Plenty of ex-pats in Perth, I wouldn't have thought there were too many in Darwen. But no real reason why many English ex-pats are likely to be league fans, though.

None of the major sports give a cr*p about Darwin except to pick up the odd indigenous player. RL is big in NSW and Queensland, a bit player in Melbourne (easily the second biggest market in the country) where AFL rules, and nowhere at all in Adelaide or Perth. By comparison AFL has two sides in Queensland and NSW, and rules Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

However, the NRL dwarfs SL - financially, number of players at a high level etc. Its also been helped a lot by the financial problems in RU. Its not that long ago that the ARU was raiding the NRL for talent - Sailor, Tuqiri, Rogers etc. They would have continued that game forever and a day had they not run out of cash.

My main issue with increasing the Salary Cap is that the very first thing that would happen is that existing players at all the teams that could afford to pay more would get pay rises - for doing nothing at all more than they already are. Basically we'd see wage inflation for precisely zero benefit to the sport as a whole. You also cannot and should not allow clubs to bankrupt themseleves, so SL should definitely retain elements of the cap aimed at keeping clubs solvent.

Rather than an across the board increase, I would look at marquee player allowances (plus potentially homegrown player discounts).

Sydney Roosters have in 2013 and 2014, and they will again in 2015.

Quote ="The Avenger"Rugby league football is one of the most popular sports in Australia,[1[2[3 where it has been played since 1908. It is the dominant winter sport in the states of New South Wales and Queensland as well as the Australian Capital Territory, which together comprise around half of the country's population.[4 In 2009, it was the most watched sport on Australian television, with an aggregate audience of 128.5 million viewers As I said, "=#FF0000For all intents and purposes Rugby League is Australias National sport" en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_le ... _Australia'" Firstly, Wikipedia is about as reliable as an IRB calculator.....beware, because regardless of what criteria the author wants to use, the Facts are often a different matter. TV figures from 2009 for TV? Really? TV figures that no doubt include State of Origin? ACT is a RL dominated state eh? Someone tell the Brumbies, because they've owned the Raiders attendance wise for a few years now....30% bigger average last year. Here's a FACT for you. Not a Wiki-fact, but an ACTUAL fact.....Twice as many fans attended 207 AFL games as did 201 NRL games in 2014. Break these fans down across the NATION....as we are talking about THE NATIONAL SPORT OF AUSTRALIA. Over 800,000 attended 22 AFL games in Perth averaging over 36,350. .......2 Games of NRL averaging 16,500. Over 1,000,000 attended 22 games in Adelaide...averaging over 45,000...0 games of NRL averaging 0 Over 390,000 attended 22 games in Queensland averaging 17,727.....36 NRL games averaging 20,300 Head to head, in their dominant states, NSW delivers 2,000,000 fans to 120 home games 16,666 a game Victoria delivers 4,000 fans to 88 home games at 45,450 a game 6,971,000 AFL fans with 40% of these outside of Victoria v 3,376,000 NRL fans with 29% outside of NSW. I still say Cricket is the National Sport of Australia, but if you are looking for a dominant code of football across the nation, then currently the AFL is the biggest based on actual attending fans. NRL is second followed closely by soccer, which is growing at an alarming rate and also has teams in exotic places like Perth and Adelaide

