ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys insists there is enough talent in the rugby league pool to fill an 18th and 19th NRL team despite one of the most lopsided opening rounds in the league’s history.
The average winning margin in the eight round-one fixtures was 18 points, compared to an average margin of 12.4 points in opening fixtures across the past ten seasons.
Penrith, Brisbane, Manly and Melbourne suggested they are some way ahead of the rest of the league, with the latter three sides posting a combined 144 points in their respective victories.
According to statistician David Middleton, the 2013 season also started with an average winning margin of 18 points, while 2002 saw the most one-sided opening weekend in the NRL era, with an average 24.3-point difference.
The highest average winning margin ever remains 41.75 points, which was set in round four, 1935, and included a 91-6 victory for St George over Canterbury.
The Eels re-group after conceding one of ten Melbourne tries.Credit: Getty Images
The NRL has confirmed a team from Papua New Guinea will join the league in 2028, while talks with the Western Australian government over a proposed Perth team are set to resume after Roger Cook’s Labour Party won a third straight WA state election earlier this month.
However the alarming disparity between many clubs on the weekend, with Parramatta and the Sydney Roosters both conceding 50 points in their defeats, suggests now is not the time to expand.
As one senior club official commented on Monday: “Nobody from the ARL Commission has been able to explain to us where the extra 70 players we need to play the game will come from.”
Writing in this masthead on Monday, columnist Neil Breen argued the game’s talent pool was not deep enough to sustain the additional teams the NRL has committed to establishing, pointing out that a dearth of quality halves had resulted in teams paying big money to ageing or substandard playmakers.
Reece Walsh scored a try in Brisbane’s big win over the Sydney Roosters.Credit: Getty Images
“There won’t be enough quality players for 18 or 19 or, heaven forbid, 20 teams,” Breen wrote.
But V’landys said it was unfair to shoot down the merits of expansion based on one round of rugby league.
“You can’t take one weekend and say there’s a shortage of players,” V’landys said. “For a start, the clubs get the same salary cap, so it’s not like any of them have an unfair advantage.
“I don’t agree that it’s not time to expand. People said the same thing before the Dolphins came into the competition, that there wasn’t enough talent, but they have been more than competitive since they’ve come into the NRL.
“The next franchise does not come into the NRL until 2028. It’s still a few years away.
“One factor people fail to appreciate is there are ten million to 18 million people in Papua New Guinea. The game is an absolute passion there, it’s easy to attract new players – we just need to have the expertise to turn them into elite players by having the best pathways model. A lot of the money we receive [from the PNG government] will be spent on junior development.
“Their schoolboys side also drew with the Australian Schoolboys side last year, and that’s always been a powerful side that has had a lot of players go on and play first grade. We have plans up our sleeve to assist PNG, including expediting their local talent so they can play in Australia.”
Existing NRL clubs have already been forced to ask the NRL for special exemptions to field players, including the Eels, who needed a clearance for train-and-trialist Ronald Volkman to cover their halves crisis, while South Sydney are expected to ask head office for permission to call on NSW Cup winger Bayleigh Bentley-Hape because of injuries.
The Broncos could have beaten the Roosters by more had it been a dry deck on Thursday, while Manly thumped North Queensland 42-12 in a game that was over after ten minutes on Saturday night before the Storm led the Eels 46-6 at half-time on Sunday before taking the foot off the throttle to salute 56-18.
According to the bookies, only three teams – the Storm, Panthers and Broncos – are under double-figure odds to win the premiership, but six clubs – Parramatta, Wests Tigers, the Dolphins, Dragons, Titans and Warriors – are less than $10to finish with the wooden spoon.
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