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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine

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Speaker 1: from Newstalk ZB.

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Speaker 2: In the meantime, a third bidder has emerged in the

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Speaker 2: quest to win an Narl for christ Church, as expansion

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Speaker 2: from seventeen to twenty teams remains very much a live conversation.

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Speaker 2: During the week, the Southern Orca publicly unveiled a proposal

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Speaker 2: to play out of the new te Kaha Stadium. It

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Speaker 2: claims to have sixty million dollars in funding from South

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Speaker 2: Island based private investors and is looking to establish a

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Speaker 2: twenty hectare one hundred million dollars Center of Excellence at

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Speaker 2: Rolston with seven training fields, gymnasiums and medical facilities. Now

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Speaker 2: it's the third group in christ Church to express interest.

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Speaker 2: The South Island NRL bid team was the first that

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Speaker 2: included a number of long time Canterbury Rugby League personnel,

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Speaker 2: including respected former Kewis coach Frank Endicott. Then there was

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Speaker 2: the South Island keya bid driven by former NRL New

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Speaker 2: Zealand Rugby and Welsh Rugby Union chief executive David Moffatt,

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Speaker 2: and now there's the third one. All three seem keen

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Speaker 2: to push ahead with their own proposals despite apparent ambivalence

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Speaker 2: from the NRL, and from what I can understand, and

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Speaker 2: we might need to find out a bit more about this,

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Speaker 2: there doesn't seem to be any great desire to work together.

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Speaker 2: In fact, in some quarters there seems to be a

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Speaker 2: distinct reluctance to do that. Anyway we can get to that.

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Speaker 2: Let's bring in regular contributed Weekend Sport long time and

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Speaker 2: respected rugby leg journalist Brad Walter to give us a

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Speaker 2: view from the other side of the Tasman on this brand.

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Speaker 2: Let's start there. What is the appetite at the NRL

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Speaker 2: for a sk in New Zealand side in any plans

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Speaker 2: for an expanded competition.

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Speaker 3: Oh, look, I think it's pretty strong. I think there's

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Speaker 3: no doubt that well, there is no doubt that Pappi,

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Speaker 3: your guinea he's looking good, you know, is pretty much

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Speaker 3: over the line. Then, so that would be an eighteenth team. Uh.

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Speaker 3: And there's obviously been a lot of talk about Western

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Speaker 3: Australia as well, so ensuring that it's the right model

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Speaker 3: and the right proposal in Western Australia, I think there's

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Speaker 3: a there's a rule. There is clearly an appetite for

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Speaker 3: that to happen as well. You've just got to look

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Speaker 3: at the public comments that have been made around that

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Speaker 3: and then, you know, a second New Zealand team. I

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Speaker 3: think it's something that the NRL has been eyeing off

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Speaker 3: for some time, as you know. But again, it's got

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Speaker 3: to it's gotta it's got to add up, it's got

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Speaker 3: to stack up. It's got to be financial, and it's

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Speaker 3: got to ensure that there's going to be more players,

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Speaker 3: you know, more junior pathways and more players coming into

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Speaker 3: the game. As well as being a sound financial model,

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Speaker 3: it's got to grow the game in a new market

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Speaker 3: or in a in a you know, add to add

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Speaker 3: to what we already have in New Zealand. The game

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Speaker 3: has with through the Warriors. The time zones obviously are great.

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Speaker 3: To have a second New Zealand team, I think, you know,

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Speaker 3: if we had another New Zealand team, so we had

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Speaker 3: two teams in New Zealand, we'd basically could you know,

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Speaker 3: and I'm just hypothesizing here, we're gonna have a team

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Speaker 3: playing a you know, a home game in New Zealand

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Speaker 3: every week. The derby fixture would be sensational. And if

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Speaker 3: we had a team in Perth. Then we've got that

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Speaker 3: those those time zones where in the winter New Zealand's

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Speaker 3: two hours ahead of Sydney and the East Coast of

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Speaker 3: Australia and Western Australia is two hours behind. So that

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Speaker 3: enables us to have a bigger spread of time zones

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Speaker 3: and kickoff times et cetera, et cetera, to fill the

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Speaker 3: time slots. So I think, yeah, look, I think there's

