{"id":384645,"date":"2026-04-17T19:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/384645\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T19:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:26:13","slug":"bennett-backs-team-in-expansion-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/384645\/","title":{"rendered":"Bennett backs team in expansion race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran coach Wayne Bennett<\/a> has thrown his support behind the Ipswich Jets becoming the NRL’s 20th franchise, declaring the code must capitalise on the booming growth in Queensland’s western corridor.<\/p>\n

With expansion firmly on the agenda, the Ipswich-Toowoomba region has emerged as a serious contender to become the state’s fifth NRL<\/a> team.<\/p>\n

While a second New Zealand<\/a> side has also been floated, there has been growing sentiment that a nationwide development pathway should take priority before introducing another trans-Tasman franchise.<\/p>\n

Bennett, who maintains strong personal ties to the region, believes the case for a Western-based side is compelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIpswich and the surrounding areas would all buy into a team out there,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of housing and population growth in that area is huge. Toowoomba is growing, and there’s a massive area there for the NRL<\/a> to tap into, so I think it’s only a matter of time before we have an NRL<\/a> team there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 76-year-old was born in Allora, between Warwick and Toowoomba, and still owns a family farm in the region, which he visits regularly during breaks from coaching.<\/p>\n

Brisbane’s western corridor was overlooked during the NRL’s last expansion phase, when the Dolphins<\/a> were awarded the 17th licence and entered the competition in 2023 under Bennett’s guidance.<\/p>\n

However, he believes the area remains primed for inclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe that region can sustain a 20th team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the 1960s and \u201870s, that western corridor region produced more internationals than any other area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a reason the AFL<\/a> have gone out to Brisbane’s west.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a lot of industry around there; they have built an airport in Toowoomba. It’s a great rugby league area, there’s no doubt about that, and we have to protect it from the AFL<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran coach Wayne Bennett has thrown his support behind the Ipswich Jets becoming the NRL’s 20th franchise, declaring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-384645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}