Queensland Rugby League boss calls for a FIFTH team to be based in the Sunshine State - as NRL agrees in principle to expansion with Perth Bears
The rugby league heartland of Ipswich and its western environs are ripe for the NRL to insert a 20th side, Queensland Rugby League boss Ben Ikin insists.
The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) has agreed in principle to a revised proposal from the Western Australia government for an NRL team in Perth in 2027 which will resurrect, in an affiliation, foundation club North Sydney Bears.
PNG will be the 19th team in 2028.
When the former Western Corridor bid, now known as the Jets, was forged 18 years ago, former NRL boss David Gallop toured the region and said the game had to go 'where the fish are biting'.'
The rugby league heartland produced the Walters brothers, Allan Langer and further west the likes of Shane Webcke, Steve Price and Darren Lockyer.
The Jets, slated to be based in Ipswich but with an affiliation with Newtown Jets, has QRL boss Ikin's backing as the next NRL franchise.
'(PNG) gets us to 19 teams so it makes sense that we get to 20 to fully realise the broadcast rights opportunity,' he said.
'Then you can have 10 games and maybe the chance to split up into conferences and do some good things with the draw.
'That (western corridor) region has such a rich rugby league history and from a population perspective is one of the fastest growing in the country, and it is rugby league mad.
'The AFL are out there with an elite presence (at the Brisbane Lions' home base in Springfield) and we are not.
'It makes sense to me that once you get through the logistically challenged franchises in PNG and Perth then you can potentially bolt on and make team number 20 something you could switch on really quick.'
The Queensland boss hailed the return of a Perth-based side for the first time since 1997 and the return of the Bears who he played for in their last season in the NRL in 1999.
'Anyone who loves the game and there's lots of us, we want more people to love the game the way we do,' he said.
'So taking the game we love back to the other side of the country and giving them another chance to see the best version of what we do in the NRL can only be good for rugby league.
'If Super League taught us anything it is that history counts,' Ikin added.
'It can't be manufactured. The Bears survived for a long time at the top end of the game and continued to exist while not being afforded the opportunity.
'It is a credit to all the people that kept it alive and going....and to see the history that all those good people believed in re-emerge in the elite version of what we do is magnificent.'
The Ipswich-based Jets bid would also add the romantic notion of revitalising foundation club Newtown Jets.
'Who doesn't like a bit of romance in rugby league? To have that brand in the elite national competition would be special,' Ikin said.
'In that western region effectively you will drag in Brisbane central like the (Brisbane) Tigers, the Ipswich Jets as another pathways club and the Western Clydesdales out there in Toowoomba.
'The road that connects the two most-western of those pathways clubs is called Darren Lockyer Way.
'If that doesn't make sense from a rugby league perspective I don't know what will.'
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