Quote ="The Avenger"Rugby league football is one of the most popular sports in Australia,[1[2[3 where it has been played since 1908. It is the dominant winter sport in the states of New South Wales and Queensland as well as the Australian Capital Territory, which together comprise around half of the country's population.[4 In 2009, it was the most watched sport on Australian television, with an aggregate audience of 128.5 million viewers As I said, "=#FF0000For all intents and purposes Rugby League is Australias National sport" en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_le ... _Australia'" Firstly, Wikipedia is about as reliable as an IRB calculator.....beware, because regardless of what criteria the author wants to use, the Facts are often a different matter. TV figures from 2009 for TV? Really? TV figures that no doubt include State of Origin? ACT is a RL dominated state eh? Someone tell the Brumbies, because they've owned the Raiders attendance wise for a few years now....30% bigger average last year. Here's a FACT for you. Not a Wiki-fact, but an ACTUAL fact.....Twice as many fans attended 207 AFL games as did 201 NRL games in 2014. Break these fans down across the NATION....as we are talking about THE NATIONAL SPORT OF AUSTRALIA. Over 800,000 attended 22 AFL games in Perth averaging over 36,350. .......2 Games of NRL averaging 16,500. Over 1,000,000 attended 22 games in Adelaide...averaging over 45,000...0 games of NRL averaging 0 Over 390,000 attended 22 games in Queensland averaging 17,727.....36 NRL games averaging 20,300 Head to head, in their dominant states, NSW delivers 2,000,000 fans to 120 home games 16,666 a game Victoria delivers 4,000 fans to 88 home games at 45,450 a game 6,971,000 AFL fans with 40% of these outside of Victoria v 3,376,000 NRL fans with 29% outside of NSW. I still say Cricket is the National Sport of Australia, but if you are looking for a dominant code of football across the nation, then currently the AFL is the biggest based on actual attending fans. NRL is second followed closely by soccer, which is growing at an alarming rate and also has teams in exotic places like Perth and Adelaide

Are you the poster formerly known as Gutterfax?

Yep that would be the one

Got to love stats,
and yet more people watch nrl on TV than any other sport in Australia. Regional nsw and qland where RL rules by a country mile, excuse the pun, has a bigger population than perth and adelaide combined. In next ten years we will see brisbane2 and perth added to further increase RL's reach and popularity. Afl has had a 18 year head start following the SL disaster. NRL won't take that long to catch up in terms of expansion and national reach.

Afl is ahead but not for long.

No. Gutterfax no longer posts here, but I am pretty much sure he is still known as Gutterfax.
Indeed, but the underlying data used to produce that map shows that more people attend AFL. The TV data depends on if you believe in the antiquated way in which TV companies continue to collect information. Given we pretty much ALL are digital viewers now, there are far more accurate, if far less profitable ways to collect information on who is watching what.....but if you adhere to the old methods, then in Metro, AFL rules, whilst in regional, NRL is king. As for soccer......the recent Asia cup attracted an average of 20,303 to games.....not far off the 2014 Four Nations average and well ahead of the last stand alone AU RL event.

In terms of the current discussion, the relevant part of that sentence is now bolded and in red

Fortunately sport is about much more than the top tier professional clubs. Pub teams matter as well..... The Victorian Rugby League (VRL) is pleased to announce that 2014 has been the most successful season for player participation levels in Rugby League within Victoria, increasing player registrations by 17 percent in the past 12 months to surpass the record participation level set in 2013. www.playnrl.com/record-year-for- ... by-league/ “In 2013 we had a 19.3 per cent increase in registrations, which is the biggest year-on-year rise recorded in any state,” says John Sackson, chief executive of the WARL. “Coming off such a jackpot, we thought this season it would be hard to maintain, but we’ve actually gone ahead and are up another six per cent. “We have the highest number of players outside NSW and Queensland. This is despite the fact that Victoria has an NRL team and eight development officers, and we obviously don’t have an NRL side and have just three development officers.” rugbyleagueweek.com.au/wa-mad-footy/

Fortunately sport is about much more than the top tier professional clubs. Pub teams matter as well..... The Victorian Rugby League (VRL) is pleased to announce that 2014 has been the most successful season for player participation levels in Rugby League within Victoria, increasing player registrations by 17 percent in the past 12 months to surpass the record participation level set in 2013. www.playnrl.com/record-year-for- ... by-league/ “In 2013 we had a 19.3 per cent increase in registrations, which is the biggest year-on-year rise recorded in any state,” says John Sackson, chief executive of the WARL. “Coming off such a jackpot, we thought this season it would be hard to maintain, but we’ve actually gone ahead and are up another six per cent. “We have the highest number of players outside NSW and Queensland. This is despite the fact that Victoria has an NRL team and eight development officers, and we obviously don’t have an NRL side and have just three development officers.” rugbyleagueweek.com.au/wa-mad-footy/

Based on the first game of the NRL season, it looks like Brisbane are miles behind Souths too.

Well they just can't compete with Souths.

From what I hear they are thinking of scrapping the whole competition as it's not worth while even trying if another team are so far ahead at this point in the year.

If only Brisbane played in a more intense competition with meaningful games every week.

He is indeed.

