Opinion
Why the NRL and AFL should reconsider their grand final strategies
Andrew Webster
Chief Sports WriterIn March 2010, NRL chief executive David Gallop took a call from the NSW minister for major events, Ian Macdonald, who had been in the role just six days.
“Can you to come to my place, urgently?” Macdonald asked. “I’m having a colonoscopy tomorrow and want to discuss the grand final.”
Competitive tension between the NSW and Queensland governments had been brewing for some time over which city should host the grand final from 2012: the traditional home of Sydney or self-appointed new heartland of Brisbane?
Gallop visited Macdonald at his Northbridge home on Sydney’s north shore and, after very little negotiation, left feeling like he’d won Powerball: $50 million over 10 years.
As this masthead reported at the time, the offer was $20 million more than Macdonald’s department had imagined, which was staggering given Queensland hadn’t tabled an offer.
Those involved with negotiations at the time tell me that Macdonald was under considerable pressure from others within the Labor Party to ensure the grand final stayed at Sydney Olympic Park.
Justin Olam with Storm teammates and the premiership trophy in 2020.Credit: Getty
Gallop is now the chairman of Venues NSW, which runs the state’s major venues, while Macdonald is sitting in a jail cell after being found guilty of wilful misconduct involving two mining licences.
The anecdote highlights how desperate state governments are prepared to pay through the nose to keep legacy sporting events all to themselves, and none more than the NRL and AFL grand finals.
It works for the state politicians angling for re-election — but is it the best thing for the sports involved?
Taking the easy taxpayer loot might pay the bills, but it’s shortsighted when you’re “growing your brand” and “expanding your footprint” and all those other fancy-shmancy terms sporting codes use when discussing expansion.
Dean Young and Wayne Bennett after their grand final win at the Dragons in 2010.Credit: Getty
Gallop was a traditionalist when it came to growing the game. “Fish where the fish are,” he would regularly say during his time as NRL boss.
The landscape, however, has changed.
The world is getting smaller for both the NRL and AFL. While rugby league tries to crack the US market by holding season-openers in Las Vegas, the AFL is dropping vast sums in the sprawling western suburbs of Sydney and Brisbane.
Why shouldn’t they move their Big Dance around? It’s not the Glastonbury Festival. It’s not even Coachella, thankfully, although the heavy use of bandanas looks very much like an AFL thing.
About the only major sporting competition that doesn’t move its final around is the FA Cup final, which is traditionally held at Wembley.
The whole thing certainly feels short-sighted with the Melbourne Storm shortening favourites to win the NRL premiership and the Sydney Swans similarly placed in the AFL following their rousing victory over GWS Giants at the SCG on Saturday.
NSW Premier Chris Minns tried to stir things up when asked last Thursday if it was time Sydney hosted the AFL grand final.
“Let’s do it, let’s take it off them,” he said. “See if we can do it this year, that’d be great.”
Victoria’s assistant treasurer, Danny Pearson, channelled his inner Darryl Kerrigan from The Castle in response.
“Tell him he’s dreamin’,” he said. “From our cold hand will Sydney reach the AFL grand final from the MCG, the people’s ground. Absolutely not, no way.”
Presumably, all concerned understand the MCG has the AFL grand final stitched-up until 2059, having struck a $500 million deal in 2018 until 2057 before extending it for a further two years as compensation for having to relocate the 2020 and 2021 deciders to Brisbane and Perth respectively because of COVID-19 restrictions.
It would take some significant contractual gymnastics for the AFL to wriggle out of the deal, even for a season or two, if it so desired. Chief executive Andrew Dillon seems incapable of it.
The MCG is, indeed, a magical venue like no other in this wide, brown land. On grand final day, the atmosphere around and then inside the ground is palpable.
It can also be horrifically unfair for teams who aren’t from Melbourne. The laughable imbalance between Richmond and GWS supporters for the 2019 grand final was there for all to see in the surging tide of yellow-and-black throughout the sporting monolith.
The Giants just don’t have enough fans, Melburnians might argue. They had 30,000 members in 2019 — slightly less than they have now.
The NRL isn’t locked into a long-term deal like the AFL, although I suspect ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys would run after Minns and tackle him like Ron Coote to sign a deal worth half-a-billion dollars.
As it stands, the 2023 and 2024 grand finals have been secured year-to-year, mostly because the NSW government can’t commit long-term due to the state of its finances.
It provides the NRL with the flexibility to take its biggest game of the year to new markets, much like the NFL does with the Super Bowl.
The Western Bears are tipped to enter the premiership in 2027. Perth’s Optus Stadium has successfully hosted State of Origin matches.
A team from Christchurch or a second Auckland team could enter the NRL soon after that, ahead of the audacious Papua New Guinea bid. New Zealand is rugby league’s fastest growing audience. Imagine a grand final at Eden Park, which can expand to 60,000 with temporary seating.
It’s unlikely either of those governments will throw $50 million at the NRL, as Macdonald did. But, like a colonoscopy, moving the grand final around could be the exploratory procedure it needs.
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