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Not so long ago you could say that rugby union signing up NRL players was the biggest threat to rugby league. Now it’s been an incredible 12 months in which two top quality rugby league players have taken the cash offered by the AFL to join their new expansion teams in NRL areas.
But how big is the threat, really?
When the one and only Sonny Bill Williams left, that caused a huge amount of anger with the rugby league public. We had rugby journos saying it was only the beginning of a huge player drain, and two years on what a dud call that was.
But now it’s all AFL, offering huge amounts of money; offering over $1 million to get Folau to head down south to spread the word of the AFL.
They ain’t shy about their intentions, and for the rugby league officials who laughed off the threat, I hope they are finally taking notice of what is going on.
Now war is an over the top word, but the AFL is doing what they believe they have to do to have some sort of presence in Western Sydney and the Gold Coast, even though it does go against everything they say about being in these areas for the long haul and not needing gimmicks to get people interested in their game. But that’s another issue altogether.
We’ve heard in the past few days of 10-15 NRL players contacting agents about AFL contracts, which means we are now in stage two of the hysteria from the Folau signing.
In a way the NRL is at the mercy of the AFL until the new television deal is done, so how many more will go?
It doesn’t matter for the gimmick will wear off sooner rather than later. Haven’t seen any fans saying they have been crossed over to the AFL from whatever sport they currently follow. Or NRL fans jumping the fence to AFL.
The so called new option for kids in the west of Sydney has been there for 30 years at the very least.
It’s been said a few times that this is a wake up call for the NRL, so hopefully someone at HQ has finally answered the call.
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