An NRL expansion bid out of New Zealand claims its Southern Orcas already have an agreement with a current NRL head coach in place and can win a premiership in their first year.
The Orcas officially launched their $325 million bid into the public space on Thursday, with chairman Graham Lowe pushing for entry to the NRL from early as 2027.
The bid is one of three out of the south island of New Zealand vying to form part of an expanded 20-team league.
The NRL initially rejected all expansion bids last month, but are still expected to progress with the Perth Bears and Papua New Guinea in 2027 and 2028.
A showdown is then likely to loom between an extra team in Queensland or the south island of New Zealand using a new 30,000-seat roofed-stadium in Christchurch.
The Orcas' bid includes plans for a $60 million football club and $90 million centre of excellence.
A $180 million hotel, leagues club and entertainment precinct funded by public and private investors has been added to the bid initially rejected by the NRL.
On the field the Orcas also claim they can assist the NRL's expansion cause, vowing to increase their base to 35,000 registered players in the extended region by 2028.
The initial plan is to recruit strong, while setting up a satellite-city program similar to that of Penrith's that would eventually compass a total of 2500 male and female players.
And crucially, the Orcas say they already have one of the NRL's 17 current head coaches lined up to coach the team, along with a current high-performance manager and strength-and-conditioning boss.
"We have one goal, and that is to win it the first year we're in it," Lowe said.
"We have identified and been watching for a long time a lot of players.
"While we cannot share the discussions we have had with our coach, the excitement he will see with this is just something.
"As much as we have agreed to, and he is a special guy, he would have been waiting to see this. Because prior to this, it was just talk."
The Orcas' bid was largely kept under wraps until Thursday, due to an NRL non-disclosure agreement.
It would include an NRLW team, and officials have indicated they would be willing to pay the NRL's licensing fee.
The bid also has former ex-Bradford Bulls owner Andrew Chalmers as managing director, along with the involvement of Michael Searle and former NRL CFO Ed Farish.
A South Island Keas bid has also been vocal about their desire to enter in the past year, while another bid out of Christchurch is led by former Kiwis coach Frank Endacott.
But Chalmers was adamant the other bids could not match the Orcas' one in terms of financial capital or pathways plans with school-leaving education built in for all participants.
"I don't believe there would be any other bids that would have the scale of investment in terms of not just the club, but the Centre of Excellence," Chalmers said.
"The stadium speaks for itself. The scale of the sports education program, the high-performance piece. That is massive.
"There would be very, very few submissions we think would be able to develop the scale of football talent we can."
Lowe also believed the entry of a South Island team could give the NRL another State of Origin series, beginning with an Orcas-Warriors rivalry that could one day turn into representative fixtures.
"We see an opportunity for rivalry that will match the same intensity we see in State of Origin," Lowe said.
"It's really interesting and available when you looked at who was available of New Zealand heritage out of the south and north island.
"Once it's successful, (the winner) could even be playing against the winners of (the Australian) State of Origin.
