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With the Storm and the Bears not getting on, and Melbourne cutting back on their partnership with the Norths Devils, the Storm have been in contact with the NSWRL about the possibility of a Melbourne team entering the NSWRL structure in the future.

Now the start I am lead to believe would be a side in Premier League, with the Storm then considering entering the junior league structures depending on whether the National Under 20's competition gets the nod or not.  If it doesn't, the Storm will consider Jersey Flegg and maybe even SG Ball and Harold Matthews.

Of course nothing has been signed yet, and any announcement would possibly not be finalised till after the regular season ends, but honestly as a Storm fan I hope this happens.

First off it allows the Storm to keep even more of their players in Melbourne, instead of fringe players being forced to train in Melbourne, then fly north to Sydney or Brisbane for their respective clubs. 

Next it gives a nice Curtain Raiser for the club's games, and hopefully setups a structure making it easier for any Victorian kids with talent to progress up the ranks.

NSWRL kicked out the NQ Young Guns because they wanna keep things in the family. Melbourne wouldn't be much of a welcome addition on that account.

Thunderstruck wrote: NSWRL kicked out the NQ Young Guns because they wanna keep things in the family. Melbourne wouldn't be much of a welcome addition on that account.

Im not sure where you got that information from, it was acctually the QRL kicked out the Young Guns from their State Cup, hence why they joint the NSWRL.  The NSWRL never kicked out the Cowboys team, they infact invited them to participate for the second season (despite complaints from some NSWRL teams) but the QRL changed their policy after their saw the Young Guns would find another way to play regardless of what policy they put forward.

Why didn't the QRL like the young guns? Just interested...

James wrote: Why didn't the QRL like the young guns? Just interested...

At the time the QRL were concerned that if the Cowboys entered a team into the competition, it would not only lead to a player drain from the other Queensland Cup sides but would also result in a situation where that particular team would dominate the competition.

They instead wanted the Cowboys to form partnerships with other existing Queensland Cup sides.  The problem with this, is they had already allowed the Broncos to pretty much invest most of their resources into the Clydesdales (though the Broncos claimed they were sharing resources between the different Queensland Cup sides by using Wests Panthers for their age group players)

So the Cowboys went to the NSWRL, offered to pay all airfares and so on for any team that had to travel north, as well as their own south, and played the majority of their games in NSW.

The QRL weren't silly, once they saw the Cowboys do this, they were always going to try and get them back into their fold.

What? The Young Guns went back to the QRL a few years ago because NSWRL wanted their competiton to be NSW (and ACT) only. At least that's what I read back then.

Thunderstruck wrote: What? The Young Guns went back to the QRL a few years ago because NSWRL wanted their competiton to be NSW (and ACT) only. At least that's what I read back then.

You'll find that view came from officials from Parramatta, the Roosters and North Sydney clubs and a lot of that view also was based around the fact Queensland has a semi-professional club competition.

Victoria doesn't have that, and Melbourne is a lot closer to Sydney than Townsville.

Would Melbourne be paying for opposition teams to fly to Melbourne?

Surely this would be far to expensive for the Storm? The costs of flying the Premier League team up to NSW every second week and then if they stayed overnight it would be more expensive.

if the NRL are serious about developing the game in Victoria they'll have to consider that option.

would it be more cost effective to base the team in sydney. they could be coached by a member of the Storm coaching team with the same style and team pattern as that used by the first team. any player that was being considered for the weeks first team could fly down to melbourne and would slip stright in to first team training as thet would know the calls and plays.
I suppose this would cause problems with storm 'home games at it would mean that the team would have to travel to melbourne if they where played here.

these games could be played in country Victoria in order to spread the RL gospel to the uninitiated

pommy storm wrote:these games could be played in country Victoria in order to spread the RL gospel to the uninitiated

That is a fantastic idea pommy storm.