Actually the licences are time bound, offered , but the NRL rubberstamp all the clubs reentering each time.



The NRL can choose to not offer clubs a licence. Thisw as done to Souths, and after Souths won an appeal, the NRL/News Ltd again appealed to the High Court and won, giving them the mandate. In theory, a struggling club like Cronulla could be omitted if they go broke, but the political pressure from other clubs and from fans will encourage NRL to do everything possible to save the club.



The reason is that areas outside Sydney (WA, CC, Central Qld, to a lesser extent PNG) want a licence and are making detailed bids, and the NRL is keen to expand to new markets. The only Sydney team that is making a bid is the Bears, and interestingly part of their pitch is to play some games at North Sydney Oval and some in Central Coast, a la the Dragons. This would be a sensible model.



Yes, because English sport has a tradition/culture/history of P&R. As I said in my post above, having that tradition of P&R could potentially give English RL a more effective system for promoting/relegating players AND clubs than Australian RL.



This is a potential flaw of this dual registration proposal, it is ripe for manipulation by SL and certain Championship clubs, it could give some Championship clubs an unfair legup over others, allow SL clubs to parachute clubs in over their choosing, and create a two tier SL. In trying to end annual relegation and give SL clubs some stability of tenure, I think the RFL have swung too far away from P&R towards the NRL model, which has sometimes seen club management grow complacent. A 3 up/3 down P&R system between SL & Championship every four years (subject to meeting minimum criteria) would give SL clubs stability of tenure, but give Championship clubs a definite pathway into SL.

What did you think of my loan proposal above?

Sorry but no. The whole point of franchising is to define the criteria by which clubs can stay in SL. If they fail to meet them then kick them out by all means, but there should definitely not be automatic loss of a franchise after X years.

My problem with dual registration is the fact that clubs can 'borrow' superleague players for just the odd game, as and when they want. So, for example, a club can suddenly find itself playing an important game against a team which has, effectively, a load of ringers in it, who are only there for the one game.
That is WAY different from an on-loan player, who will no doubt play for a number of games and be, genuinely, a part of that team's set-up for a while.

this doesn't happen though. usually fringe players stay fringe players unless there is an injury and they need to move up to fill it.

Lets say a SL has a squad of 25. they have 19 players that are first team squad and the remaining get loaned out to a championship team (personally I'd like to see them be loaned to a lower championship team to bring the leve of the comp up). Anyone of those 6 players may be recalled to the 1st team squad if form or injury dictates it. Of the remaining 19 players in teh Champoionship team they are getting better coaching and training (if the Sl team invests in teh championshiop club) and they are in the shop window to win a Sl contract if they perform well in the team. It gives kids a better opportunity to get in SL, it gives the championship club resources and quality players and gives the kids a more direct route to SL. Everyones a wiinner.

Oi get a real buzz seeing WA players in the NRL even though they are not in a WA team.

So you want to punish clubs that are trying to build a team by having feeder clubs bringing in ' ringers ' , yes that will just about kill any support the ' honest ' club has

We already have fans walking away from the club at lower level because of franchising

Having clubs using SL surplus to climb higher you will just alienate another load of fans

Damn' right, Starbug! It stinks! I want to see the Cougars do well as the COUGARS, not as a feeder club for some SL side (which presumably means that my club will be forever consigned to the lower leagues, as any decent players they get will automatically get poached), or by borrowing SL players for the odd game.