Recliffe has emerged as the favourite to become the the NRL's second Brisbane team, according to a report by The Courier Mail.

It is understood that Redcliffe is the league's number one target in its search to expand the competition across Queensland.

Sources have even revealed that should one of the Sydney teams drop out of the league tomorrow, Redcliffe would be on standby to receive an NRL license.

ARL Commission chairman Peter Beattie declared that Redcliffe was in the box seat to join the competition.

“Clearly Redcliffe has got the skills (to run an NRL team),” Beattie told the Courier Mail.

“I wouldn’t be too specific because you need competent people to run the club.

“We don’t want to set up a club that runs into trouble.

“There has been interest in Ipswich (from previous NRL administrations), so you have to look at all areas.

“We have to look at the people running the club, what is their financial viability, what’s their business case, because this (a possible second Brisbane team) is not something we want to set up to fail.”

Redcliffe is currently the feeder club to the Broncos and recently received $4 million government funding for upgrades to their home ground Dolphin Stadium.

Redcliffe Dolphins chairman Bob Jones confirmed that the club would love to enter the NRL.

“There’s no doubt - we’d certainly be interested in having an NRL team,” Jones told the Courier Mail.

“We have previously had some discussions with the NRL about the requirements and what would be needed to play in the NRL.

“We have always kept things quiet which the NRL has appreciated. The Bombers and Ipswich have pushed like hell to make it happen but we’ve always felt it’s out of our hands, we can’t do anything about it.

“We believe we have the infrastructure to set up a good base but we still would have work to do and it’s pointless doing that work if it (expansion) is not going to happen.

“We could certainly sustain an NRL team. The Redcliffe brand in itself is a very strong brand, it’s been around for a long time and has great recognition with the people of Brisbane.

“If and when expansion happens, we’ll have our hat in the ring.”

5 COMMENTS

  1. Either team could work out with Redcliffe attracting people from the Sunshine coast that has a population of 350k people and is less than an hour to Redcliffe and take in Brisbane’s Northern Suburbs while Ipswich with 200k people could also attract all people living in Brisbane who grew up in Ipswich and western cities near by like Toowoomba with a population of 65k people and other surrounding northwestern towns within an hours drive of Ipswich.

    Personally I like the Redcliffe/ North Brisbane suburbs team. But at the end of the day I just want another Brisbane team to take the dominance away from a one team capital city football made town and even things up a bit for the 9 Sydney based teams.💪🐔👍🎱🎱🎱🎱🎱🎱🎱🎱🎱