By Jeff Wall, Crikey’s rugby league writer


On Saturday night the Cronulla Sharks played the New Zealand Warriors in
a round nine NRL fixture. This match would ordinarily have attracted marginal coverage
and attention… but this game might have a more lasting impact on rugby
league than most games.

The match was played at Members Equity Stadium in PERTH and drew a very
respectable crowd of over 13,000.

It was another “experiment” by the NRL in testing the market place in
WA as there is no doubt the NRL has long-term plans to add a
Perth team to the NRL premiership. Sadly, the words “long term” might be an accurate reflection of the
position, as there is a clear priority being given to the Gold Coast team, and
maybe a Central Coast team based at Gosford.

The full story is on the site here.