Power players: Inside the NRL grand final’s most exclusive suite

Say what you will about the NRL, but it takes itself a whole lot less seriously than that Victorian code.

Unlike the AFL grand final weekend, with its champagne breakfasts and its self-important pomp, rugby league’s showpiece has fewer pretensions at being some kind of networking event for the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge set.

Penrith’s premiers were all smiles on Sunday night after their win over Melbourne.Credit: Getty Images

Still, the league did manage to get a few big names out to Accor Stadium, that charmless suburban concrete bowl named after a mid-range hotel conglomerate.

On Sunday night, the Penrith Panthers made history, both by winning an absurd four-peat, while also remaining the neutrals’ favourite because their opponents were the perennially irritating Melbourne Storm, who have been finals fixtures for what feels like forever.

Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his opposite number Peter Dutton were guests at the Accor Stadium’s President’s Suite, and both backed the Panthers before Sunday night’s game. The politically astute move, we think.

Albanese was accompanied by his fiancée Jodie Haydon, the pair of Souths’ diehards no doubt reminiscing about that club’s drought-breaking premiership a whole decade ago now.

Also in the good seats were Premier Chris Minns (a Bulldogs man), Opposition Leader Mark Speakman, the fun-loving NSW Governor Margaret Beazley, and former AFL commissioner Sam Mostyn, who is now, of course, the governor-general.

She wasn’t the only Aussie rules type around: former AFL boss turned Tabcorp chief executive Gil McLachlan was forced to hang out with the same politicians he has so ruthlessly banned from the betting giant’s Melbourne Cup marquee.

Rounding out that political contingent was Sports Minister Anika Wells (who never misses an event such as this one) and Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy, who is working with the NRL on its bid for an expansion team in Papua New Guinea. No surprises that the Pacific nation’s leader James Marape was also in the suite.

The Kid Laroi, who provided the pre-match entertainment, dropped in for a brief hello in the President’s Suite.Credit: Getty Images

From the media world, guests included Matt Stanton, acting chief executive of Nine (owner of this masthead), the media company’s new chair Catherine West, News Corp executive chair Michael Miller, Seven West Media director of news and current affairs Anthony DeCeglie and Herald editor Bevan Shields.

But the real star of the show was NRL executive officer Rachel Kramer, the one behind the league’s events, who received rapturous applause from the room when announced by chief executive Andrew Abdo.

Meanwhile, The Kid Laroi, who provided the pre-match entertainment, even dropped in for a brief hello. The NRL did well in landing a relevant star, a week after the AFL spent big on a washed-up Katy Perry.