Expansion of the National Rugby League

The National Rugby League is the top level rugby league competition in Australia and New Zealand. It was formed in 1998 after the merger of the Australian Super League and the Australian Rugby League. Inaugurally containing 20 teams, rationalisation cut this number down to 14 by 2000, before the competition expanded back to 16 by 2007. A 17th club, named the Redcliffe Dolphins, is set to join in 2023.

History

Club	Colours	Years Contested
Melbourne Storm		1998 – current
St. George Illawarra Dragons		1999 – current
Wests Tigers		2000 – current
Northern Eagles		2000 – 2002
Gold Coast Titans		2007 – current
The Dolphins		2023 – current

1998-2000

The Australian Super league and the ARL combined had 22 teams in 1997. When the NRL was formed in 1998, it was decided that there would only be 20 teams. The Melbourne Storm were the sole expansion team that year, meaning that the NRL had to remove three teams: the WA Reds, the South Queensland Crushers and the Hunter Mariners. In 1999 the Adelaide Rams and the Gold Coast Chargers were removed from the competition, as were the South Sydney Rabbitohs in 2000.

The NRL achieved further reduction in the number teams through mergers of established clubs from Sydney and regional New South Wales. There were three mergers between 1999 and 2000 – The St. George Dragons and Illawarra Steelers formed the St. George Illawarra Dragons, the Western Suburbs Magpies and Balmain Tigers formed Wests Tigers, and the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and North Sydney Bears formed the Northern Eagles. The Northern Eagles dissolved in 2002 and the Sea Eagles returned to the competition the following year.

South Sydney Rabbitohs (2002)

The South Sydney Rabbitohs were re-admitted to the competition for the 2002 NRL season after a legal battle with the NRL over their expulsion in the 2000 season, with the help of New Zealand actor Russell Crowe.

Gold Coast Titans (2007)

The Gold Coast Titans were admitted to the NRL for the 2007 season, beating out bids from the Central Coast Bears and Wellington Orcas.

Redcliffe Dolphins (2023)

The Dolphins were granted a license in 2021 to participate from the 2023 season to becomes the NRL's 17th franchise. They beat out bids from other Queensland rivals, the Brisbane Jets and Brisbane Firehawks.

2023 expansion window

The NRL is set to expand the competition to 17 teams in 2023 with a second team based in Brisbane, following years of debate around the feasibility of expansion.

By the end of 2020, four interested parties had emerged as candidates for the 17th team, three of which were driven or backed by existing sides in the second-tier Queensland Cup: The Redcliffe Dolphins, the Ipswich Jets-backed Western Corridor NRL bid, the Brisbane Tigers’s Brisbane Firehawks, and the Brisbane Bombers. The merger of the Western Corridor and Bombers bids to form the Brisbane Jets reduced the bidding race to three in February 2021.

On 7 May 2021, the NRL officially requested expressions of interest from the three bidders. It expected to make a decision by July, allowing any successful bid 18 months to prepare to play its first season in 2023. However the NRL postponed until August at the earliest after a surge in COVID-19 cases in Australia forced it to focus on keeping the 2021 season running.

The three bids made final presentations to the NRL on 23 August. Subsequent meetings involving the NRL, its clubs, and an expansion committee have seen a 17th club virtually guaranteed by October 7, with the winning bid expected to be announced later in the month. On 13 October 2021, the Dolphins became the 17th NRL team to enter the Telstra Premiership from 2023 after being granted a licence in an historic announcement made by the ARL Commission.

Future expansion

On 28 April 2021, it was reported that the NRL was considering an eventual 18-team competition divided into two conferences. The format that’s been suggested by NRL officials would see the nine Sydney-based clubs compete in one conference and the remaining nine teams in the other, with each team playing each other once and then a second time against the other teams in their respective conference. The intended effect is to strengthen the rivalries between the Sydney-based clubs by having them play each other twice, but it would have the notable downside of non-Sydney teams having to travel a lot more than Sydney teams.

In March 2021, NRL CEO Andrew Abdo suggested an 18th team could be based in New Zealand to create a rivalry with the New Zealand Warriors. So far the sole prospective bidder for a second New Zealand-based team is a resurrected Wellington Orcas bid led by former New Zealand Rugby League chair Andrew Chalmers. The proposed team, potentially under the name ‘Southern Orcas’, would play most home games at Sky Stadium and also take games to Christchurch and Dunedin.

