their football fix in the NFL and NCAA off-season.

There are enough people in the US of A to have 26 major sports. League, with it's funtime showdowns should go down a storm.

I hope it takes off, but if it did, it would instantly blow us into 4th in the world internationally. There are more and better athletes available to each state in America than there are to the whole RL youth system in this country.

Another thing I can't wait for is the new terminology. I can't see them shouting, "Gerrum onside yerrr berk" at the officials.

He went to Australia and tried to work his way up through the ranks at Burleigh. Little was heard about him after that -- I'd imagine he found the lower ranks in Australia q huge change from the Big 12 with its' big crowds and great gameday atmosphere.

Reviewing that debate, I noticed lots of postings showing little understanding of how big American football is in the US. If American RL could attract even a fraction of the audience and sponsorship it has, the game would be well established there.

Television is also the reason the NFL has more money than almost any other pro sports league in the world. It has deals with 4 different networks that pay it $3 billion a year.

Agreed. I think I read somewhere that something like 30,000 college football players graduate annually and don't get Pro contracts. If American RL could just attract 0.1% of this pool annually that would be 30 potential players per year to pick from for a league of 8 teams. Wouldn't take long to start generating real interest.

That's slightly off. Between the NCAA and NAIA there are 716 schools with football teams, and they carry about 80 players each. That's over 57,000 players total. Every year about 1/4 would graduate or use up their eligibility to play, so more than 14,000 players move on every year. Fewer than 500 get a shot at playing pro, and there's very little open-age American football due to the costs of the sport. The rest constitute a huge pool of potential players.

College football is extremely popular too. The season before last the NCAA's 619 schools attracted 48,751,861 fans to their games. Millions more watch the schools in "Bix Six" conferences on TV on Saturdays too. That's a huge potential audience for American RL.

Fucking hell I can see it now. These septic tanks and all their bull phrases. Imagine the US version of Stevo!?



I can see the following american terms being used in favour of the traditional ones:

Violation of the offence Territory - Offside
Punt Return - Drop Out
Re-engerziation Period (note, with a "zeee"icon_wink.gif - Half Time
Deeefensive Lineman - Full Back
Quarterback - Scrum Half
Illegal Motion - Forward Pass
Illegal Procedure - Knock On
Wide Reciever - Ian Roberts

Don't talk like that about where you came from !