He lives in New Zealand. He is a guttersnipe. Obviously he is Gutterfax.

Just like Canterbury Bulldogs really.

Souths have smashed the last 3 teams by 30 points whether that be at the start or end of a season.

All those early posts about SL being miles behind are beginning to look a little knee jerk.

What I will agree is that week in week out SL teams would struggle over the course of the year, even the top flight teams.

There is no point kidding ourselves, SL is behind the NRL, and its behind by a fair bit, by a noticeable amount but not by an unsurmountable amount

There are two ends of the spectrum here, and unfortunately they both lead to the same conclusion. Do nothing.

There are those burying their heads in the sand and would pretend the gap isn't that big and we will get there with slow and steady progress. We wont. For two reasons, firstly the gap is too big for us to think that success will come from tinkering at the edges, and more importantly the NRL aren't waiting for us to catch up. Whilst we are chipping away at a breakthrough for what they are doing now, they will be making that next big jump and where we slowly catch up in one area, they will have leaped ahead in another.

The others would say they are so far ahead there is no point worrying about it, no point playing them we will only lose, no point trying to catch up because its a waste of time and effort because they are too far ahead and too good.

either way, we end up doing next to nothing.

The truth lies somewhere in between. They are better than we are. Souths are comfortably better than any side in SL, they would probably be odds on to win SL this year. They would likely set records. They aren't guaranteed to win the NRL. There are 2 or 3 clubs who could. The results we saw aren't vastly different to what most would have expected. Their best are far better than ours, our best would probably be mid to lower NRL sides. Our mid to lower sides are acres behind. That's where we are. Lets get on with getting our best to the level of their best, and our mid to lower sides to the level of theirs, then lets over take them, and then look for the next innovation, and then the next, and then the next.

Where did Brisbane come in the NRL last year?
They are an average team at best, have been for a long long time.

Brisbane were bloody awful. They made shedloads of mistakes, but more worryingly their attack was dreadful. Even when they started to fall well behind they were playing mostly one man rugby. They were out on their feet with Souths running them around, but didn't even try to do the same - it was almost 30 degrees at kick off, and they should have been able to make Souths' big forwards suffer but they didn't come close.

Souths are playing pretty well, but against a better team could have been behind at half time. The only plus is that the Broncos will improve significantly on that performance. They had a number of new players and will miss Boyd until his return, but I can't see them doing much better than squeaking into the top 8 this year.

It's a mute argument. It's like saying why aren't San Marino as good in the World Cup as Germany or France? Or why aren't crench rl clubs as good as SL clubs?
Reality is with the money now in the nrl and the size of the playing numbers at jnr level it will always be a two tier situation. No shame in that, it's just how it is. In fact given the comparisons between the wealth and participation in the respective countries it is amazing we are as close to them as we are.

Our biggest threat is a second nz nrl club and increased funding to the nzrl. If that happens we could be a distant third in years to come.

I watched Brisbane and Souths last night. The Broncos were indeed terrible; Milford offered next to nothing in the halves (although he needs to be given time, of course), and it was a stroll in the park for the Bunnies. But like plenty of NRL games, I found it a very dull watch. I'd rather watch Leeds or Saints, let alone Wigan, even on scratchy form.

So you don't like to be entertained.

Each to their own

Of course I like to be entertained. And was tonight by the Eels, who were excellent in dismantling Manly. Doesn't alter the fact that the Souths game was dull, dull, dull.

Yeh it was a boring 5 drive and kick affair for the most part. Neither souths or Broncos have much creativity. Parra have sandow and manly have DCE/Foran and it certainly made a difference in the way the game was played. Melbourne set the trend for structured safety first and had great trophy success with it. Souths have followed their lead.

One NRL team that will not likely bore, but more likely dazzle this year is Sydney Roosters. With Mitchell Pearce in career best attacking form, and Michael Jennings and Blake Ferguson in the centres, plus Roger Tuivasa-Scheck at full back, it is likely to be razzle dazzle from the Bondi boys. Another exciting club is NZ Warriors with Shaun Johnson taking the lead. The only SL team capable of entertaining like those two clubs is the Todd Carney + Scott Dureau led Catalans Dragons.

Just cracked a tinnie to watch them v Cowboys. Should be the game of the round.