- Ben Ikin underlined the western corridor of Brisbane
- Was a long -term rugby league heart
- The region has produced Allan Langer and Walters Brothers
- With PNG and Perth to come, would see 20 LNR clubs
The Heartland of Rugby League of Ipswich and its Western surroundings is mature for the LNR to insert a 20th team, the boss of Queensland Rugby League Ben Ikin insists.
The Australian Rugby League of Rugby League (ARLC) in principle agreed a revised proposal from the Government of Australia-Western for an LNR team in Perth in 2027 which will resuscitate, in an affiliation, the North Sydney Bears Foundation Club.
PNG will be the 19th team in 2028.
When the old offer of the Western corridor, now known as jets, was forged 18 years ago, the former LNR boss David Gallop, made a tour in the region and said that the game had to go “where the fish bite”.
The Rugby League Heartland produced the Brothers Walters, Allan Langer and further west of Shane Webcke, Steve Price and Darren Lockyer.
The jets, which should be based in Ipswich, but with an affiliation with Newtown Jets, have the support of QRL Boss Ikin as the next NRL franchise.
The boss of Queensland Rugby League Ben Ikin (photo on the left) called for a new expansion of the LNR, categorical, a 20th team should possibly be based in the western corridor of Brisbane
The Rugby League Heartland produced the Brothers Walters, Allan Langer (photo) and further west of Shane Webcke, Steve Price and Darren Lockyer
“(PNG) brings us to 19 teams, it is therefore logical that we reach 20 to fully achieve the opportunity for diffusion rights,” he said.
“Then you can have 10 games and perhaps the possibility of separating in conferences and doing good things with the draw.
“This region (Western Corridor) has a history of the rugby league so rich and from the point of view of the population is one of the fastest in the country, and it’s crazy about the rugby league.
“The AFL is there with an elite presence (at the attachment level of the Brisbane Lions in Springfield) and we are not.
“It is logical for me that once you have crossed the de franchises with a disfigenous logistics in PNG and Perth, you can potentially bolt and make team number 20 something that you can light very quickly.”
The boss of Queensland praised the return of a team based in Perth for the first time since 1997 and the return of the Bears for which he played in their last season in the LNR in 1999.
“Whoever loves the game and we are a lot, we want more people to love the game as we do,” he said.
“So taking the game we love on the other side of the country and give them another chance to see the best version of what we do in the LNR can only be good for the rugby league.
This comes after the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) accepted this week a revised proposal from the government of Western Australia for an LNR team in Perth in 2027 (illustrated on the left, president of ARLC, Peter V’landys)
“If the Super League has taught us something, it is because the story counts,” added Ikin.
“It cannot be made. The Bears survived for a long time at the upper end of the match and continued to exist without having the opportunity.
“It is a credit to all the people who kept it alive and to leave … and to see the story that all these good people believed in reappearance in the elite version of what we are doing is magnificent.”
The offer of jets based in Ipswich would also add the romantic notion of revitalization of the jets of the foundation club.
“Who doesn’t like romance in the rugby league?” Having this brand in the national elite competition would be special, ” said Ikin.
“In this Western region, you will actually drag in central Brisbane such as (Brisbane) Tigers, the Ipswich Jets like another Pathways club and the Western Clydesdales there in Towoomba.
“The road that connects the two most Western clubs of these clubs is called Darren Lockyer Way.
“If it doesn’t make sense from the point of view of the rugby league, I don’t know what’s going.”
