warren smith

An expansion to 18 teams was always on the cards, but to have that possibility being openly talked about by NRL CEO Andrew Abdo, just weeks into the first season of the Dolphins’ existence, tells you a lot about how bullish they are at HQ.

A move to 18 teams gives us an extra game per round which will improve the NRL’s revenue stream from a variety of angles, and the only hard decision to be made is where a new franchise should be based.

There’s a solid push at the moment for a Pasifika team to be included in the competition, with suggestions that it could be located in Port Moresby. I can only imagine the celebration that would follow in the rugby league-mad Papua New Guinea capital if that idea was given the green light!

Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett, along with QRL Chairman Bruce Hartcher, has already jumped onto the front foot and said if expansion is happening the only place for the NRL to consider is Ipswich, in the heart of the growing western corridor just a short drive from Brisbane.

The seven-time premiership winning coach makes a solid argument if the incredible response to the Dolphins is anything to go by, with more games each season in the footy obsessed South East Queensland region seeming like a sure-fire winner.

Not only that, but the supercoach himself could be the man to lead the new team into the competition, after he hands over the reins at the Dolphins to Kristian Woolf in a couple of years’ time.

The other possibility is taking elite rugby league back to the golden west, more than a quarter century after the game expanded to Perth in 1995.

It always felt like a massive opportunity lost when the Reds became the victim of a compromise between the ARL and Super League after the 1997 split season.

The good people at the West Australian Rugby League have been waiting patiently over the past 10-15 years for the day when their call for re-admittance to the NRL would be given the thumbs up, and with another former club, the Bears, looking for a way back also, it could be the perfect opportunity to establish an 18th team that already boasts a recognisable brand.

The Perth Bears – put me down for a vote that puts the ‘national’ in National Rugby League.