17 clubs in the entire state of Victoria.Fred wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 5:57 pmHow many actual clubs are there. Years ago there were about 13 or 14 across the whole state (although maybe some border ones?). Makes it hard to play if you’re travelling across the country side to play. There are or was large regions without a rl team such as Gippsland. Had this changed? Comparing that the to spread of AFL across the country shows there’s a long way for rl to go I think.
http://www.vrl.leaguenet.com.au/
It's proving really difficult to find participation numbers for NRL VIC. Anyone else had any luck?
Me thinks the Victorian Rugby League participant numbers are truly awful and embarrassing, hence them not being reported or easily accessible. The best I could find was an article from 2017 with the Melbourne Storm coach stating **** other things how envious he is of how the AFL supports its clubs in non-traditional areas.
There appears to be very little interest in the development of rugby league in Victoria.
Non-traditional rugby league areas need more support from NRL
By Craig Bellamy
August 26, 2017
By way of example, the under-16s, under-18s and under-20s representative teams in Victoria have nowhere to train in the off-season, as things currently stand. There’s no ground they call “home” so you can understand that’s far from ideal.
In 2006, there were 600 people playing rugby league in Victoria. Fast forward 10 years and in 2017, that number has grown to almost 4000. There has been an increase in junior participation for every year for 11 consecutive seasons.
I’ve always looked enviously at the way the AFL supports its clubs in non-traditional areas, such as GWS Giants and Gold Coast Suns. They get help through the draft with their recruitment. If the Suns have some good local players they get to keep the top five from their area, so they don’t go into the draft.
It’s well documented the AFL has put about $20 million into each club, so they can develop their young talent through high-quality training academies. I understand our game’s finances are not in a position to do that, but certainly we should be seeing the benefits of a similar academy in Victoria, particularly as the Storm celebrate 20 years next year.
The Storm will next year appoint a pathways coach to assist talented local players, but as I said earlier, right now, young Victorian league players in rep teams haven’t got a place to train in the off-season.
They put a proposal to us about a fortnight ago, asking if they could train on our ground — Gosch’s Paddock — once a week in the pre-season.
But Storm share that with the Melbourne Rebels, therefore the traffic on that field doesn’t make it a viable option.
Every suburb in Melbourne has a junior Aussie rules club. But for rugby league in Melbourne, there’s not those kind of numbers. So many of these junior league players have to travel great distances to train and play.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/ ... 48211e2c91
liar extraordinaire 
