beez
Reserve Grade
Posts: 250
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Post by beez on Sept 21, 2008 16:04:10 GMT 10
And I'm not on the Warriors bandwagon - they knocked my team, the Knights, out a couple of weeks ago. Just good to hear people talking about league rather than union.
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Post by Ryan N on Sept 21, 2008 18:06:15 GMT 10
I'm not on the bandwagon, I'm a genuine supporter! Parramatta have just let me down too much and I have always had a soft spot for the Warriors. Time to make them Auckland Warriors again, then we can add Southern Orcas or whatever.
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Post by Marv on Sept 21, 2008 19:29:53 GMT 10
Interesting you guys say that as they changed from Aukland warriors to try and create interest in the rest of NZ, thats how i unnderstand it.
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Post by Ryan N on Sept 21, 2008 19:54:18 GMT 10
Interesting you guys say that as they changed from Aukland warriors to try and create interest in the rest of NZ, thats how i unnderstand it. Yeah well now the game is making leaps and strides you know, if your going to expand I'd definately look at Southern Orcas. But then there's Perth, PNG and possibly Adelaide that are deserving also. Also Central Coast too. |
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Post by Marv on Sept 21, 2008 20:18:06 GMT 10
[Yeah well now the game is making leaps and strides you know, if your going to expand I'd definately look at Southern Orcas. But then there's Perth, PNG and possibly Adelaide that are deserving also. Also Central Coast too. Leaps and bounds eh? where are these leaps and bounds then ryan? PNG and a second NZ franchise are a way off for me, but I dont know as much as the kiwi boys. |
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Post by Ryan N on Sept 21, 2008 20:24:40 GMT 10
Well, look, New Zealand is producing plenty of quality players in NRL and ESL and that definately means there's a talent base and therefore you need the second team to you know, encourage the people to make the change from union to league. When you think about it, sure Perth should be there, the move to Melbourne was made but they have nowhere near the potential for a 2nd NZ team. PNG, yeah, well that's a tricky one but if they had a professional team again it would change the game a lot.
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Post by Marv on Sept 21, 2008 20:37:30 GMT 10
Well, look, New Zealand is producing plenty of quality players in NRL and ESL and that definately means there's a talent base and therefore you need the second team to you know, encourage the people to make the change from union to league. I dont see it myself, the vast majority of Kiwis seem intent to play in Europe, there are also money reasons aswell, would a second NZ franchise in Union territory get the crowds and sponsors, from what i know the NZers are pretty millitant about their union. When you think about it, sure Perth should be there, Id like to see perth in the comp but again I dont know enough about the place to comment. PNG, yeah, well that's a tricky one but if they had a professional team again it would change the game a lot. Theres no doubt it would change things there but there are a lot of problems in PNG and I dont think they could be considered for an NRl spot |
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jim
Marquee Player
Posts: 1,150
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Post by jim on Sept 21, 2008 21:07:41 GMT 10
I'm a fan of a 2nd NZ team but I don't think it should come ahead of Perth. Perth needs an NRL team next time around but Gallop seems intent on hosing down the Red's ambitions. Perth should be the top priority, Perth is a city of aroun 1.5 million and has got good crowds for NRL in the past, the Souths game next year should be a good guide as to how much work needs to be done. Perth produces several NRL quality players like Corey Patterson, Daniel Holdworth, Lee Te Maari, Bronx Goodwin to name a few. Perth is 2 hours behind the east coast so it opens up a better TV deal with the option of 2 live game friday night and 3 live game saturday night.
A PNG team is a long way away, however, there was an idea a while back about a club based in Darwin that would use NT and PNG juniors and play 3-4 games in PNG a year. This could work but Darwin is smaller than Townsville an realistically could only probably get 10-15k average to home games. If there was a club like this though the could well develop a stadium in PNG to 25-30k and 4 games a year would get big crowds.
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Post by Ryan N on Sept 21, 2008 21:16:08 GMT 10
Hmm yeah but if you looking at grassroots NZ and PNG ahead of Perth by miles. That Darwin idea might be a winner but.
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Post by Kiwi fan on Sept 22, 2008 15:18:50 GMT 10
I don't think a Wellington team would work. First off you have the issue that we are heavily a rugby union town. League doesn't really get a look in here, sure some people talk about it but none of my friends play it, they all play union.
Also, the Phoenix have set up now who create all sorts of problems themselves. Wellington only has 300,000 or so people so we can't really fit 3 professional teams here. Also, Westpac stadium when it was built was built for Rugby and some cricket, they never envisiged having to cater for Soccer and catering for Soccer and League would just be too much for them. Basically a new stadium would have to be built which in NZ would honestly take about 6 years. Personally, I couldn't reguarly go to 3 sporting event one, probably the league, would have to miss out.
