NRL 2026

Not only him, his club has lost an elite player through alleged gross negligence.

He was concussed in warmup, allowed to play then twice more through the game, ending up with him in hospital having fluid drained from his brain.

"However, the NRL has since taken the extraordinary step of legislating 10-year bans for any player who defects to R360, while setting the same sanction for any accredited agent who brokers a move to the rebel league for their client."

https://www.espn.com.au/rugby/story/_/id/45759462/rugby-rebel-league-explained-everything-need-know-r360

One-way ticket. Is Izzie going?

What I tried to say Afros was that the factions in any club, but especially a joint venture the original entities need to get out of the way and let the new entity function.

The AFL have seemed to be able to work this out when the Swans came to Sydney but still used South Melbourne's base as support group for their Melbourne games, and then when Fitzroy became the Brisbane Lions again the Brisbane group embraced the Fitzroy supporters, club and home ground in Melbourne. I realise that they are not genuine joint venture's but still, the new teams have kept the former clubs supporters happy by embracing them into their framework of operations.

In the NRL everyone is so individualistic that they do not realise that if the sport loses supporters it is bad for everyone, and so when we get a joint venture the old nonsense keeps going and going and going and never ends.

Anyone who had anything to do with Balmain or Western Suburbs should not be allowed to hold a senior position, or board position in the joint venture, because they have agendas and agendas stop sports clubs from functioning correctly.

This latest investigation severely limits this clubs functions. V'Landys and his board have the say on who secures a license in the NRL and who does not and just because you have had one or have one now, they do not care about that, if your existence is bringing the sport down and costing revenue they will kick your ass out tomorrow.     

It's easy to say nobody with Wests or Balmain links should be involved in the running of the club but how do you make that happen while maintaining their identity?

It's hard to compare any of the NRL joint ventures with either the Brisbane Lions or Sydney Swans, both really happened just to keep the Melbourne entity alive, Fitzroy were going to go broke and Brisbane allowed the spirit of the club to stay alive, despite it not being in Melbourne this was most likely a much more popular arrangement with the fans than merging with North Melbourne.  Sydney were relocated rather than a merger so its only natural they need to acknowledge their roots.

The other two mergers in the NRL have gone down similar paths, St George Illawarra was basically just a take over by Illawarra from St George, the Northern Eagles was a joke with North Sydney chewed up and spat out by Arko and friends in a couple of years, this is the same problem with the Tigers now, Wests are the more powerful side of the merger as Manly also were and wish to do similar.

Again, that is easy to say but how do you make that happen?  It's easy to say nobody with Wests or Balmain links can join the board, I'd imagine much harder to find a board that is competent, wants to fill the role for the club and has no link to either side.

The best solution for the club is probably just to do as Northern Eagles did, de-merge and allow Wests to take the license fully, short term pain for long term gain.  Balmain can enter a stand alone side in the NSW Cup as Newtown, and North Sydney already do.

I get it'll upset the old Balmain stalwarts but they're not going to get Balmain back as they want, their dreams of playing at a renovated Leichhardt Oval aren't going to happen, the competition is no longer the Sydney suburban comp these old fellas remember fondly.

This would probably allow the club to shift its focus out to the MacArthur region, build a local identity out there similar to what Penrith have done in their area.