Plastic clubs in the NRL

[Mustafur]

Random drunk thought here lol but I thought I would make a thread on the teams propped up by the NRL when in reality they shouldn't exist or be questioned.

Of the total list of teams I'll put them in 3 categories, heartland clubs who have good support and or good local juniors, ones that are in the middle who have some of both, and others who have little support and or have no local juniors and are basically filled with mercenary players from elsewhere, I'll have them in order from what I know atleast(challenge me on it if you know more please).

Heartland clubs:

Broncos
Panthers
Eels
Knights
Cowboys
Bulldogs
Rabbitohs


Middle of the road:

Raiders
Dragons
Tigers
Sharks
Sea Eagles
Warriors

Plastic:

Titans
Storm
Roosters


Now to be fair to Titans they do have Juniors mainly because of SEQ being pure heartland of the sport, but the club has entirely plastic support which drops them down to the bottom category, because everyone knows Gold Coast is filled with people from other states and cities.

Warriors I think I might be a bit harsh, they have their support, but mostly in the normal season it's quite low and they have decent juniors but alot of the players they end of with went to Australia first then came back so it pegs them back a bit, Manly have really good fan support but due to the wealthy area they don't produce the best talent though that saying atleast half the starting squad did originate from the area so I'll give them that even though they moved their NSW cup side to Blacktown in the west because they where struggling.

Storm and Roosters are self explanatory, I think without Politis and Bellamy both clubs would likely not exist in 2022.

 

[Old Mate]

I think a little harsh on the raiders.

 

[Mustafur]

I think a little harsh on the raiders.

yeah probably, the fans have been alot better there recently in the last few years and they do have alot of local talent as well, but I think the clubs ahead of them are actually ahead of them in that regard, I was 50/50 of whether to but them in the top group but even still the middle groups status as a club shouldn't be questioned anyway.

like while Rabbitohs are an inner city team which you might argue isn't purely heartland Sydney wise, matraville high school is like one of the best schools in the country for Rugby league players coming through which is in their area, and their fans can't be questioned since they even beat us in memberships.

all the clubs ahead of them are full of local talent and have a solid fanbase.

 

[Allo]

I’m curious as to your reasoning, maybe when sobered up you may change your mind

….. but you could objectively argue that we are a plastic club.

Don’t get me wrong I love this club, but think about it:

we were founded as an entry into the NSW comp as a response to the Brisbane Bears, with no historical ties to any current or past Brisbane-area club, and are majority-owned by a world-destroying newspaper company.

Storm are an evil copy in an irrelevant location

Conversely, for all their issues with Politis and their sombrero, the Roosters are at least a foundation club from over 100 years ago

 

[Mustafur]

I’m curious as to your reasoning, maybe when sobered up you may change your mind

….. but you could objectively argue that we are a plastic club.

Don’t get me wrong I love this club, but think about it:

we were founded as an entry into the NSW comp as a response to the Brisbane Bears, with no historical ties to any current or past Brisbane-area club, and are majority-owned by a world-destroying newspaper company.

Storm are an evil copy in an irrelevant location

Conversely, for all their issues with Politis and their sombrero, the Roosters are at least a foundation club from over 100 years ago

We where founded because NSW won the battle of the two states league systems due to Pokie rules that banned them in Qld at the time, and made the leagues clubs in NSW all richer so they could take all our players.

The foundations of our club have solid basis, not only that we have the largest area of heartland league players to pick from and by far the largest fanbase, our status as number 1 is not questioned, we are number 1 in both areas.

Take leagues clubs and rich owners propping up the clubs out the equation and we are soo big we could make 3-4 clubs that could be at NRL standard atleast.

Roosters are a foundation club yes, but as someone who lives in Sydney I know the area they represent has long abandoned league, it's reflected in the crowd numbers who keep in mind are already inflated because of good performances but the area of Sydney is entirely Union favoured, even you could argue like AFL more(it's a strange area filled with alot of people from other states who made it big kind of like gold coast but on steroids, because it's the richest area of Australia).

 

[pennywisealfie]

I’m curious as to your reasoning, maybe when sobered up you may change your mind

….. but you could objectively argue that we are a plastic club.

Don’t get me wrong I love this club, but think about it:

we were founded as an entry into the NSW comp as a response to the Brisbane Bears, with no historical ties to any current or past Brisbane-area club, and are majority-owned by a world-destroying newspaper company.

Agreed. We are super plastic. Of course, as big fans of the club on here, we don't represent the plastic side. But there's a massive element of plastic to this club.

At least half of our fans care more about the Origin team than they do about the Broncos.

Not to mention that whole bequest shit that was/probably still is on the website.

 

[Xzei]

Thought the vermin pumped their membership numbers by selling pet memberships

 

[Mustafur]

Agreed. We are super plastic. Of course, as big fans of the club on here, we don't represent the plastic side. But there's a massive element of plastic to this club.

At least half of our fans care more about the Origin team than they do about the Broncos.

Not to mention that whole bequest shit that was/probably still is on the website.

anyone who thinks Broncos are plastic just need to look at crowd averages and the amount of players on average we produce in rep sides since we where founded to know that's total bullshit, we are number 1.

This isn't just a Broncos fans perspective most in the know know this, Gus for example has said many times we are the most important club for the game in the country, coming from the guy who basically made the current Panthers to what they are now who are filled with local juniors and are based in the heartland of Rugby league in Sydney.