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Speaker 3: definitely an appetite for a second New Zealand team. It's

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Speaker 3: fantastic that there's three bids in christ Church, so that

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Speaker 3: that would suggest that the people that are behind it

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Speaker 3: think that christ Church is viable and is the place

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Speaker 3: to have a team. But you know, but I would

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Speaker 3: also be concerned that there are three bids. Imagine at

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Speaker 3: some stages they've got to come together or some have

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Speaker 3: got to pull out, because it sort of seems weird

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Speaker 3: to have from just from an outsider looking in, not

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Speaker 3: knowing the finances or not knowing that all the details

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Speaker 3: of those bids, it just sort of seems a little

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Speaker 3: bit weird to have three bids in the one city,

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Speaker 3: effectively competing for each other. But also a lot of

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Speaker 3: what they bring is the same. They're all going to

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Speaker 3: play at the same stadium, they're all going to have

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Speaker 3: imagine a high performance center of some sort, or you know,

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Speaker 3: they're basically attracting competing and you know they'll be whoever

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Speaker 3: gets the license, it's the same set of fans, it's

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Speaker 3: the same you know, it's the same players, local players

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Speaker 3: that they'll be they'll be trying to attract us, so

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Speaker 3: they'll be playing at the same venue. So what sets

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Speaker 3: those bids apart or you know, or they come together

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Speaker 3: and combine into hopefully a super bid. I think that's

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Speaker 3: the key. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Oh look, I could not agree more. Brad, and we

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Speaker 2: at a exactly the right word to use, because yeah,

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Speaker 2: when three are competing in such a small market for

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Speaker 2: what will be one franchise, Yeah, it just seems so

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Speaker 2: obvious that they should be getting together. Anyway we can,

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Speaker 2: we can leave that further down the track. Just in

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Speaker 2: terms of time frame. You talked about the Perth Bears,

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Speaker 2: you talked about Pop on New Guinea as teams eighteen

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Speaker 2: and nineteen. What's the timeframe we're talking about here, mate?

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Speaker 2: Who would be in first? When would that happen? Would

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Speaker 2: they coming together? Teams eighteen and nineteen. What's the time

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Speaker 2: frame you're hearing.

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Speaker 3: Oh, look, I'm not one hundred percent sure, but the

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Speaker 3: you know, think twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight is

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Speaker 3: the is the time frame that's been looked at because

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Speaker 3: of the broadcast deal. Broadcast deals up in twenty twenty eight,

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Speaker 3: so that's when they'd be talking to broadcasts about what

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Speaker 3: the season structure would look like, the number of teams,

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Speaker 3: all of those things would all be part of the

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Speaker 3: next broadcast deal, whether all the teams come in. Look,

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Speaker 3: I don't know. I'm not pretvy to the plans, and

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Speaker 3: I don't know whether until until the bids are until

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Speaker 3: until there's enough you know, the bid. The bids were rejected.

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Speaker 3: So I think that needs to be out there on

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Speaker 3: the table that the n r L or the a

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Speaker 3: r L C, the a r L Commission rejected eight

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Speaker 3: bids for the only one that's basically that his go

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Speaker 3: or is go to proceed to the next level is

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Speaker 3: Puppy New Guinea. And that's really why the the Graham

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Speaker 3: Low Andrew Charmer's bid that was announced a few days

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Speaker 3: ago in Sydney. The reason they went public is because

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Speaker 3: they've been you know they've been operating behind the scenes.

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Speaker 3: They hadn't been publicly known, but they were one of

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Speaker 3: three bidders that that submitted to the n r L

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Speaker 3: or the a r l C and were rejected, along

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Speaker 3: with Perth and some bids in Queensland as well. So

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Speaker 3: the so the time frame that's going to depend on

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Speaker 3: the bids and how good the bids are. For one,

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Speaker 3: when they're ready to go. I know that the latest

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Speaker 3: bid the Southern Orcas. I think they said they could

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Speaker 3: go in twenty twenty six if they had to. I

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Speaker 3: don't think anyone's really looking for a team to come

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Speaker 3: in that soon, and I think to get to twenty teams,

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Speaker 3: the timeframe that's been mentioned is twenty teams by twenty

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Speaker 3: thirty two, when the Brisbane Olympics are on to coincide

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Speaker 3: with the Brisbane Olympics. For reasons I'm not one hundred

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Speaker 3: percent sure of why, you know what the link there is,

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Speaker 3: but yeah, i'd imagine I said TV earl in twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty eight, so we'd be looking at, you know, teams

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Speaker 3: starting to come in from maybe twenty twenty seven onwards.

