{"id":60567,"date":"2024-02-27T15:21:07","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T05:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/?p=60567"},"modified":"2024-02-27T16:01:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T06:01:21","slug":"opinion-rugbah-league-set-to-lose-in-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/2024\/02\/opinion-rugbah-league-set-to-lose-in-vegas\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION | Rugbah League set to lose in Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do you remember the scene in Swingers where Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn are driving to Vegas?<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Swingers | &#039;Vegas Baby, Vegas&#039; (HD) - Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau | MIRAMAX\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qQBe-kdw4ZE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>At the start of the trip, they\u2019re excitedly screaming \u201cVegas Baby, Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They have this grand plan of betting lavishly with $100 under the impression that the pit boss will see them and comp them with all sorts of stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Favreau even says \u201cif you walk in and look like you gamble a lot they give you free shit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re assuming that they\u2019ll just walk in wearing suits, and start betting, they will be perceived as whales that the casino will want to treat well to ensure they come back.<\/p>\n<p>Chances are they\u2019ll get the Rain Man suite, that\u2019s how impressive they\u2019ll be.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rain Man Blackjack Scene\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6KM6mkEQVNY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Do you see how delusional those two are?<\/p>\n<p>Betting $100 in Vegas is supposed to impress a pit boss?<\/p>\n<p>Wearing a suit will get you free shit?<\/p>\n<p>It has absolutely zero relationship with reality, a bit like how I see the NRL\u2019s plan to take over Sin City.<\/p>\n<p>Assuming you\u2019re going to walk in, take Las Vegas \u2013 the global home of entertainment \u2013 by storm because of how astonishing your product is, to eventually pave the way for \u201cNRL America\u201d is delusional.<\/p>\n<p>Seriously, if you can\u2019t get people from Adelaide to care about rugby league how are you going to get Americans?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/content.api.news\/v3\/images\/bin\/2643bcf9e9da2f1537b2dfbc8fecfb77\" alt=\"NRL 2023: Why Adelaide must be part of expansion plans as NRL eyes 18th team | Daily Telegraph\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>You know what they say, if you can&#8217;t make it in Adelaide&#8230;\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Melbourne Storm has won what seems like 500 premierships in the last 20 years and their games aren\u2019t even on the main channel 9.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvtonight.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019-06-21_1447.jpg?ssl=1\" alt=\"9GEM simulcast in HD | TV Tonight\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Melbourne Storm, a GEM Staple.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Americans will quickly work out what all of Australia outside of Queensland and New South Wales worked out long ago, if any at all show up: they\u2019ll just think all rugby is the same.<\/p>\n<p>In American football, an extraordinary amount of thought goes into every single play.<\/p>\n<p>Every single player has a clearly defined job that changes every single down.<\/p>\n<p>To do that job requires borderline supernatural physical skills a lot of the time, combined with an incredible amount of brainpower.<\/p>\n<p>Rugby league, on the other hand, requires some big blokes to run into some other big blokes a few times before kicking the ball and starting again.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Russell Crowe explains the rules and laws of rugby league | NRL\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6JPPzTnUZz4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As if Americans are going to be impressed with seeing Adam Reynolds throw the ball backward 55 times.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ve just watched Patrick Mahomes throw the ball forward!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kansascity.com\/latest-news\/atjj7\/picture236126313\/alternates\/FREE_1140\/PMAP.jpg\" alt=\"Can Patrick Mahomes throw a ball 100 yards in Mexico City? | Kansas City Star\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You can even look at the PR photos that they\u2019ve managed to get out of American \u201ccelebrities\u201d out there.<\/p>\n<p>A few of the players took a photo with Australian white rapper of the McCrispy ad fame The Kid Laroi in Vegas.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A surprise signing?! \ud83d\udc30<\/p>\n<p>NRL stars Cody Walker and Jai Arrow have met up with The Kid Laroi after the Aussie rapper \u2013 and South Sydney fan \u2013 reportedly invited the Rabbitohs to his house while the team trains in Los Angeles. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/9News?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#9News<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WEYLJ6FkIZ\">pic.twitter.com\/WEYLJ6FkIZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; 9News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/9NewsSyd\/status\/1761640922213957926?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 25, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Kerser must have been busy.<\/p>\n<p>I hate to state the obvious here, but you probably could have got a photo with the Australian rapper in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>They also got a photo with Magic Johnson, and credit to them!<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I can say without hyperbole that this is the greatest honour of Magic Johnson\u2019s career <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NRL?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NRL<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UHuitdCTwJ\">pic.twitter.com\/UHuitdCTwJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Liam (@LiamJClarkson) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LiamJClarkson\/status\/1761341436778234271?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 24, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Having said that, it\u2019s well known that Magic Johnson is better at being famous than anyone.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of the time that requires him to feign interest in stuff that he truly could not care less about, like a Brisbane Broncos jersey.