There will never be a promotion system here. I agree reserve grade has to be more professional and higher cap to keep players in the game longer. Being a professional doesn’t have to be nrl only but from 20s. Nrl is pretty much the most amateurish run professional sport in the world.
I totally get the same vibes. If it was run better before and even now, it'd be way more popular and widespread (surely it would've recovered after the SL war to be bigger by now). It doesn't have to be run like as if it's the CIA.
From memory, the AFL has become one of the largest revenue league's in the WORLD (obviously way below NFLs and the premier leagues, but it's up there). The AFL tv deal is double the NRL.
Doing something revolutionary for Australian sports like the above mentioned will dramatically improve the professionalism of reserve grade, we have the structures, juniors , systems in place it's doable.
The end result would be adding prestige to the NRL.
It'll be a massive story for a team just making it to the NRL, everything grows, media, sponsorship, academies, longer player contracts, transfer deals, player loans, sports health, it improves the reserve grade economics and flows onto the NRL.