{"id":118287,"date":"2021-08-23T10:40:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T10:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=118287"},"modified":"2021-08-23T14:57:34","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T14:57:34","slug":"slater-picks-out-the-big-problem-with-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=118287","title":{"rendered":"Slater picks out 'the big problem' with expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Storm legend Billy Slater<\/a> has warned the NRL that while he has no problem with the competition expanding, talent development must be addressed before a 17th franchise enters the league.<\/p>\n

The three teams competing to become the next expansion club – Brisbane Jets, Brisbane Firehawks and Redcliffe Dolphins – today addressed the commission, putting forward their final bids to be granted NRL licenses.<\/p>\n

It's understood the NRL has targetted 2023-2024 for the next franchise to officially be part of the competition.<\/p>\n

Slater said he hoped Redcliffe are handed the honour, but he believes the NRL has a lot of work in front of it before a team can join the league.<\/p>\n

The former Kangaroos and Maroons fullback fears the lack of reserve-grade competition, which has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>, will impact the "talent pool" coming through.<\/p>\n

\"Billy<\/p>\n

"I'm not against expansion and if I had to pick one of those teams, and I don't know a whole lot about them, but I know Redcliffe are an established, organised outfit already," he told 2GB's Wide World of Sports<\/em>' radio.<\/p>\n

"They've got a big leagues club and they're financially stable. They've already taken a few NRL games over to Redcliffe over the last couple of weeks. If I'm going to pick one I would push for them.<\/p>\n

"The big problem needs to be addressed in terms of developing our talent. Now, we haven't had any reserve-grade football over the last two seasons, so that's certainly going to contribute to the talent pool and how it's being developed.<\/p>\n

"You have a look at some of these teams on the bottom of the ladder: the Broncos, Cowboys, Bulldogs and the Tigers. You take three of the best players out of those teams, well you're going to weaken the competition, as well.<\/p>\n

"I'm not against expansion, but the NRL needs to address this, the development of our talent, and bring those weaker clubs up. This is only going to dilute it."<\/p>\n

\"Fittler<\/p>\n

Slater says it's vital the NRL doesn't rely on time to solve the issues to players coming through, rather they put the "effort into development" now.<\/p>\n

"Time is the thing that's not going to address these problems; it's focus and energy into those areas that is to going to address these problems," he added.<\/p>\n

"If we just say, 'Let's wait another 12 months and the talent will come through' … You've got to put time and effort into development.<\/p>\n

"You've got to put time and effort into players coming through, bringing them up to NRL standard, so that when they do take to the field, they're at that NRL quality.<\/p>\n

"There are a number of players playing in the NRL that aren't there yet, so if we're going to put another 30 players on a list, they're going to have to come from somewhere and they're going to come from the current NRL clubs."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Storm legend Billy Slater has warned the NRL that while he has no problem with the competition expanding, talent development must be addressed before […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118287"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118290,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118287\/revisions\/118290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}