‘It’s laughable’: NRL’s Vegas ad infuriates AFL greats, reginites code wars
A cheeky image spruiking the NRL’s foray into America has been slammed by AFL greats, reigniting Australia’s age old footy code wars.
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Australia’s football code wars have reignited after the NRL claimed to be the nation’s “biggest sport” in a cheeky boast to America.
The NRL will launch its 2024 season in Las Vegas, with two games scheduled for Round 1 next March.
The Manly Sea Eagles will play the South Sydney Rabbitohs, while the Sydney Roosters will take on the Brisbane Broncos.
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Both games will be played at Allegiant Stadium, which is the home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders as the NRL seeks to take rugby league overseas, but also tap into Sin City’s lucrative gambling market.
A massive advertisement for the season openers has appeared outside Allegiant Stadium with the slogan: “Australia’s biggest sport unleashed in Vegas”.
“We will take over America soon and we’ll become the greatest game in the world,” NRL legend Brent Tate said on Sunrise on Thursday.
The bold ad has ruffled some feathers in the AFL world, with premiership players scoffing at the suggestion the NRL is bigger than the AFL in Australia.
“Rugby league, why wouldn’t you love it? Great players, it is physical, it is tough, it’s one of the hardest sports in the world. I don’t see what all the fuss is about, to be honest.”
“I agree that NRL is the biggest sport in Australia - if you are an ear, nose and throat specialist. Got to get those cauliflower ears sorted, and the broken noses,” Hawthorn great Campbell Brown said in response to Tate.
“I think it is laughable. If you’re living anywhere outside of NSW or Queensland you know that’s just completely inaccurate,” he said.
“The AFL, I don’t think they’ve got too much to worry about whatsoever.”
Tate quipped: “Look, at the end of the day, any game that when you go to kick a goal and get a point for missing for me, that doesn’t make any sense.”
Port Adelaide 300-gamer Kane Cornes weighed in, saying: “It’s delusional to promote it as Australia’s biggest sport. That cheeky boast is inaccurate, they’ve got it wrong.”
When the AFL held its inaugural ‘Gather Round’ in Adelaide this year, a billboard advertising a State of Origin game in the city chirped: “Real footy is coming soon” to the South Australian capital.
The AFL’s last foray overseas came when Port Adelaide played the Gold Coast Suns in a 2018 home-and-away game in China.
Earlier this year, NRL legends Gorden Tallis and Laurie Daley got into a heated debate after Daley said there was no argument that AFL had a bigger and broader presence across Australia.
He said: “They play in every state and territory and they get 100,000 people at the MCG and 50,000 at the SCG when the Swans are playing so I just said in my opinion I think they are a bigger sport than rugby league.”
For what it’s worth, there is no NRL team located west of Melbourne and the competition’s 18th team is set to be from Papua New Guinea.
Originally published as ‘It’s laughable’: NRL’s Vegas ad infuriates AFL greats, reginites code wars
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