This was all said about Wests Tigers or St George-Illawarra Dragons, nobody would watch the joint venture and so on. There were (and still are) die hards on internet forums who say they are boycotting the clubs but both those teams have won Grand Finals and get support, and now its nearly 20 years on a whole generation of new fans have grown up with the new club identities.

The point of reform is to attract a new audience not to just please the older fans, for how many years have we been complaining that the RFL doesn't know how to look outside its own back yard.

Aussie clubs dont tend to own grounds like we do over here so the ability to own several and move games about is cost prohibitive.
A more natural merger would be St Helens and Widnes. Both align themselves to a scouser flag and could play under a name like the Woolybacks or something a bit less controversial.

Widnes merge with Saints ! You jest,Sir.
With the amount of diving we are seeing from some Saints players perhaps they should merge with a football club.

Mersey Wolves sounds worse than Warrington Wolves.

Why cant teams just be called the place they are from. animal names and franchises don't appeal in this country. Maybe in America but not here. Instead of re-branding the league and making everything more plastic and 'super cool' why not strip the game back to basics. A simple league format with teams playing in decent stadiums. Grounds like Cas and Wakey make the game look amateur, Bring the game into the modern era with decent grounds and facilities but keep the basic simplicity that makes RL appealing in the first place.

26 blokes running square into each other with aggression, flair and skill encouraged. Accessible grounds, Having the game talked about on sky sports in a positive light. SL advertises football and union fixtures at half time. lets have other sports doing that for us. lets get a decent advert on telestrial television, and how about being included in the 'Sky summer of sport' avdert that we're conveniently always excluded from.

Could you be our MP please!?

Try and get a Russian or Saudi billionaire to take an interest in Wakefield, Hudds or Cas.

How do you think football got so much income, do you think it was because of "good marketing"? FA putting up a few more posters than the RFL...

yeah well that would be true if the Illawarra steelers weren't formed in 1980, and after poop load of wooden spoons merged 17 years later...hardly a traditional old Club, Illawara..!!!

North sydney went bust waiting for a new stadium to built and unfortunately for them being $4 million in debt meant as a stand alone unit they were ineligible for the an NRL spot. So they Merged with Manly and became the northern Eagles, that lasted 3 years. The bears slipped back to become a feeder club and the NRL licence Was simply given to Manly who crack on like nothing has happened.

that sounds like huddersfield Sheffield merger or gateshead Hull... Im Not sure which.....
which one do you think Eddie Hearn Will think was a winner...???

and Balmian tigers and Wests ????
well while on the pitch all seems well but even Marwaan Koukash was frightened off from buying the club due to the infighting over the West magpies and the Balmain Tigers NSW sides. you see the clubs dont really merge a new club takes the name and the original clubs just play in a lower league


now if they Wanted to create a single sydney Club...you know one that could then fill the stadium it would play in, then that would be a start Sal dont you agree....???


still it stirs the juices all this merger nonsense

I can see the argument for rationalising down the number of Sydney clubs.
Bring back Perth and Adelaide franchises, and then increase the number in Queensland. There could be franchises in Sunshine Coast, a second one on the Gold Coast plus give the PNG Hunters an NRL franchise.

Quote: sally cinnamon "Try and get a Russian or Saudi billionaire to take an interest in Wakefield, Hudds or Cas. How do you think football got so much income, do you think it was because of "good marketing"? FA putting up a few more posters than the RFL...'" LOL I think because football is an international game with international reach and the Premier League is played by 64 nationalities, watched by 156 countries and 212 territories across the globe and a TV audience of fans who watch the Premier League each week has reached a 4.2 billion people*. The PL has posted year on year growth and TV revenues and offers global marketing options like no other sport. I doubt merging Wakefield, Hudds and Cas will create the same attraction to an Oligarch or oil rich Sheikh. SOURCE Eurosport, 2017 https://www.eurosport.co.uk/football/pr ... tory.shtml

Quote: sally cinnamon "Try and get a Russian or Saudi billionaire to take an interest in Wakefield, Hudds or Cas. How do you think football got so much income, do you think it was because of "good marketing"? FA putting up a few more posters than the RFL...'" LOL I think because football is an international game with international reach and the Premier League is played by 64 nationalities, watched by 156 countries and 212 territories across the globe and a TV audience of fans who watch the Premier League each week has reached a 4.2 billion people*. The PL has posted year on year growth and TV revenues and offers global marketing options like no other sport. I doubt merging Wakefield, Hudds and Cas will create the same attraction to an Oligarch or oil rich Sheikh. SOURCE Eurosport, 2017 https://www.eurosport.co.uk/football/pr ... tory.shtml

The talk of mergers is all about £ and nothing to do with what makes sport, sport. The representation of where you are from manifested as a sporting alliance that you can be part of with your neighbours and those of common interest.

Take the "Warrington" our of our club, move it to Birmingham and see what happens to the fan base.

Your right....but it would grow as did Gateshead but just attracting locals.
...it's not the location really but about celebrity...who is there?...just like the celebrity football matches Robbie Williams does...no affiliate to any town buy bring fans of all ages in by the 0000s.

Ask a sports watcher in Birmingham, as mentioned, to name a rugby league team you might get 5 out of 10 could...ask them to name a curent player!..?....I'd stick a months mortgage payments it would be zero.

Ask again who Johnny Wilkinson is...youd pretty much get all of them say an England rugby player.

If Johnny Wilkinson turned out for Warrington over the weekend the press would be all over it like like a donor kebab and chilli sauce over me at 3am... people would turn up who has likely never seen a live RL game.

The bottom line is....we need sports people with profiles bigger than Nigel Woods breakfast.

I am excited at the prospect of hearing “Wire...Wire...” sung in a brummy accent.

EDIT: Surely a link up with Wolverhampton would make more commercial sense, and limit the need for rebranding?

Yow will not get Bromwich watch the Wolves!

We need to be careful what we wish for. Ok Premiership football has far more money sloshing about than it did in the old Division 1 days but for me the product is much much worse. The players are remote prima donnas and the whole thing is a business first, sport second. Nah not for me.