Peter V'landys has never been shy about poking the AFL, and ahead of the NRL's season-opening Las Vegas double-header this weekend, the Australian Rugby League Commission chairman was at it again. Speaking on Triple M on Thursday, V'landys delivered a characteristically blunt assessment of the AFL's recent moves, suggesting the rival code does little more than follow rugby league's lead.
"We lead them, like you lead a horse," V'landys said. "You just lead them through."
The comments came as V'landys turned his attention to the AFL's revived State of Origin concept, which returned this year after the code effectively shelved it following a troubled final match in 1999. V'landys questioned the very premise of an AFL State of Origin competition, noting that the bulk of the AFL's games are played in Victoria.
"Well firstly, can you explain what AFL is? How can they have a State of Origin? That's unusual. It's all in Victoria, most of the games, aren't they?" V'landys said.
V'landys also renewed his long-running complaint that the AFL's Gather Round festival is a copy of the NRL's Magic Round. There is a fair degree of irony in that claim: the NRL's Magic Round concept was itself borrowed from the Super League in the United Kingdom, which hosted its first Magic Weekend back in 2007. V'landys did not address that lineage. The AFL has been contacted for comment, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Despite the theatrical rivalry, there is a legitimate argument running beneath V'landys's showmanship. Competition between the codes has historically pushed both to lift their standards, and his point that the AFL is now eyeing India as a growth market, something it had not previously prioritised, does carry some weight. "They should not be scared of competition," he said, in a line that sounded almost generous toward a code he had just compared to a horse being led around a paddock.
Vegas Momentum
The backdrop to all of this is the NRL's increasingly ambitious international push. Two matches will be played at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sunday, the second consecutive year the NRL has launched its season in the Nevada desert. V'landys said the initiative is generating real commercial results, with sales for the Watch NRL app up around 90 per cent compared to the same period last year.
"It's made it the highest rating round of the season in Australia because fans that don't normally watch it have been attracted by the publicity generated by Vegas," V'landys said. "They've gone from casual fans to engaged fans."
The timing remains awkward for American viewers, with kick-off landing around 11pm in New York, but V'landys is clearly more focused on the domestic marketing dividend than cracking the US primetime market overnight. "Vegas gives us the marketing momentum," he said.
Whether the NRL can convert that momentum into sustained international growth remains the genuinely interesting question. Both the NRL and AFL are chasing global audiences at a time when sports rights and streaming are reshaping how codes attract and retain fans. The rivalry between the two makes for good radio, but the broader challenge they share is far more consequential than any squabble over who invented a festival round. Reasonable people can disagree about which code runs the better product. What is harder to dispute is that both benefit when the other is forced to compete harder.
For now, though, V'landys will take the headlines. And the horse, presumably, is still following.