The National Rugby League is considering taking a match to the U.S. while "serious discussions are under way to develop a World Nines tournament," according to Michael Carayannis of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Having watched the Wallabies "successfully stage a World Cup warm-up match" against the U.S. in Chicago, the NRL is "open to the idea" of cracking the U.S. market. NRL Head of Strategy Shane Richardson said the NRL would provide a "better spectacle" than its rugby union counterparts. He said, "I think we have an enormous opportunity. What I'm saying is that we have a real opportunity here to take the game to another level. What I'm really excited about is the media partners for the first time see rugby league as an international future." Part of Richardson's whole-of-game plan involves a fixed int'l schedule. Richardson said that "it might not just be an NRL game" that could be staged in the U.S. He said, "International matches, it's club matches that we can look at." Following the "success of the Auckland Nines, discussions have started" to stage a World Nines tournament involving int'l sides. Richardson said that the Rugby League Int'l Federation was "looking at" the prospect of a yearly World Nines tournament. He said, "It's a real opportunity to get commercial income that they can utilize and grow into some of the other nations like Tonga, Samoa and more importantly in Europe, where the game is growing despite people knocking it. Without money it is impossible to do" (SMH, 12/15).
NEW FEEDER LEAGUE: Carayannis reported in a separate piece the NRL confirmed its "controversial plan to set up a new feeder league as it released its highly anticipated blueprint for player development." The new competition, labeled the "Platinum League" in the player pathways document drawn up by Richardson, would replace the NSW Cup and the U20s, "which would be reduced" to a state-based junior competition. Richardson wants the Platinum League to draw on the model of the Triple-A baseball setup in the U.S. Under that system, minor league teams are affiliated with MLB clubs but are "generally not located in the same place as the parent franchise." While the clubs are generally believed to favor scaling back the National Youth Competition for a "better-developed reserve-grade league, there is concern about how the new feeder system would work." Club officials "were keen to see more detail around the idea." There was "confusion as to whether some clubs might have to share feeder teams and questions were raised that some feeder clubs would be based in country areas." Other "issues of concern" raised by club officials included:
- A ban on signing players until they are 18. Some clubs "suggested that age limit should be reduced to 17."
- A concern about the ability of country areas to support a "Platinum League" team playing in a national competition.
- A proposal to enforce a mandatory eight-week break for all players (SMH, 12/15).
NO HURRY: In Brisbane, Paul Malone reported Richardson believes there "should be no NRL expansion for at least three years." He emerged from his nine-month review "convinced the league does not have the depth to stock extra teams." Richardson: "My work has made no recommendation for expansion at the NRL level. The information we gathered is that we would be stretching going to 17 or 18 teams. It would have a dramatic effect on the quality of the games" (
COURIER-MAIL, 12/15).
BAN ON TEENS: In Sydney, Stuart Honeysett reported Richardson revealed "the spate of youth suicides in the code prompted his decision to stop players from making their first-grade debuts until the year they turn 19." He said while there had been some "wonderful success stories with teenage prodigies making it on to the big stage," there were far more cases of young players "struggling with the pressures of the game." Rugby league "has been rocked in the past two years by the tragic deaths of five rising young players from the National Youth Competition who battled depression amid the pressure and expectation they had placed on themselves." Richardson: "We had a long look at it, and worked internally with the Polynesian people that work for us here, about what it’s done to families or otherwise so it had a real effect on it. It didn’t have as big an impact on me in the beginning that it did in the end" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 12/16).
