Great post Steve. I think the game partly moved on from the super league period when Souths were reinstated in 2002 and the ARL Commission was formed in 2012, but for mine the period won't be fully dealt with until the premiership once again has teams in Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane 2 (and a role for the Bears).
That's an interesting perspective. I guess one of the "achievements" or pieces of progress from the period was rationalising the number of teams in Sydney to an extent. Eight and a half is barely rational, however.
Rationalising to say 4 Sydney teams following super league might have worked and we might have Sydney teams averaging 30,000 today.
But I think it’s just as possible that 4 generic Sydney teams could have alienated Sydney supporters when the code was at its weakest, and the premiership may not have bounced back to the extent that it has.
Great post Steve. I think the game partly moved on from the super league period when Souths were reinstated in 2002 and the ARL Commission was formed in 2012, but for mine the period won't be fully dealt with until the premiership once again has teams in Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane 2 (and a role for the Bears).
That's an interesting perspective. I guess one of the "achievements" or pieces of progress from the period was rationalising the number of teams in Sydney to an extent. Eight and a half is barely rational, however.
Rationalising to say 4 Sydney teams following super league might have worked and we might have Sydney teams averaging 30,000 today.
But I think it’s just as possible that 4 generic Sydney teams could have alienated Sydney supporters when the code was at its weakest, and the premiership may not have bounced back to the extent that it has.