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Speaker 3: I doubt that three teams would come in all at once.

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Speaker 3: You know, we haven't had expansion on this level since

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Speaker 3: nineteen ninety five, so it's hard to know. You know,

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Speaker 3: look just a part of history of expansion, we had

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Speaker 3: the Canber Raiders and the Alora Steelers came back into

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Speaker 3: early came in in the early eighties together, and then

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Speaker 3: we had the in nineteen eighty eight, we had the Broncos,

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Speaker 3: the Newcastle Knights and the Gold Coast Giants as they

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Speaker 3: were called back then, came in that year. Then we

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Speaker 3: had expansion in nineteen ninety five when we brought in

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Speaker 3: the Auckland Warriors, the Perth or the Western Reds, North

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Speaker 3: Queensland Cowboys and the South Queensland Crushes which were who

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Speaker 3: were based in Brisbane. And then there was no expansion.

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Speaker 3: It was contraction and then until the Gold Coast Titans

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Speaker 3: came in in two thousand and seven. The Melbourne Storm

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Speaker 3: did come in at the end of the Super leagu

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Speaker 3: War in ninety nine, Gold Coast Titans in two thousand

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Speaker 3: and seven, and then nothing until Dolphins last year. So

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Speaker 3: it's a bit you know, like this, I don't know

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Speaker 3: what the perfect model is how we'd all roll, but

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Speaker 3: there's definitely an appetite for expansion. And the fantastic thing

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Speaker 3: is that there are bids and teams that want to

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Speaker 3: join the NRL now right across Australia and in New

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Speaker 3: Zealand in the South Island. So yeah, I think it's just,

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Speaker 3: you know, a lot of work needs to be done

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Speaker 3: to make sure that those bids are up to scratch

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Speaker 3: and also that it's going to be viable and sustainable

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Speaker 3: for the competition.

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Speaker 2: So just on the fact that the bids, all of

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Speaker 2: them pretty much apart from the Papua New Guinea one,

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Speaker 2: were rejected when they were submitted, Brad, that doesn't mean

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Speaker 2: that that doesn't equate to ambivalence or if we just

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Speaker 2: go specifically with the New Zealand bid, that's not the

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Speaker 2: NRL saying we don't want another team in New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: It's just them saying this hasn't ticked all of our boxes.

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Speaker 2: Is that a fair assessment?

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Speaker 3: Correct? There? One hundred percent? It's then basically saying we

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Speaker 3: want a better a better bed. I suppose it's stronger bed,

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Speaker 3: you know, Yeah, that's right. We're not happy with We're

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Speaker 3: not satisfied with everything that was submitted. And basically, if

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Speaker 3: you still want to if he's still keen and if

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Speaker 3: you think you can submit a better bed, well then

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Speaker 3: obviously there's the opportunity to do so, I don't I think,

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Speaker 3: you know, from what I've heard from the various bid

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Speaker 3: teams that the ones that have gone public, they they

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Speaker 3: don't exactly know, you know what's you know why they

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Speaker 3: haven't received feedback individually on why each bid, you know,

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Speaker 3: on the specific details of maybe you know, why Bid

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Speaker 3: X didn't you know, didn't didn't tick all the boxes

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Speaker 3: or whatever. So that's obviously for them to work out,

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Speaker 3: you know, and they've got to try and figure out exactly,

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Speaker 3: you know what, what the NRL wants. But yeah, I

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Speaker 3: think it's it's they said it's great that there's three

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Speaker 3: bids in christ Church. I think that probably does confirm

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Speaker 3: confirms to me in my mind that there are a

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Speaker 3: lot of people who think christ Church is the place,

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Speaker 3: because I would reckon that if you look at New Zealand,

