NRL should follow AFL’s American experiment
Roar Guru Related coverage
Excluding New Zealand, it seems the AFL has leapt in front of the NRL in terms of international marketing.
And before shooting off to the comments section, know this: I am talking about the league (NRL) not the sport (rugby league). No doubt rugby league is far superior internationally, simply because Aussie Rules is an Australian sport.
The AFL is currently trialling 26 elite American athletes with basketball and gridiron backgrounds in Los Angeles, CA.
Two will be picked to attend the AFL draft combine in October at Etihad Stadium. If the NRL isn’t already sitting down making plans to try something similar, I don’t know why they’re not.
Let’s start with the immediate competition benefits.
American athletes are, to put it mildly, exceptional. Six American athletes broke Nic Natianui’s standing jump record last Thursday, with the highest (Derrel Acrey) jumping 90 cms.
This incredible athleticism would bring great virtues to the game.
One would think American football is much more similar to rugby league than it is to Australian rules, both with a heavy impact on tackling.
I’m no expert on gridiron, but any running back or receiver would make a great league player as they’re quick, strong and nifty on their feet.
Gridiron players are also good at kick receiving, which would give them good skills under the high ball.
Maurice Jones-Drew is one of the few NFL players I know, but I would sure love to see a player similar to himself charging up a rugby field. He has try-scoring machine written all over him.
Along with the many on-field benefits brought to the game, the off-field ones are also intriguing.
Everyone knows of Americans’ love for sport. Frequently packing out 70,000+ stadiums each NFL game is proof of this.
Obviously, bringing in a few Americans would no doubt increase the profile of NRL in America.
Considering league is almost a quicker version of gridiron, Americans would have no trouble watching.
While it would take a while to get a high American viewership up, and perhaps a few American ‘mini-drafts’, if the NRL was committed, an American fan base of the league would do nothing but good for it.
No doubt this would be a massive experiment that would take years to plan, and this is an article that has not considered the precious time, money and manpower that would have to go into it.
However, if the NRL considered some kind of similar venture in the future, nothing but good would come from it.
- Explore:
- AFL, NRL, Rugby League
September 9th 2012 @ 6:38am
Tigranes said | September 9th 2012 @ 6:38am | Report comment
I don’t know about any running back or wide receivers automatically being great league players – cardio demands of American football are nothing like rugby league.
September 9th 2012 @ 6:54am
Matt said | September 9th 2012 @ 6:54am | Report comment
I love it when people that have no idea write articles on topics they have no idea about.
There have been a number of atheletes with Giridiron background Ty their hand at Rugby League in Australia (Such as Akarika Dawn) Currently there are three prospects playing in the NRL’s second tier with some prospect about them both (Michael Garvey, Joshua Rice and Jayson Rego)
September 9th 2012 @ 8:02pm
Haz said | September 9th 2012 @ 8:02pm | Report comment
And the classic example of Paul Sironen. He played for a year as Defensive Tackle in the University of Hawaii, but hated never being able to touch the ball.
September 9th 2012 @ 7:47am
yewonk said | September 9th 2012 @ 7:47am | Report comment
im yet to see this work, mike pyke can play but he brought nothing new to the afl and could have been easily replaced by a vfl player.
September 9th 2012 @ 7:59am
andyincanberra said | September 9th 2012 @ 7:59am | Report comment
Pyke didn’t come in as part of an AFL program, he initiated contact with the Swans and was picked up as an international rookie. He can’t be considered part of the AFL’s American program which is just starting this year. Anyway, there is a dearth of ruckmen in Australia, hence his opportunity at the Swans. He has had a breakout year, that being said, there are still some deficiencies in his game, most notably, kicking. Anyway, I think that the best bet for Australian domestic sports looking to recruit American athletes is to target specialised body types, in the case of the AFL, ruckmen, and set up an intensive, specialised program to bring them up to standard.
September 9th 2012 @ 8:08am
yewonk said | September 9th 2012 @ 8:08am | Report comment
what happened to alex starling?
September 9th 2012 @ 8:09am
AIS said | September 9th 2012 @ 8:09am | Report comment
NRL is no more similar to Gridiron Football than Rugby or Aussie Rules are. As you said, you don’t know much about Gridiron Football, so why’d you bother typing this thing up?
September 9th 2012 @ 9:07am
Myles said | September 9th 2012 @ 9:07am | Report comment
I know enough to know it’s much more similar to rugby
September 9th 2012 @ 11:47am
JZ said | September 9th 2012 @ 11:47am | Report comment
yer your right they are very similar, and the afl are a little more proactive were as the Nrl just leave it up to the usa to do any thing about the game expanding
September 10th 2012 @ 2:19pm
The Bush said | September 10th 2012 @ 2:19pm | Report comment
“NRL is no more similar to Gridiron Football than Rugby or Aussie Rules are”
You can’t be serious? Rugby League is a million times closer to American Football than Aussie Rules is. I’d type out all the reasons for this (such as the most obvious – Aussie Rules is the only game played on an oval for example), but it’s so obvious I can’t be bothered.
September 10th 2012 @ 2:40pm
Bondy. said | September 10th 2012 @ 2:40pm | Report comment
Bush.
Also look at your defencive line in the rugby codes “straight line of confrontation”.
