Again the fault of the NRL with their total and utter disregard for international qualification.....this year we've had kiwis defect so as to play Origin....last year it was a fijian begging for his caps for Fiji to be forgotten so he could play Origin.....

There was a report a couple of years ago that stated about 65% of the kids playing toyota cup RL were Kiwis.......the game is becoming more and more about the contact and the NRL Clubs are increasingly looking at Pacifica as a recruiting ground......the Aussies have an issue with strength in depth at present, if they increase the comp to 17 or 18 teams, then watch the best UK players get signed up.....it's only a matter of time until one of the burgess brothers is touted for SoO....it's a farce, but in the pursuit of everything, the ARL/NRL don't give a toss.......because if it's not in their own backyard, it ain't important.

IMO that is....

No.

We can't win a tournament, apathy comes from decades of failure!

Oh right !

I thought perhaps it was an acronym or textspeak.

It's still nonsensical though.

Your right though, the use of +1 would be more correct.

Whilst I admire your sentiment, the Australians don't regard the international game as important and without their support for it, we're fighting a losing battle. Best thing is to grow our own competition in the same way that the NRL and English Premier League have so that it becomes an attractive viewing option. For me, times have changed and internationals are no longer the be all and end all of team sports.

I think, this obsession with internationals is slowly dying out. Yes, there's plenty of money in it because there's lots of bucket-list-fans out there who will pay good money to go to an event but most of them won't come or tune in on a weekly basis. If we won the Ashes, we're not suddenly going to get inundated by applications for season tickets from the fox hunting sect.

Our true value, whether people like it or not, is with television and making a product that poeple tune in to watch. The Premier League's success is built entirely on the back of people wanting to tune in to watch an entertaining product. Good viewing figures for a specific demographic = more money for TV providers = more demand to show that sport = the sport can negotiate from a stronger position = more money into the game = more investment. In addition, most of our fans are from mass market social classes that consume "insert random Olympic product name here" by the shed load, which fits with SKY's demographic also.

Our sport is a great spectacle. I am hard pressed to think of a sport which serves up as much regular drama as ours does and, for all its detractors, SKY knows that and its why we go out live in the US nowadays. It's going to be a long, drawn out process but it can be a very successful one if we learn from how the Premier League developed.

+ this 1....

Ok, left field suggestions.

Have a 12 team SL. Play home and away and keep the Magic Weekend = 23 games.

Have a mid season break to coincide with a similar break in the NRL. Have an extended, rebranded SOO involving NSW, QLD, GB and NZ. Round Robin format with top and 2nd playing in the final.

With some creative planning it could be done in 4 weeks.

Remember this is just an idea.

It's an interesting idea but given they can pull in 80k for an Origin game I'm not sure how much of a starter is it i.e. can't see the Australians dropping three Origin games to playing against us or NZ.

Walk before you can run.

The club comps are strengthening the international game yet people want to chop them up because having regular beatings at the hands of Australia/NZ will somehow make the game stronger?

British football fans are the biggest whingers on the planet. I'm 100% certain that if our game was strong internationally we'd have the same people saying we should cut back on tours so the club game can grow...

If we won a tournament the profile of rugby league would increase 10 fold. Look at cricket and RU after RU won the RWC in 2003 and the cricket team won the ashes (was it 2005) their profiles jumped up and more sponsorship and more companies wanting to be part of them.

Reading Clive Woodwards autobiography, he said about not playing the Ozzies or Kiwis for a good few years to gain a winning mentality. May be we could go down this route and avoid playing the Ozzies and to a lesser extent the kiwis. Play more matches against the developing nations they may get beat but at least the team will at least win some matches.

So, you just saying it's rubbish is enough then is it? No counter point?

Are you saying that there is not a very high percentage of the toyota cup players who aren't maori/pacific in heritage? 22,000,000 aussies, 4,000,000 Kiwis......16 squads of 25 players say a player pool of 400.

60 should be Maori Pacific...........85% Australian......Let me know if you can find 200 non Maori Pacific players.....good luck with that BTW.

Are you saying that 2 more NRL teams won't further weaken the player pool and as a result, you'll see more UK players recruited? 50 more top flight players needed.....that doesn't sound a lot, but systematically, the teams currently in the NRL who are missing one or 2 players due to injury/Origin/suspension lose their games.........the strength is not there in depth.

Are you saying the NRL/ARL do give a toss about the game outside their immediate area? Good for you.......I am looking forward to reading about all the NRL/ARL financed development work down here in Wellington....I mean to say, give there were 5 NRL Club scouts down here over the last 4 weeks checking out players that they could pick up for their Toyota/2nd grade teams, surely they are chipping in to help us build the game from scratch?

My opinion may differ from yours, but I don't call yours rubbish.....well, I wouldn't have if you'd actually posted anything.