Can I ask what the expectation is that two new teams will do for the league and existing franchises
my assumption is as follows...
at least one of the new teams will draw from the more populous auckland, thus sucking in more players of a greater quality than those offered by the provinces, and hence raising the standard
this assumption, in turn, assumes that auckland has a pool of good players currently not bothering to play summer football for reasons of travel, and that this pool is of a greater standard than what palmerston north or dunedin has
of course, it's just an assumption, but i think it has some logic