It’s great for The Maggie’s.
I’m from the Balmain side originally. Genuinely happy that West’s get to have a link to there history in the ISP side.
West’s almost went under quite a few times so I’m thinking that they understand Balmains plight.
Magpies could of taken over the joint venture in a coup, however it would of been counter productive from a PR and Financial point of view, so they would of been doing it solely to be petty. Good on them for taking the moral high ground and supporting the other side of the JV Instead of trying to complete a total take over. It is the olive branch that has totally solidified the merger.
I hope one day the Balmain tigers can get financial enough to have there own ISP team too. No matter how unlikely it would be.
I think it would be great for rugby league and West’s tigers to one day have Balmain vs West’s as a curtain raiser to an NRL match. It could be the one round that each respective ISP club could bring back there past greats and really celebrate their history. The ISP round would almost become an attraction to the general public not just the hardcore fans. With the emotions not being as raw as they were initially hopefully there wouldn’t be any resentment anymore and something to bring the fans together.
Being that it is the ISP teams promoting the ISP game before the NRL, the West’s tigers NRl team could be seen as independent and not having a bias.
To the West’s tigers fans who didn’t originally support either team it would just be a great curtain raiser celebrating the history of a great club.