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Seems like an idea thought up by a Queenslander, and/or someone who hasn't learnt from mistakes made in the past. I reckon the NRL would merge with the NSWRL or fold all together within 2-3 years because this time you have the big Sydney clubs (Parramatta, South Sydney, Canterbury and Sydney City - maybe St. George and Penrith) all united unlike 1996/97.Clubs come and go. As much as people are born into supporting them, future generations would get as adapted and adopted into other new clubs or relocated clubs. Generational change. No one cries anymore for Fitzroy AR, or Glebe, Newtown, etc in RL.
The bigger picture, the long-term sustainability of a sport itself (not even the league itself), is key. Look at the Brisbane comps for instance, how it morphed over the decades, so many clubs died, merged, till we have the current QLD Cup now and the teams there.
If the Super League had won in the 90s, for instance, just wore down the ARL over time and there wasn't a healing process.....today there'd be a genuine national RL comp, and at some point expanded to include Townsville, NZ, Wollongong, Central Coast. Fans of the Knights would've eventually adopted the Mariners, or the new generation of kids would have, for instance.
Have always thought the best way to creating a national comp was creating new Sydney clubs and having all those famous old clubs still exist in the NSWRL sub-tier only, to keep their histories. The breaking away of, the division of Sydney clubs, is what the problem with SL was. If they instead created four new Sydney clubs (north south, east, west) and left the others to the ARL, and then over time SL got richer stronger corporate backing, RL imo would've eventually been as strong as AFL...especially if they invested money into grassroots along the way, not just broken away to cause damage and eventually fold.
I know my stance is very controversial, and harsh, but I do believe it would've worked better in shifting long-term the masses of RL fans over to an appreciation for it, and disenfranchised fans eventually coming back because the love of the sport overrides...new star players to enthuse over, new rivalries, new histories being forged.
Because the alternative path is what happens now in both AFL and NRL, where the leagues have to start trying to force clubs to merge and lose their identities, or to die out, or to relocate against their wishes. And that will only keep causing tension, dismay, and worse the loss of famous old clubs -- who'd be better of being preserved in a local sub-tier state comp feeder league.
The NRL heartland in Western Sydney will NEVER follow a "made up" team that is supposed to represent their area, they will stick with their traditional clubs of Parramatta, Penrith, Canterbury and the Tigers (actually I think that merger would break apart) their supporters all around Australia won't care about the "National League" they would support the NSWRL greatly reducing the profitability of the "National League". It wouldn't be too different in the other areas, especially in the inner city where the Rabbitohs/Roosters rivalry is almost more important than the league itself, to the supporters anyway.
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