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Speaker 3: you know, and the idea of a second team, it's

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Speaker 3: always but the question has always been but where would

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Speaker 3: you base it? So that certainly see sounds like a

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Speaker 3: lot of people have come to the conclusion that christ

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Speaker 3: Church is the place. So that's I think that's good

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Speaker 3: for for christ Church. I think that's good for the

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Speaker 3: likelihood that at some stage is going to be a

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Speaker 3: team there, you know, and we're obviously getting we're adging

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Speaker 3: closer to that and we're really talking about it publicly now.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and you're dead right. I mean, Christ's just that

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Speaker 2: is the obvious place. New stadium coming, good league fraternity,

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Speaker 2: good crowds for a recent international matches. Just don't pop

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Speaker 2: on your Guinea bread. What's the attraction of an NRL

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Speaker 2: franchise based in PNNG for the.

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Speaker 3: NRL, Well, a number of things. First of all, Papi

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Speaker 3: New Guinea, as we all know, is rugby league man.

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Speaker 3: It's got a population of twelve million plus rugby leagues

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Speaker 3: and national sport. There's a lot of playing talent. Be

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Speaker 3: It's probably never been the pathways have probably never been

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Speaker 3: structured like they are in Australia and New Zealand. But

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Speaker 3: that's that sort of work is happening now. There's like

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Speaker 3: incredibly strong support from both Australia and the puppy in

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Speaker 3: New Guinea government, so there's a lot of you know,

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Speaker 3: there's a lot of money there as well, but there's

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Speaker 3: a lot of money in Pappy in New Guinea, regardless

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Speaker 3: of government funding. That said, there's a lot of playing

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Speaker 3: talent that will help or fill more teams, because that's

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Speaker 3: what that's one of the questions that's always asked if

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Speaker 3: you bring in another team, is there enough talent? Well,

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Speaker 3: Pappy New Guinea's going to supply a lot of talent

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Speaker 3: and it's fairly untapped in terms of at NRL level.

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Speaker 3: But we're seeing with the performances of the Kummels in

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Speaker 3: the in the in the Pacific Championships that we're seeing

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Speaker 3: how much talent there is there. And basically hardly any

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Speaker 3: of those players play in the NRL, so that they

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Speaker 3: look like they're in NRL already, and that's just I

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Speaker 3: think the tip of the iceberg. So so you know,

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Speaker 3: I think they're probably the main things. And obviously you

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Speaker 3: know what's in it for the government. I suppose you

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Speaker 3: could say, why do they want to invest so much money?

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Speaker 3: And it's it's common knowledge, well publicized. Australian government's putting

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Speaker 3: in six hundred million dollars. Pappy in a Guinea government

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Speaker 3: will be you know, will be investing as well to

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Speaker 3: get to get it started. It's it's it's you know,

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Speaker 3: a lot of it's around you know, the Pacific and

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Speaker 3: the battle with China or the influence of China and

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Speaker 3: the Pacific and how do we counter that. So I've

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Speaker 3: just been to Fiji. There's no doubt for the for

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Speaker 3: the Pacific Championships, there's no doubt. It's really obvious there

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Speaker 3: that the influence of China is trying to have and

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Speaker 3: that's it's all around the Pacific. So you know, the

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Speaker 3: Australian government and other governments, New Zealand government, US government,

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Speaker 3: et cetera. They're they're trying to sort of counter that

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Speaker 3: influence and rugby league in Puppy New Guinea is what

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Speaker 3: is one way to do that? That's but that's one reason.

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Speaker 3: But you know, from a rugby league point of view,

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Speaker 3: it said, it's Austraight's closest neighbor. It's it's got untapped

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Speaker 3: rugby league resources. Though fanatical about it, it's a new audience,

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Speaker 3: it's a new the playing pathways, the potential of the

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Speaker 3: playing pathways are incredible. And yeah, there's a you know,

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Speaker 3: really really strong relationship between Australia and Puppy New Guinea

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Speaker 3: which would be massively massively strengthened. And I think also

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Speaker 3: from you know, from a point of view of the game,

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Speaker 3: and also you know, the government too. It's a way

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Speaker 3: of improving the quality, the standard of living, the quality

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Speaker 3: of life, encouraging kids to go to school, getting people

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Speaker 3: better educated, all of those things through the power of

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Speaker 3: sport and rugby leagues King and Pappi New Guinea. So yeah,

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Speaker 3: so there's a there's a lot of reasons you know

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Speaker 3: that go right across the board, from pure football down

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Speaker 3: to you know, influence of China and the Pacific or

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Speaker 3: countering that to try to lift and raise the standards

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Speaker 3: and also the you know, from financial point of view

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Speaker 3: as well.