September 10th 2012 @ 4:56pm
The Bush said | September 10th 2012 @ 4:56pm | Report comment
They are both games dictated by a certain number of turns with the ball – 4 downs v 5 tackles. The similarities are so numerous (restarts via deep kick offs etc).
Of course when you consider the fact that they both developed from Rugby Union/Rugby and that they are both professional sports that have gone through a number of changes to improve themselves as such, it is not surprising.
September 10th 2012 @ 6:02pm
Bondy. said | September 10th 2012 @ 6:02pm | Report comment
The Bush.
When I first had a look at girdiron the first question I asked somebody was when was Rugby invented “not what a great spectacle I was watching” ,just to check or reassure myself that they gridiron werent first.
September 9th 2012 @ 8:22am
Robbo said | September 9th 2012 @ 8:22am | Report comment
AIS you only have to watch Gridiron for 5 minutes to realise it has much more in common than league than it does aussie rules. Look at the size of the blokes, look at the massive hits. You dont see that in AFL.
September 9th 2012 @ 10:47am
Crosscoder said | September 9th 2012 @ 10:47am | Report comment
And the guys who play in the AMRRL and USARL teams,have noted the similarity in many aspects to American football.
Any case they from the AMNRL, will be playing in the RLWC2013 in the UK,so should get a further taste of the hits and pleasure of the running and tackling in the game at a higher level.
September 9th 2012 @ 11:50am
JZ said | September 9th 2012 @ 11:50am | Report comment
the AFL are only after ruckman as their are a shortage of great ruckman in the AFl
September 9th 2012 @ 8:23am
Worldfootynews said | September 9th 2012 @ 8:23am | Report comment
Alex is completing studies and will be heading down for the upcoming preseason.
September 9th 2012 @ 8:31am
jdubya said | September 9th 2012 @ 8:31am | Report comment
Looking for “athlets” instead of talented players is a sign a sport has lost it’s way. AFL is welcome to it. Meanwhile I will be looking for the next Billy Slater or Thurston instead of a reject College player with a great 40 time.
September 9th 2012 @ 11:54am
JZ said | September 9th 2012 @ 11:54am | Report comment
only 1% of all collage basketball or football players make the draft. so thats a whopping 99% to pick through. their is a little gem to be found thats for sure
September 9th 2012 @ 12:55pm
jdubya said | September 9th 2012 @ 12:55pm | Report comment
My point is that looking for athletes instead of talent is an indication that a sport is losing it’s way.
I would much rather the NRL go for smaller guys with talent than college rejects who have the physical attributes but no tactical nouce or knowledge of the game. We should stick to poaching from the rugby codes and leave AFL to demean their game by going for these gimmicky attemtps to find players ala Folau and Hunt.
September 9th 2012 @ 1:05pm
TC said | September 9th 2012 @ 1:05pm | Report comment
There is certainly a debate to be had about the extent to which a sport chases potential players purely on the basis of their athletic attributes.
However, it’s a stretch to call these guys college rejects – they are just a smidgeon away from the top tier of American sport – you can rest assured that they are all top notch athletes (six of them beat Nic Naitanui’s vertical leap record).
September 10th 2012 @ 4:13pm
Hamish said | September 10th 2012 @ 4:13pm | Report comment
Yes there are only so many Slaters and Thurstons. Remember the sham Manfred Moore playing for Newtown.
The NRL has looked at NZ, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and AFL (Adrian Barich) so whats the harm with the US.
September 9th 2012 @ 9:32am
Billo Boy said | September 9th 2012 @ 9:32am | Report comment
There’s a very good reason why not. League has tried bringing in NFL & college footballers before. All have failed very badly & never got near first grade except that one Warren Ryan gave a start to with the Knights & look how that turned out.
Americans also have a fundamental inability to ever master passing the football laterally. They just don’t get it.
Unilke AFL the NRL also isn’t running out of potential player stocks. Look at the number of Fijians and other Pacific Islanders in the game. As for importing Americans helping lift the NRL & AFL profile in the USA that is a pipe dream as Americans only care for their own sports.
September 10th 2012 @ 8:45am
JZ said | September 10th 2012 @ 8:45am | Report comment
thie are 3 guy playing in the Qld cup from the Usa atm, 2 in the super league and another couple in the French league, and i remember that game the yank played for Newcastle that was a joke, but league has a bright future in the Usa
September 9th 2012 @ 10:09am
TC said | September 9th 2012 @ 10:09am | Report comment
The test results were so good that they increased the American quota in the international combine to 3 spots.
Here’s Matt Sauey of the UNF Ospreys talking about his experience over the three days:
Here’s a short clip from the actual combine, with an interview with Tadhg Kennelly:
As you can see from some of the shots – these guys aren’t slouches.
September 9th 2012 @ 12:30pm
John said | September 9th 2012 @ 12:30pm | Report comment
I wish the AFL well with their endeavours in the US. As an Aussie Rules man myself, I think it’s important to expand the talent base. I just hope that they don’t plot ‘dream seeds’ in the minds of these blokes and next thing the AFL knows it’s recruited some D@#$head from the US who has an ‘entitlement’, bling’, ‘I am the team’ mentality that we see with some of the professional athletes in America.
Australian sport fans don’t like their sporting heroes to be tall poppies. If we see it, we do what we do best. Cut the heads of them. Apart from that, I think it’s worth taking a look.