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, some players got a photo on the center court at the Lakers&#8217; home court, without a single Laker.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">When NRL meets NBA! \ud83e\udd29\ud83c\udfc9\ud83c\udfc0<\/p>\n<p>Our Brisbane stars have been spotted attending a live NBA game between the Lakers and Spurs in Downtown Los Angeles today.<\/p>\n<p>The Broncos touched down yesterday morning at LAX ahead of their highly anticipated season opener in Las Vegas. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/9News?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#9News<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CyRrLT0G7n\">pic.twitter.com\/CyRrLT0G7n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; 9News Queensland (@9NewsQueensland) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/9NewsQueensland\/status\/1761277329202917863?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 24, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>LeBron must have been busy.<\/p>\n<p>I bet it would have been a real thrill for LeBron to meet Kotoni Staggs.<\/p>\n<p>Such a shame that he missed it!<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t get me wrong, though. I respect the ambitions of the NRL and Peter V\u2019Landys.<\/p>\n<p>V\u2019Landys has long been a genius at getting himself and his sport into the conversation by going the rival sporting bodies.<\/p>\n<p>Remember when he called Australian Rules football \u201cboring\u201d, or when he likened footy moving to Brisbane in 2020 to \u201cpeople going to an ABBA concert when they\u2019re AC\/DC fans&#8221;?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;It&#39;s like people going to an ABBA concert when they&#39;re AC\/DC fans. They&#39;ll like the rhythm for a while but they&#39;ll go back to the real heavy stuff; the rugby league.&quot; NRL Chairman Peter Vlandys on the AFL grand final being held in Brisbane.  <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/9News?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#9News<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MCcdhKhRvL\">pic.twitter.com\/MCcdhKhRvL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/9NewsAUS\/status\/1306731906093002758?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 17, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>What about his comments after announcing that the NRL grand final would stay in Sydney after a battle with the NSW government where he said that he was pushing for Melbourne because \u201cwe wanted to give [the grand final] to a city that needs a major football event\u201d?<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&quot;Just kidding:&quot; V&#039;landys pulls Grand Final announcement prank\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nYzr-BoqhLc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Classic PVL.<\/p>\n<p>Naturally the AFL have never responded.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s a lot like a combat athlete of the Conor McGregor kind in that way.<\/p>\n<p>You use his name and you get in the news.<\/p>\n<p>You get more famous.<\/p>\n<p>V\u2019Landys does the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>At this point it would be natural to get into a classic code-wars contest between the NRL and the AFL, but I\u2019m hesitant to do so.<\/p>\n<p>If you look at literally any metric from crowd figures, to revenue, to broadcast rights etc. you\u2019ll see that it\u2019s a contest between John Holmes and The Kid Laroi,<\/p>\n<p>So, I\u2019ll leave that.<\/p>\n<p>But let\u2019s look at the positives of Rugbah Leeg going to to Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>Many in the media get a free trip.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s awesome, I hope they have a great time.<\/p>\n<p>They probably flew business class which is great for them.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond that, as at the date of writing, not a single player has been found in some off-field debauchery, as documented by the Neds Rugby League Integrity Unit this week.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Rugby League Integrity Unit.\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M1yWEnxyDtc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is unbelievable.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s wins all around!<\/p>\n<p>But returning to reality and away from the positives.<\/p>\n<p>What is the best-case scenario here?<\/p>\n<p>BetMGM (same parent company as Neds) carries an NRL market that finds a few American punters that don\u2019t mind a flutter on the Gold Coast Titans taking on Paramatta?<\/p>\n<p>It will end like Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn\u2019s trip to Vegas in Swingers.<\/p>\n<p>The Rugby League types will quietly mutter \u201cVegas\u201d to themselves as they join boarding group E on the way home to one of the two states in the entire world that cares about their version of rugby\u2026it\u2019s all the same to me.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The views of GuyWhoLikesSport do not represent the views of Neds and its parent company.<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>They are just GuyWhoLikesSport\u2019s views, as he is Victorian and jealous he didn\u2019t get a junket to Vegas. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>We love Rugbah Leeg at Neds, and people internally want a quiet word with him.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Like what you read from our hard-hitting columnist?<br \/>\nFollow\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/guywholikesspo1\">@Guywholikessport<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter or check out his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/guywholikessport.wixsite.com\/guywholikessport\">FULL BLOG HERE\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":60582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8298,6,598,344],"tags":[8681,29,905,3880,8260,1740,1027,602,27,3094,24,5163,908,3456],"hub_post_cat":[],"class_list":["post-60567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guywholikessport","category-rugby-league","category-special-interest","category-sports","tag-adelaide-rams","tag-afl","tag-brisbane-broncos","tag-code-wars","tag-guywholikessport","tag-las-vegas","tag-manly-sea-eagles","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-nrl","tag-opinion","tag-rugby-league","tag-south-sydney-rabbioths","tag-sydney-roosters","tag-usa"],"acf":{"md_tip_date":null,"md_tip_date_end":null,"md_market_url":"","tip_date":"27\/02\/2024","event_country":"Australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60567"},{"taxonomy":"hub_post_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub_post_cat?post=60567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}