State of Origin 2024: AFL great Dermott Brereton’s endorsement for rugby league in Victoria

In a remarkable endorsement for a rival sport, AFL great Dermott Brereton has labelled State of Origin as the ‘most brutal sport in the world’, backing Victorians to tune in to game two.

In a remarkable endorsement for a rival sport, AFL great Dermott Brereton has labelled State of Origin rugby league the “most brutal sport in the world.”

A crowd of nearly 90,000 is expected to cram the MCG on Wednesday night to watch a sport Brereton claims has “physical action and sheer brutality” while also being “gruelling, intense, extreme and tremendously honest.”

“And there is also that tribal unity of playing State of Origin,” Brereton said, an AFL hall of famer who played nine games for Victoria.

An admirer of rugby league, and former season-ticket holder at Melbourne Storm, Brereton wasn’t afraid to upset the AFL through his glowing praise of rugby league.

“I think it’s the most brutal sport in the world, because it’s so constant and for its sheer brutality,” Brereton said. “If I was that competitive beast, I would love to play it and probably would have loved to have played it.

Laurie Daley, Dermott Brereton and Mal Meninga together ahead of State of Origin Game Two in Melbourne. Picture: NRL Imagery/Grant Trouville.

“Rugby league is an incredibly physical, brutal sport and it’s tremendously honest where you somehow, some way have to get past the guys on the other side. That’s what I find wonderful about the sport.

“AFL is dangerous because contact can come from anywhere but the dangerous contact happens infrequently where rugby league is just gruelling. The pounding they put on the opposition is extreme.

“Rugby league has immediate contact. It gives an opportunity for people to go along and see from the first whistle somebody run into the other and it’s an immediate contest.

“To have someone oppose and stand in front of you, face you, and you have to charge into their shirt front, that’s brutal.

“AFL starts the ball in dispute, it gets tapped to somebody, they might or might not get touched, they kick it to somebody else who might or might not get tackled, depending on the strain of the game. When you watch rugby league, there is physical action from the very get-go.

Brereton has labelled State of Origin rugby league the “most brutal sport in the world.” Picture: Getty Images

“That’s a tremendously brutal and honest way to start your game of sport. That’s one thing they have over us. There’s a great honesty in the way it’s formed, shaped and played.

“State of Origin is the best rugby league football you will see in the world. We love our sport in Melbourne, it’s just awesome. And in State of Origin, you get the chance to belong to a team in the best sporting fixture of its type in the world.”

Brereton, Laurie Daley and Mal Meninga reunited to recreate a famous illustration from Daily Telegraph cartoonist Scott ‘Boo’ Bailey in 1994.

Brereton, who played 211 AFL games, including 189 for Hawthorn, joined rugby league legends Laurie Daley and Mal Meninga at the Melbourne’s Tram Museum to help promote Wednesday night’s big game.

The high-profile trio recreated a famous illustration by Daily Telegraph cartoonist Scott ‘Boo’ Bailey that adorned the cover of the official program for the first Origin game ever played in Melbourne in 1994.

A key member of the Hawks’ golden era during the 1980s, Brereton said Victorians will embrace and thrive on State of Origin.

“Melbourne people love seeing a great contest and if you tell us, we recognise it, we understand and see the evidence that this is, in rugby league terms, the world’s best football, then we will watch it,” Brereton said.

Brereton in action for Hawthorn in 1984.

“And once you turn on, tune in, turn up, you will automatically go to a default position in picking a team. They will probably pick it in the first few moments.

“In rugby league, you look at a player’s pen pix and it says ‘State of Origin appearances’ – that’s because of the intensity and how the NRL judges a player, by how he has performed in State of Origin.”

Brereton, now 59, won five AFL flags and is a former all-Australian representative.

Asked should the AFL ever consider reviving a State of Origin series, Brereton said: “We’ve probably moved on from that. It’s moved beyond us. Our sport has moved in a different direction.”

Originally published as State of Origin 2024: AFL great Dermott Brereton’s endorsement for rugby league in Victoria