 

[Mustafur]

Thought the vermin pumped their membership numbers by selling pet memberships

No idea, but even though they play mostly in the worst stadium in the country(homebush) they are the 3rd in crowd average of Sydney teams.

if they rebuild Redfern oval to be like Parra stadium I think they beat both Parra and Penrith in attendance, just they would lose to them in juniors because those two are the best in Sydney by a country mile, everyone knows the Penrith and Parra junior competitions demolish the rest of Sydney(as someone who played in the Parra comp in my late teens in the late 2000s the rest of sydney is soft as ****).

 

[Allo]

We where founded because NSW won the battle of the two states league systems due to Pokie rules that banned them in Qld at the time, and made the leagues clubs in NSW all richer so they could take all our players.

The foundations of our club have solid basis, not only that we have the largest area of heartland league players to pick from and by far the largest fanbase, our status as number 1 is not questioned, we are number 1 in both areas.

Take leagues clubs and rich owners propping up the clubs out the equation and we are soo big we could make 3-4 clubs that could be at NRL standard atleast.

Roosters are a foundation club yes, but as someone who lives in Sydney I know the area they represent has long abandoned league, it's reflected in the crowd numbers who keep in mind are already inflated because of good performances but the area of Sydney is entirely Union favoured, even you could argue like AFL more(it's a strange area filled with alot of people from other states who made it big kind of like gold coast but on steroids, because it's the richest area of Australia).

Yes because the area east of the M1 south of the bridge until the airport is a comparable area and population to at least the entire southern half of Queensland

I think your definitions mean different things to some people:

a club like the Titans, absolutely plastic, especially considering it’s the Gold Coast

The Roosters, imo, not plastic. Should they still have a club? Probably not. Are they propped up by the NRL? Likely and in different ways. But I don’t see them as plastic, rather just a relic that will never (be allowed to) die

 

[Mustafur]

Yes because the area east of the M1 south of the bridge until the airport is a comparable area and population to at least the entire southern half of Queensland

I think your definitions mean different things to some people:

a club like the Titans, absolutely plastic, especially considering it’s the Gold Coast

The Roosters, imo, not plastic. Should they still have a club? Probably not. Are they propped up by the NRL? Likely and in different ways. But I don’t see them as plastic, rather just a relic that will never (be allowed to) die

I don't get your point, Titans and Roosters are plastic, even with Roosters long history take away the performances propped up by Politis it will be a NSW cup side like Newtown and Bears at best.

if your trying to argue Broncos are plastic I'm sorry your brain isn't working, Newcastle who have half our support and probably 1/4th our junior production started at the same time, you going to say they are plastic as well?

 

[Lockysillegitimatechild]

I agree with the thoughts in this thread but I think the term "plastic" is probably wrong....

For me all of those clubs are soulless. Take away 1 or 2 outside elements, and despite all their history they would vanish. Roosters are almost completely dependent on politis, storm are completely dependent on winning and the nrl turning a blind eye to any way they achieve, and the titans on the nrl wanting to save face by not getting rid of them and the Rozelle money..


It's interesting that all the above clubs have private, very, very rich owners and seem to get away with a little bit to help them succeed. I'm sure politis, Tripp and co would play by the book though and not use their millions/billions outside of the nrl rule book (which are not actual laws and would carry no risk whatsoever to them) to make more money due to having a winning club. Sure they could lose a game of golf, sell some houses cheaper, help the nrl out to "help the game", sell some cheap cars, lose some bets via their betting company etc etc etc etc etc etc etc and the nrl would "coincidentally" look on them kindly but I'm SURE this doesn't happen... idiots, honestly

 

[Foordy]

maybe a bit harsh on the Tigers.

from what i know they have a decent junior base and high support.

I heard on the radio they have 20k members ... that's despite not making the finals for a decade.

sure they've been poor on the field, but that is due to poor recruitment and useless management

 

[Galah]

maybe a bit harsh on the Tigers.

from what i know they have a decent junior base and high support.

I heard on the radio they have 20k members ... that's despite not making the finals for a decade.

sure they've been poor on the field, but that is due to poor recruitment and useless management

Also getting pillaged from other clubs.

 

[Nashy]

maybe a bit harsh on the Tigers.

from what i know they have a decent junior base and high support.

I heard on the radio they have 20k members ... that's despite not making the finals for a decade.

sure they've been poor on the field, but that is due to poor recruitment and useless management

If your main product has failed for over a decade, you deserve to be the lowest form.

 

[Battler]

The warriors are insanely popular in Nz, especially when you consider how terrible they’ve been lately. They also produce a lot of talent, the best of which is poached by the storm and rorters ofc.

 

[Mustafur]

maybe a bit harsh on the Tigers.

from what i know they have a decent junior base and high support.

I heard on the radio they have 20k members ... that's despite not making the finals for a decade.

sure they've been poor on the field, but that is due to poor recruitment and useless management

Mostly because of the juniors coming from Campbelltown area, the same area that doesn't really turn up to watch them when they play there.

 

[Big Pete]

Doesn't plastic refer to the supporter base and it's just a more offensive way of calling them bandwagoners?

I don't think it really works in the NRL because the game doesn't attract anywhere near the audience of the NFL or Football so the drop-offs aren't anywhere near as big.

If we're talking about local juniors, Brisbane has about three players from their own city - Carrigan, Walters and Quai-Ward so I don't understand why fans on here would want to get on their high horse.