Queensland footy boss demands a Sydney NRL team be KILLED OFF and relocated to Perth

Queensland Rugby League chairman Bruce Hatcher has called for a Sydney NRL team to be uprooted and relocated to Perth in the wake of the raging success of the competition’s first Battle of Brisbane between the Broncos and newly formed Dolphins on Friday night.

The clash attracted a crowd of 51,047 Suncorp Stadium – a record for a stand-alone club game – and came shortly after the sport’s powerbrokers discussed the possibility of running a 20-team competition at February’s annual general meeting of clubs.

Earlier this month Australian Rugby League chairman Peter V’landys indicated a Pacific team could be added as the 18th team, despite Perth being promoted as a good fit for an extra club for several years.

Queensland Rugby League chairman Bruce Hatcher (right, with Kevin Walters, middle, and Gen Miles) believes Sydney has too many teams and one needs to be uprooted to Perth

Hatcher is keen to see a team emerge in Western Australia and has a radical plan to make it happen.

‘The best way to give Perth an identity in the NRL is to straddle two markets with a history starting out of Sydney,’ he told the Daily Telegraph.

‘There are too many teams in Sydney, but if you take one team out of Sydney and move it to Perth, we will have a better-balanced competition with a national footprint.

‘I’m not going to name which team should go. I will leave that to the ARL Commission … if you include a fifth Queensland team, that’s an 18-team competition.’

Hatcher added that the AFL had made similar moves by relocating South Melbourne to Sydney to create the Swans, and shifting Fitzroy north to establish the Brisbane Lions.

The Dolphins and Broncos drew a crowd of 51,047 to Suncorp Stadium on Friday night (pictured) – a record for a stand-alone club game at the ground. Hatcher believes Queensland can accommodate a fifth NRL team

Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett noted that while established clubs didn’t want his side added to the NRL, the results have been fantastic – and he believes current teams don’t want to see any newcomers ‘because they are selfish’.

If the league decides to bring an extra team into the league in 2025, an announcement will have to be made this year.

A second New Zealand team is also another an option along with the Queensland bid teams who missed out on expansion in 2023.

But on March 11 V’landys gave the strongest indication yet a long-heralded Pacific team could be the frontrunner to fill the spot.

Australian Rugby League Commission boss Peter V’landys (pictured) is also looking at a Papua New Guinea-based Pasifika expansion team

The move has been significantly backed by the Australian government, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese raising the issue in Papua New Guinea parliament in January.

Deputy PM Richard Marles also told media in Port Moresby last year ‘now is the time’ for an NRL side, with a desire to strengthen links with Australia in the region.

V’landys said if the next expansion option was to be the Papua New Guinea-Pasifika bid, they would likely enter the competition in 2025.

‘The Federal Government are very keen for us to look at the Papua New Guinea/Pasifika solution, where there would be a PNG team with all the Pacific nations.’