10 Clubs That Are No Longer In The NRL 

I look forward to all the comments saying "Bring back the Bears"

Please fact check. The Adelaide Rams were not part of the leagues plan for expansion in 1995, that was Crushers, Cowboys, Red and Warriors. The Rams were a Super League creation.

The Wayne Bennett photo at the beginning. Photographer: "Smile Wayne" Wayne Bennett: "I am smiling"

Also worth mentioning that the Bears had many (mostly) finishes in the top half of the table over their final decade (including a couple of top 4s). They weren't some struggling team at the bottom.

Honourable mentions to Annandale, Glebe, University, Cumberland and Newcastle (1908-09)

Good video. In the early years of Balmain they were Orange and black, they changed to light Orange and Black in 1953. Before 1953 Balmain had a darker Orange and black. Parramatta are blue and Gold. Good video.

People keep saying "Bring back the Bears" to this day because they never should have exited first grade. The Bears were the only side who made an effort to relocate to secure their future and qualify for the 14-team criteria (a criteria which only mattered for two years thanks to the Rabbitohs). The Knights, Broncos, and Warriors were all guaranteed a license, then so were the newly formed St George Illawarra. I don't think anyone at the time would have argued against the Bears being guaranteed a license due to their intent to relocate to a new market halfway between Sydney and Newcastle. At the very least, they should have been given a boosted weighting for crowd numbers and gate receipts when it came to the selection criteria since the construction of the stadium was hindered due to bad weather, and any club playing on the road most of the season waiting for their new home ground to be built would face similar challenges. No common sense was used. They should never have had to consider merging with anyone.

So much wrong with this video. The reason most of these clubs don't exist or play in the top tier anymore is purely a result of the Super League war and then sacrifices made in the peace plan - not just because of poor performances. Perth had so much potential but were sacrificed to allow Ribot's "exit plan" and new project, the Storm. The today that the NRL abandoned a once growing league grassroots in a new market with millions of people is staggering. Without Super League happening, there's no doubt they'd have never gone. Now it's so much harder to get them back because it's seen as "tried once and failed". Meanwhile, teams like Adelaide and the Mariners were cobbled together simply to bolster the numbers in Super League. Adelaide were in the ARL's long term plans, St George had been toying with the idea of moving there. Whether that happened or not, Adelaide would have had a team eventually and their crowds, despite appearing during the depths of the Super League years, were quite decent. The Crushers, like the Reds, had huge potential but News Ltd and the Broncos did everything to ensure they died - even forcing the 'one team in Brisbane policy' into the agreement for the reunited competition. The Gold Coast became the Seagulls when they took over the licence and likely would have remained that way had Super League not over inflated the market. The Gladiators were an attempt from a businessman to take over the licence before the ARL took it over themselves with the Chargers, likely to ensure they kept the team in the ARL. The Chargers were actually profitable and could have continued but were sacrificed as part of the peace deal. Norths were totally done over - they were only in debt due to their efforts to move to the Central Coast, which surely was a good thing for everyone (them, Gosford and the game itself), they should have been rewarded with a long term licence, instead their situation used as an excuse and they were sacrificed as well. And then of course the Steelers. Just as unlucky as Norths. After going through the hard times of the 80s and finally getting things going, becoming profitable and performing well, Super League resulted in the loss of an excellent coach (who'd have stayed there for years to come), players, and with the sudden financial inflation of the league (this flowed through to ticket sales), plus a ground that was mucked around by the government without funding and not following through on the construction of the northern stand meaning reduced capacity - the NRL 2000 criteria only looked at the past performances of those exact mucked up Super League years (1995 onwards)! And to cap it off, Illawarra would be classified as a Sydney team, without the more favourable criteria applied to Canberra, Newcastle, Auckland, North QLD etc. Totally done over. Just like the newer clubs, Norths, Wests, Illawarra, St George and Balmain were seen as easy options to force to merge as a way to reduce the numbers. The fact that Cronulla, Canterbury and Penrith were safe, basically showed that the ARL were stitched up by News because of bottomless pits of cash - which couldn't last forever but they could just last longer to get what they wanted - ownership of a team in Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, North QLD plus some in Sydney along with TV rights. The game has never recovered to the heights it reached at the end of 1994, start of 1995. When making videos about past clubs, it's critical to understand the real reasons for their inclusion and exclusion from the comp.

I remember before the knights came into the competition in 1988 my favourite team was the western suburbs magpies

This is a good video keep it up

Bring back the old teams and rules

Bring Back The Jets. And The Bears

You forgot Glebe Dirty Reds. A foundation club starting in 1908.

haha bro you should do a part 2 on this like clubs such as glebe, hunter mariners, idrk

How’d this video never come up on my feed? Day a trillion and 2 asking for every teams biggest wins and losses of the nrl era

BRING BACK THE BEARS

gotta set of postal vans and match boxes with the crushers etc

Absolutely Appalling how the NRL continually pump money into the Gold Coast and they continually fail with results on the field. Bring back the Bears, the Rams or the Reds.. a much better option for expansion.

I’ve never watched another game including state of origin since the day they made north’s merge with manly and I won’t until they bring them back.

BRING BACK THE BEARS!!! GO THE MIGHTY BEARS!!!

6:47 iconic moment in sports.

My uncle played for the magpies for their last season I think it was for 2 years

5:49 the old man to the right of Tommy. 🤝🏼

St. George Illawarra is a joint-venture, not a merger.

The first South Sydney Rabbitohs team. The inaugural one.

Was that Abraham Lincoln on the western suburbs Magpies

BRING BACK THE BEARS 🐻

I dunno, I'm old but bring back the Bears

You forgot Northern Eagles 🦅 between 2000 and 2002

Steelers played 17 seasons.

The Giants last from 1998 to 89? ;-p

crushers had 2 internationals,, mark hohn got a reserve jersey in a test

Bring back the Crushers 😢

Bring the bears back

Can anyone tell me a bit of history about the bears? Why did they get kicked out of the competition? Financial problems..?

Bring back Adelaide, Perth and introduce Hobart and Darwin

i think if you make a list like this the clubs actually have to be no longer in the NRL, half the list are still in the NRL.

Could u imagine watching the players slapping each other in the face before games these days? 2 Dragons players can't even gave an argument in the team motel in Mudgee without it being worldwide breaking news & the players can't even handle being tackled these days..... Also players of today would never play on pitches in the state they were back then

The dragons will always be a JV.which means it will not work.nrl is to blame for this mess how can a club like the dragons.should of merge clubs like the Red v should be left alone.i hate the NRL for this

Norths relegated, wah, wah, wah.

Poor Hunter Mariners can’t even get a mentioned in a poddy like this 😂

You left out west tigers, they need to be taken off the list, they are just fodder sorry.

Kick out wests tigers and bring back the bears !!

BRING BACK THE BEARS