Rugby League back in the Sticks

SportsAustralia.com editor Adam McBride calls on the NRL to bring matches in season 2007 back to former outposts.

Time has come for the National Rugby League to stand up and be counted amongst many other national competitions – bring the game back to the former outposts of Adelaide and Perth.

Sources close to SportsAustralia have revealed that the NRL board is struggling to complete the 2007 season draw. Why not then look to play games in both cities and find out for sure if support is indeed still there.

I’m not talking bringing one or two games either, they should be looking to four or even five with nearly every team having one game in both cities.

The Western Reds (nee Perth Reds) and Adelaide Rams were both products of the Super League war, which crippled the game in Australia. Only now are they recovering from that.

News Limited, who owns and operates many media outlets, had a decent share in both teams in the mid-late 1990’s. However, instead of helping them prosper, they withdrew support and subsequently both folded.

Melbourne Storm is a testament to what the Perth Reds could have done. Though us Western Australians love to ‘kick a Vic’, much like our Southern foes, we banded as one for the now infamous grand final victory by the Storm back in 1999.

The Storm club then had many players and personnel from the old Perth club, one survivor of note is Matt Geyer, who recent played his 200th game for the Melbourne based club after getting a start in Perth due to limited opportunities in Sydney.

For rugby league to prosper and grow to its national namesake they need to continue to grow in the former outposts – Adelaide and Perth. Whilst it is only a dream to have a club based in these two regions, and it may well be cost prohibitive to go down that road again, bringing meaningful games back would certainly go a long way to assisting the growing of a national interest in the sport.

If League chiefs are serious about returning to outposts like Adelaide and Perth, how about they go one-step further and play a test match involving the Kangaroos.

The Australian Rugby Union tested the support level of Perth, and Western Australians, with a test match back in 1998 between the Wallabies and South Africa.

It was only supposed to be a one-off with no test planned beyond that match however, the ARU quickly realised they had an untapped market that wanted an alternative to AFL and reacted positively and have since cashed in with an annual test and, most recently - the creation of a Super 14 franchise.

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