By Michael Chammas and James Bracey
ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has mocked commentary around the AFL’s invasion into rugby league heartland, describing the hysteria around the rival code’s footprint in NSW as “delusional”.
With the Sydney Swans preparing for Saturday afternoon’s AFL decider against the Brisbane Lions, V’landys has responded to comments made on AFL 360 last week suggesting rugby league would soon lose its grip as the No.1 sport in NSW.
“It’s a reminder of the giant footprint that AFL is putting into NSW,” AFL 360 co-host Mark Robinson said in relation to a sold-out crowd for last week’s preliminary final at the SCG between the Swans and Port Adelaide.
“Before we’re dead, AFL will take over the rugby league. I’m telling you.”
In a comprehensive interview on Nine’s 100% Footy on Monday night, V’landys responded to Robinson’s claims by comparing the television ratings in NSW between the two codes.
“I think that’s a delusional comment,” V’landys said.
The Sydney Swans are through to another grand final.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
“Whoever made that comment … facts are facts and the AFL has not got the viewers in NSW like rugby league has. I mean, sometimes they get 23,000 viewers on TV out of Sydney. We get a million. So it’s a bit hard to say that you’re going to take over when you’re that far behind.
“Look, and it’s the same for us in Victoria. We’re not going to take Victoria over, either. That’s fact as well. None of the facts and none of the figures could go near that statement. So it’s a ridiculous statement to make because it’s certainly ill-informed.”
V’landys joined NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo for a two-part interview on Nine’s rugby league program on Monday night to discuss all the big issues in the game.
One of the code’s major talking points is the blueprint to get from 17 teams to a 20-team competition in the next eight years.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo and ARLC chairman Peter V’landys.Credit: Nick Moir
V’landys believes a 20-team competition could result in a shortened season, with emphasis to be placed on growing the international game and a potential standalone Origin period.
“That’s the ambition – to get 20 teams,” V’landys said.
“If you don’t have ambition, you shouldn’t be there. Our ambition is to make the competition as fair as possible. The draw would be fantastic if everyone played [each other] once, so you need 20 teams for that. Talking about conferences and all those sorts of things is part of the process that we’re going to go through with the business case.
“[The players] are going to be playing less football because at the moment there are [27] rounds. If you go to 19 rounds you’ve got all those weeks we can do other things and that’s where you can fix your problem with the State of Origin.”
Papua New Guinea and expansion
The NRL is pressing ahead with plans to introduce a team in Perth – Western Bears – as early as 2027. It appears a foregone conclusion that the Bears will enter the competition as the 18th team.
The attention will then turn to Papua New Guinea and a $600 million package from the Australian government to convince the NRL to hand the rugby league-mad nation its own team.
“This is a once-in-a-100-year opportunity for us to take rugby league and change people’s lives across multiple countries,” Abdo said.
V’landys has been leading negotiations with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and is one of the biggest driving forces behind the push to base a team in Port Morseby.
He is convinced the business case, which will include at least a $3 million payment to all 17 clubs, is rock solid.
“Gus Gould was the one that actually told me that when they took players there, kids don’t normally go to school in Papua New Guinea – they just avoid it,” he said. “A lack of education is the beginning of the circle of poverty. If you don’t get an education, everything else falls apart. Once you take a rugby league player to a school, they all turn up.
“If you can encourage those kids to go to school, play sport, play rugby league, that country could turn itself around in the next 10 to 20 years from where it is to being a major society and a really great neighbour for Australia. There’s 18 million people in Papua New Guinea. This could be one of our biggest best pathways ever. There’s an enormous amount of revenue we can grow. You’ve got to remember we’re going to subscription television.
“Imagine if you had 18 million more subscribers or even 5 million more subscribers, there’s only 1.8 million subscribers now in Australia. You’ve got to look at history and history says in India, they introduced cricket when that colonisation happened. And what’s the biggest nation in cricket now? It’s India.”
Relationship between Abdo and V’landys
V’landys is more than your typical chairman. He takes an extremely hands-on role in the running of the game and has a significant impact on the major decisions that impact on the sport.
“I’ve learned so much from working with Peter as a chairman,” Abdo said when asked about how he juggles the relationship with his chairman.
“He’s obviously very experienced as a sports administrator. But what you need to remember is that you’ve got commissioners each with their own knowledge, experience and skill set. And then you’ve got a chairman who really cares and loves the game and asks all the tough and right questions. The job of the CEO is to make sure that you implement the strategy that the board sets.”
V’landys worked alongside the NRL’s previous chief executive Todd Greenberg before their relationship ended acrimoniously back in 2020.
V’landys has always maintained that he believed Abdo would be the game’s greatest administrator and after four years at the helm, he’s seen little to convince him otherwise.
“We must have a can-do attitude,” V’landys said. “If you’ve got a can-do attitude in your organisation, you always succeed. And I always ask ‘give me five reasons why we can do it, not five reasons why we can’t do it’. I think that’s been part of the success of the NRL. It’s become a can-do organisation. People said Vegas was impossible. No, it’s not. We can do it. They said we can’t get through COVID. Yes, we can.
“It’s the can-do attitude and there’s no better can-do man than Andrew Abdo. You say ‘this is what we want’, and I’ve never seen a person that has got the can-do implement attitude that Andrew has. And I said at the beginning when he was hired that he’ll be the best CEO the NRL has ever had. And he’s certainly, well, well above that already.”
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