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Speaker 2: All right, so let's say they're run let's eighteen. Let's

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Speaker 2: say Perth get across the line too, that's nineteen. If

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Speaker 2: we get to Twin Dy, who would be the other

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Speaker 2: rival the main rivals to christ Church for that twentieth side.

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Speaker 3: Okay, so I think so the teams that missed out,

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Speaker 3: the bids that missed out when the Dolphins came in

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Speaker 3: are still around. The Brisbane Tigers, who are massive they

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Speaker 3: like the Dolphins, you know, the established club being around

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Speaker 3: for a long time, successful with the big league club,

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Speaker 3: a lot of money behind them. And then you've got

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Speaker 3: the Ipswich Jets who have teamed up with the Newtown Jets.

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Speaker 3: But basically it's a team in the southeast corridor of

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Speaker 3: Queensland and or the Southwest corridor, sorry in down in

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Speaker 3: southern southern Queensland there and it's a massively growing area.

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Speaker 3: It's got lots of It's sort of like the Penrith

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Speaker 3: of Brisbane. I suppose you would say, look our successful

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Speaker 3: Penrothies and also like you know, there's a battle going

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Speaker 3: on with AFL for I suppose you know the talent

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Speaker 3: and the fans and the population of those areas, so

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Speaker 3: you know, so that's that's that's one of the things

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Speaker 3: that that area offers. So I think they are the

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Speaker 3: two main ones. There may be some others, but and

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Speaker 3: those two bids were competing with Dolphins before the Dolphins

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Speaker 3: came in. Both as said, they're both both strong, strong bids,

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Speaker 3: established clubs playing the Queensland Cup competition. Bristoane Tigers, especially

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Speaker 3: East Tigers, been around for a long time, have great facilities.

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Speaker 3: That's where a lot of the nl W games have

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Speaker 3: then played this year at their stadium. We totally work

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Speaker 3: where stadium, so it's you know, small boutique stadium that

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Speaker 3: they have in Brisbane. So yeah, there's there's strong bids

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Speaker 3: that I think, you know, the game just expanded and

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Speaker 3: brought in a second a second Queensland team or second

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Speaker 3: Brisbane team, So you know, I think I don't know

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Speaker 3: like that sort of stuff for me to decide. I

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Speaker 3: don't know that the details of any of those bids whatsoever,

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Speaker 3: but there obviously is there are some, there is support

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Speaker 3: there and there is a lot of interest in christ Church.

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Speaker 2: Great stuff. Brad Well, nothing would please me more than

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Speaker 2: hosting you at the new christ Church Stadium at some

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Speaker 2: stage in the next few years to watch to watch

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Speaker 2: a game between a christ Church side and another NRL side.

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Speaker 2: Really I appreciate your wrapping.

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Speaker 3: So I'll just say this, the Southern orchest versus the Warriors,

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Speaker 3: how big was the first very first game. Sorry, if

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Speaker 3: it is the Southern august A christ Church team, you know,

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Speaker 3: whether that's the KIA or whether it's the other bid

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Speaker 3: that hopefully they can sort it out and get the

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Speaker 3: strongest possible bid as christ Church team or a South

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Speaker 3: Island team versus the Warriors, that would be I reckon

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Speaker 3: that would rival that very first game when the Warriors

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Speaker 3: played the Brisbane Broncost in nineteen ninety five.

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Speaker 2: Totally agree, Brad. Again, great to get your analysis, Thanks

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Speaker 2: for joining us across New Zealand's.

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Speaker 3: As always, no pleasure to speak to you soon.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look forward to that, Brad. Thanks indeed, Brad Walter

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Speaker 2: wrapping a lot of context and detail around that for us.

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