Perth is top priority, they should be in the NRL within 5 years.
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beez
Reserve Grade
Posts: 250
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Post by beez on Sept 22, 2008 15:39:31 GMT 10
I dont see it myself, the vast majority of Kiwis seem intent to play in Europe, there are also money reasons aswell, would a second NZ franchise in Union territory get the crowds and sponsors, from what i know the NZers are pretty millitant about their union. I may be a little biased here because I am from Wellington but I think a Wellington franchise would work. Wellington has a stadium which opened 2000 and is the ideal location. Since the stadium has opened Wellingtonians have shown they'll support anything. There is great support for the Wellington Phoenix A-League team despite poor results and the NRL is far more popular then the A-League in NZ. A Wellington team would attract at least the same amount of fans as the Warriors. Most people in NZ with a mild interest in league would support the "New Zealand" Warrirors but there is a real us and them attitude in regards to domestic league in NZ at the moment. Auckland are off on their own tangent while the other districts are working towards a common goal. So more staunch league fans see that, apart from in name, the Warriors hardly represent NZ. I think a second NZ team would help the game locally immensely people would see Auckland is not be all and end all in NZ league. The Wellington and Canterbury comps are pretty solid and there was a real improvement in the organisation of the Wellington comp this year. But most of the young talent goes to Australia as there is nothing to aim for here. There were 15-20 players (that I know of) from the Wellington area who played either NRL or ESL and countless others in the NSW and Qld comps. As for NZers being militant about their union. I think a second NRL would be welcomed and no-one would stand in its way to protect the position of union. The All Blacks and Super 14 receive high interest but people are becoming increasingly bored with the domestic NZ comp as the NZRU are protecting the ABs and not letting them play. The Super 14 season is over fairly quickly and the ABs then play in Wellington once or twice a season but with the Eden Park upgrade for the 2011 World Cup we will see more ABs games played there so there's an opening for something new here. I don't think Kiwis seem more intent than anyone else to play in Europe; there are plenty of Kiwis running around in the NRL. If there's an opportunity for them in the NRL they're surely going to take it. The one problem we've got is convincing the Australian NRL this would be good for them. And it seems the Warriors winning would help convincing them. And it would create one hell of derby match! |
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Post by Marv on Sept 22, 2008 17:58:18 GMT 10
I don't think Kiwis seem more intent than anyone else to play in Europe; there are plenty of Kiwis running around in the NRL. If there's an opportunity for them in the NRL they're surely going to take it. Your right beez but what i mean is the kiwis come over to europe younger and stay longer because they wont harm their selection chances for International or origin, thats my main point The one problem we've got is convincing the Australian NRL this would be good for them. And it seems the Warriors winning would help convincing them. I guess this would be your biggest stumbling block |
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Post by Marv on Sept 22, 2008 17:59:38 GMT 10
it seems from our two well informed kiwi posters that we have a differing opinion of wether or not the 2nd franchise would work.
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beez
Reserve Grade
Posts: 250
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Post by beez on Sept 22, 2008 18:50:48 GMT 10
I don't think a Wellington team would work. First off you have the issue that we are heavily a rugby union town. League doesn't really get a look in here, sure some people talk about it but none of my friends play it, they all play union. Also, the Phoenix have set up now who create all sorts of problems themselves. Wellington only has 300,000 or so people so we can't really fit 3 professional teams here. Also, Westpac stadium when it was built was built for Rugby and some cricket, they never envisiged having to cater for Soccer and catering for Soccer and League would just be too much for them. Basically a new stadium would have to be built which in NZ would honestly take about 6 years. Personally, I couldn't reguarly go to 3 sporting event one, probably the league, would have to miss out. Perth is top priority, they should be in the NRL within 5 years. Sure not many people play league in Wellington but I'm sure they'd support a league team. There are attempts to build the game at high school level which I think is the big downfall of league at the moment; many high school students play union largely because there is no alternative. As for having three teams in Wellington; I think Super 14 would have the biggest support but it ends in May and they head off to South Africa for three weeks. The A-League doesn't start until August and the Air NZ Cup is dying. They have shown to be capable of staging two different sports on the same weekend at Westpac Stadium. Wellingtonians have shown they will throw their support behind most sports; the one problem may be that league is the last to come along. Promote it well enough and the support will come. |
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Post by Ryan N on Sept 22, 2008 18:52:23 GMT 10
Well we have two to one. Really a lot of what beez said is to me a lot more, i dunno, convinving than kiwi fan. But you know, I don't live in New Zealand. So I couldn't say for sure. But I know for a fact that Keebra park High in Queensland imports a lot of bloody Kiwis which could change if we had a second NZ team so you know hard to decide. Right now Perth doesn't have the player base and I think it may be a similar situation to Melbourne. But it's bloody close, I'll give ya that.
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