Other potential bids

North Sydney Bears

After the Northern Eagles went defunct, the North Sydney Bears have continued to field teams in several grades of the NSW rugby league competitions, and were behind the failed Central Coast Bears bid. But as recently as April 2021 the Bears have expressed their intent on eventually returning the brand to the NRL competition. This could come in the form of a partnership with an existing NRL club or expansion bid, or as a relocation of the Bears identity – in 2018 they’d explored the possibility of establishing a ‘Western Bears’ franchise based in Perth.

Brisbane Jets

The Brisbane Jets consortium is a merger of the Brisbane Bombers and Western Corridor consortiums, drawing on the former’s commercial strength and the latter’s representation of a fast-growing region and uniting the two through their common aviation theme (The Western Corridor bid having been driven by Queensland Cup side Ipswich Jets. Before the merger, both bids had been seeking inclusion into the NRL for over ten years. The bid would be based in the Ipswich-West Brisbane area which is expecting a population boom in the coming years, and also tap into the nearby Logan and Toowoomba regions.

The Jets would play all home games at Suncorp Stadium, however the Ipswich City Council has proposed building a new stadium on the site of the North Ipswich Reserve in support of the bid, at a capacity of either 20,500 or 12,000.

Brisbane Firehawks

In March 2020, Queensland Cup team the Easts Tigers announced their intention to bid for inclusion into the NRL. On 3 June, they revealed the Brisbane Firehawks name which they would adopt for an NRL team in order to avoid a naming clash with the Wests Tigers. The bid wants to leverage off a north-south divide in Brisbane (with the Firehawks basing themselves south of the Brisbane River and the Broncos remaining north of it) and a Firehawks team would play all home games at Suncorp Stadium. The Tigers boast $80 million in assets and intend to redevelop their home ground of Langlands Park to become a suitable training base for a Firehawks team.

Perth

Since the Western Reds were not included in the NRL’s inaugural season, Perth is the largest Australian city without a team in the competition. Advocates for a Perth-based team have argued it is necessary for the NRL to consider itself a ‘truly national’ competition. The Reds name was revived in 2006 as the WA Reds, competing in the under-18s S.G. Ball Cup with the intention of eventually fielding an NRL side. The team rebranded as the West Coast Pirates in 2012. and continued competing in the S.G. Ball Cup until the COVID-19 pandemic prevented them from being able to compete from 2020 onwards.

In April 2021, ARLC commissioner Peter Beattie claimed that Western Australia was "years away" from having an NRL team. In May, former Reds chairman Laurie Puddy hit out at the NRL’s prioritisation of a second New Zealand team over a Perth team, calling it "immoral".

WA businessman Tony Sage, who owns A-League club Perth Glory, registered the name West Coast Quokkas in April 2021, as a potential name for a new NRL side in the state.

Papua New Guinea

See also: Papua New Guinea Hunters

In October 2008, a Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League NRL bid team was launched with government funding and support. An official website was launched in September 2009 detailing the progress of the PNG bid and its aim to provide social and economic benefits for the country as a whole. The Papua New Guinea Hunters, founded in 2014, have since joined the Queensland Cup and won the 2017 title.

In February 2021, PNG Prime Minister James Marape declared his hopes of an NRL side in the country by 2025.

Past bids

Other consortiums and clubs have expressed interest in launching an NRL team in past years. These bids have gone quiet more recently and are considered defunct.

Brothers Leprechauns

In April 2013, a bid was made to bring Brothers Leprechauns into the NRL, uniting and representing a large base revolving around over 40 Brothers clubs across three states. Bid founder Justin Barlow proposed to base a Brothers NRL team at Corbett Park in Brisbane’s northern suburbs and primarily play out of Suncorp Stadium. The team was also proposed to take a handful of home games each year to regional centres, and would be the pathway for junior rugby league players that come up through a club in the Brothers Confraternity.

The Brothers Confraternity made no expression of interest when the NRL declared its interest in introducing another Brisbane-based side in 2020.

Cairns-PNG

A joint bid representing the Far North Queensland city of Cairns and Papua New Guinea was suggested in 2018, though further details such as how a Cairns-PNG team would split home games were never revealed.

Central Queensland

Main article: Central Queensland NRL bid

In April 2009, a consortium from the Central Queensland region declared their intent to launch a bid for an NRL team to be based in Rockhampton. The bid aimed to be a new club by 2013.

South Pacific Cyclones

Following the failed Wellington Orcas bid, the Wellington Rugby League began been working on a proposal and business plan for a second New Zealand based team in 2008. They proposed a club that would be based in Wellington and divide their games between the New Zealand capital and other locations in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

See also

• Rugby Football League expansion