The AFL has the wood over the NRL in a number of areas – average attendance, memberships, television ratings and revenue, and so on. But there’s one category where the NRL consistently kicks the arse of the AFL: Grand Final pre-game entertainment. Whether it be Billy Idol somehow managing to blow out all the power at Olympic Stadium at the 2002 GF, or snagging an actually competent performance out of Meatloaf a full 8 years before his train-wreck of a performance at the 2011 AFL Grand Final. It’s in this category that the NRL has well and truly managed to pull the wool over the AFL’s eyes.
‘Course, winning the race for best pre-game entertainment in this country is kind of like winning a “Who Can Sit In Horse Manure The Longest” contest – You might have beaten the other guy, but you both still stink.
So with that said, the NRL has unveiled their pre-game entertainment for this year’s NRL Grand Final, which will be contested at ANZ Stadium on Sunday, October 5th.
Where the AFL has gone British in relying on Tom Jones and Ed Sheeran to get the job done for them on their biggest day, the NRL has looked towards America, tapping both legendary rock guitarist Slash and pop rock outfit Train – who you might remember from that incessantly annoying “hit” Drops of Jupiter – to fill the entertainment slots on their biggest day of the year.
This continues a weirdly strange trend of throwing money at overseas stars to provide filler material for the moments leading up to a very important sporting contest, rather than simply throwing money at… say… Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil, AC/DC or any one of the litany of iconic Australian bands that would tear the roof off of these most uniquely Australian events.
But, hey. Who am I to complain. The bottom line here is that Slash lazily strumming out the intro riff of Sweet Child O Mine for the 4 millionth time in his career easily gets the chocolates over a 74 year-old Tom Jones breathlessly warbling out Delilah to 100,000 nervous football fans.
Like always, Football will always be the real winner.
Photo: Theo Wargo via Getty Images.
