Bulldog’s Bite: Manly lead push to bring NFL razzamatazz to rugby league

Increased crowd engagement, big screen promotions and changes to how the team takes the field - Manly is bringing NFL hype to the NRL.

Manly chief executive Tony Mestrov has returned from America urging all clubs to consider implementing NFL-style razzamatazz before declaring: “Rugby league has to change its mindset.”

Mestrov also revealed he told all CEOs – individually and collectively – at last week’s NRL chief executives’ conference to head to the US to collect ideas which could be transplanted into the NRL.

He has already spoken with his marketing team at Manly.

Mestrov, along with coach Anthony Seibold and football manager John Bonasera, completed a fact-finding US trip to prepare for Manly’s historic Las Vegas venture next season.

He becomes the first club CEO to publicly say that rugby league needs to look at bringing more hype to game day.

Chief executive Tony Mestrov, coach Anthony Seibold and head of football John Bonasera in the USA. Picture: Supplied

Increased crowd engagement, big screen promotions and innovations, giveaways, merchandise, improved game-day entertainment, even how the team runs out, are several US variations Manly will ­consider.

The Manly touring party watched Brooklyn Nets play Washington Wizards in the NBA, before touring the Nets’ training facility the following day, LA Rams confront Seattle Seahawks in an NFL match at SoFi Stadium and LeBron James’ Lakers face Houston Rockets in another NBA game.

“This (trip) opened my mind up to innovation and change – the game has got to progress. We can’t go backwards. We have to make it better for fans,” Mestrov said.

“It’s about a mindset and how we look at the game-day experience for fans and corporates. We have always been about the footy and there’s nothing wrong with that, we are all here to win, but it’s a mindset change and it’s not all about budget. The game in America is built up around the entertainment. Everything is always bigger and better in America and there are some real learnings we can take to benefit our game.”

BRING BACK HATE TO MAKE NRL GREAT AGAIN

Where has the unfeigned hate gone in rugby league? As fans, which clubs do we actually detest? No one, that’s the real answer.

Most clubs are devoid of personality through being so damn sanitised – and the game is ultimately suffering.

No one says anything to get the hackles up anymore. We’re one big happy family. If you’re not taunted or targeted by rival clubs, coaches or players then it’s difficult to muster any emotional hate toward them.

You can’t dislike someone if you like them. No one even hates Manly these days. Even Brisbane seems benign in Sydney.

Few clubs offer up a different persona or identity compared to the rival down the road. We all play the same, talk the same and use the same cliches. Even the players like each other, laughing and joking with one-another after every game.

Remember when we loathed Manly in the 1970s and ’80s? Abhorred Brisbane in the ‘90s? Now it’s a love-in. Play everything down, no headlines, no ammunition.

“We respect our opponents”, “they have dangers right across the park”, “we know what to expect”, “we’ll have to be at our best to win”, “we need to get into the grind” … and so it goes on.

A banner during the 2011 NRL Grand Final between Manly and the Warriors, during which public favour was firmly for the Kiwi club.

Maybe coaches and players fear being used as clickbait if they say anything remotely contentious on websites ruled by shameless plagiarists, not journalists.

Where is that ferocious passion that once drove us to sneer and jeer our opponents?

There is still some Sydney rivalry but do Souths fans genuinely hate the Roosters and vice-versa? Or do they say they do because that’s what they’re expected to say. Same with Parramatta and Penrith? Cronulla and Saints?

Answer me this? Who do you genuinely dislike? Let’s go through every NRL side.

Manly doesn’t have the same financial clout and arrogance which used to make rivals jealous and two of their best players – the Trbojevic brothers – are the nicest blokes in Australia.

There wasn’t the same anti-Brisbane sentiment this year, even when they reached the grand final. No Wally, Gordie or Alf to get the old blood boiling.

Penrith offend some with their lair-ish behaviour and try scoring celebrations but there is an underlying respect after three successive premierships, as there should be.

Melbourne was despised during the 2010 salary cap scandal and NSW fans loved to hate Queenslanders Cam Smith and Billy Slater. Now? No animosity.

Ricky Stuart’s passion can fire up fans but Canberra as a club is generally liked. Picture: Mark Nolan/Getty Images

Ricky Stuart’s passion fires up some fans but Canberra are generally liked, as are Newcastle, Gold Coast, Dolphins, North Queensland while the Warriors are the game’s newest heroes.

Parramatta get about their business while a lack of long-term success makes it difficult to really conjure any hate for Wests Tigers and Canterbury, although Gus Gould does press our buttons every so-often.

Cronulla are vanilla in some ways while the Dragons are tucked away in Wollongong and usually holidaying when finals are being played.

Some may be irritated by Souths and their glamour roster but the club has so much history that it’s hard to really muster any hostility against the dear old Bunnies, who fought so doggedly for NRL reinstatement.

Perhaps Sydney Roosters are the most disliked side but most of their barbs come from opposition fans merely wanting to gee-up over Nick Politis, the so-called Salary Cap Sombrero. But it’s essentially lighthearted.

I’m over the niceties. I’m over the cliches. I’m over the warm and fuzzy feeling that is rugby league. Where’s the ill will and ill feeling towards opponents? Let’s bring back the friction and acrimony before the love-in suffocates our game forever.