Any time the topic of NRL expansion comes up in discussion, it's that lovely Aussie twang that infiltrates your ears. It's always Australians discussing what's best for the game and the hearty rugby league regions in Australia, whether it's the Central Coast, Perth, another Brisbane team or a team in Rockhampton or some where else in Queensland.

Well we're from New Zealand. Anyone in or from New Zealand knows with 100% certainty how well loved the NRL is in the land of the long white cloud. I reckon that about half the league fans in Auckland support the Warriors while the rest support various Australian teams, and when you put that into a New Zealand wide context, I reckon you'll get similar ratio.

I know an NRL team in Wellington would do a good job of being a commercial success, whether it's a on field success well, that's the issue. For another team from NZ, whether it's in Wellington or somewhere else like Christchurch, to exist they'll need the playing talent. Fill it too much with Kiwi players and you'd be scraping the bottom of the talent pool, so you'd have to go for maybe half local players and half from Australian ... or European players hmmmmmmm.

But when you add in to the mix a few more Australian teams, that talent pool is pretty empty. If the NRL expands with another NZ team, I guarantee you that it will come alongside a few more Australian sides. Personally, I reckon Perth and Brisbane are the next spots who deserve an NRL club. Perth, with the vast amounts of Kiwis and slightly less competitive sporting market would be an interesting watch while Brisbane, well Brisbane only has one NRL team. Brisbane is a rugby league town and it's all Broncos. There's definitely space, footy and commercially wise for another team in Brisbane.

So there's a bit of a log jam in the race for another NRL team. But honestly, it's hard to see it happening any time soon for a variety of reasons. David Smith has come in to the NRL with a firm desire to make the NRL a force, which to do so he needs to lay a solid foundation which is what is currently happening. The base for a strong, dynamic league is being laid and that must be finished before we welcome another NRL side in to the mix. To do so now would stretch the playing talent as well as the commercial interest. It's good to see the desire to get what we have now sorted and strong before anything is added to it.

Another aspect to slow expansion is something a little more trivial but shows the mindset of the league nonetheless - travel. Any road trip is seen as a detriment to a team's performance. The Cowboys have turned their travelling woes with two wins back to back in Sydney, but the fact that there was a bit of a hoodoo is dumb. Any journey to Perth is seen as a burden thanks to a 7 hour coast to coast flight, so imagine if there was a reason to travel to Perth nearly every week?! How on earth would they do it. Even a trip to Auckland is seen as a bit of a mission. This problem is two fold and you only have to look at the NBA or MLB to see how silly it is.

Clubs must embrace the travel because, well, it's professional sport, but the NRL must also sort out the scheduling of matches, as they've shown that common sense doesn't seem to exist many, many times before. The NBA and MLB are obviously a lot less physically demanding, but when you stack up cross country travel with 5 games in 7 days and you've probably got the same physical toll. It's part of the job.

I don't know when NRL expansion will happen. But I want the thought of another team in New Zealand to be a part of the process. It's a tricky one as there are many different factors and relationships that sneak in to the process, but I know that Kiwis deserve another team and to be ignored throughout the process will be an alienating showing of dumbness.