Incoming Newcastle Rugby League boss Marc Glanville sees a future for the Northern Hawks in the men's first-grade competition - but possibly only at the expense of Central Coast teams.
Speaking to the Newcastle Herald following his appointment as the league's new general manager, a job he said he had taken to help keep the Newcastle competition the "best outside of Sydney", Glanville said there could "without doubt" be improvements made to the men's first-grade competition but expressed doubts about the success of having Central Coast sides involved.
"The two teams from the Central Coast have been in for the last year and a bit, I don't know whether that has worked particularly well," he said.
"I don't think the district clubs have been overly happy with the Central Coast clubs coming up.
"It's only their first-grade sides - not the rest of their teams - so effectively from a financial point of view it's probably hit the clubs a little hard."
Wyong Roos joined a COVID-altered season in 2020 and returned along with The Entrance Tigers last year.
The 2021 season was abandoned but both sides are back in this year's 10-team competition.
Erina Eagles also applied to play in the 2022 competition, as did the Northern Hawks - a merger of the Newcastle Hawks and Nelson Bay Sharks - but both applications were denied.
The Hawks won the approval of the Newcastle Rugby League board, but NSWRL knocked back their application. An appeal to the state body's board to reverse the decision late last year proved unsuccessful.
The Hawks, which launched in under-19s before adding a reserve grade side last year, had lined up a number of high-profile players for first-grade and had sponsors behind them.
The club trains at Raymond Terrace and plays at homes games at Tomaree.
Their promotion would complete a long-awaited return of first-grade rugby league to Nelson Bay after the demise of the Port Stephens Sharks before the 2015 season due to a player shortage.
Glanville said he would "love to see" a Port Stephens side return but suggested it might only occur at the expense of the coast teams.
"I think they would be great - if we didn't have the Central Coast clubs," he said.
"I'd love to see them back in. They used to be called Norths and Nelson Bay. They attracted quite a few players."
Glanville, who begins his new role later this month, said doing the rounds of the existing clubs to hear their views on the competition was at the top of his agenda.
A NSWRL review of all competition structures in the Newcastle and Hunter region is also slated to be completed in coming months.
It will likely influence the make-up of the first-grade competition in 2023.
The Hawks remain committed to securing promotion for next year.
I'd love to see them back in.
MARC GLANVILLE
