An NRL grand final at the MCG? It’s certainly worth a closer look

The recent enthusiasm from rugby league boss Peter V’landys for an NRL grand final at the MCG should be taken with a generous pinch of salt. This is especially so given his comment on Tuesday that Melbourne could be an “option” for his code’s biggest event was largely in response to an overture from Visit Victoria chief executive Brendan McClements. That said, it may not quite be the end of the matter.

Rugby league boss Peter V’landys says the MCG could be an option to host this year’s NRL grand final.Credit:NRL Photos

A strategic and combative operator, V’landys has form in using the NRL grand final for political leverage. Last year he threatened to spirit it away from Sydney unless the NSW government met his organisation’s demands. He even had Queensland on the hook to host if, he claimed, NSW failed to come good on a handshake promise for hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for suburban stadiums.

Ultimately, then-NSW premier Dominic Perrottet called his bluff, saying the state had higher priorities, including flood reconstruction, and the October 2 match was held at Sydney’s 80,000-seat Accor Stadium after all. But it was clear the league tsar, who is also chief executive of Racing New South Wales, had been happy to let the decision go down to the wire to make his point, leaving fans just weeks to make arrangements for travel and accommodation.

Before the recent NSW election, V’landys was at it again, warning the state government it was “going to have to get the chequebook out” if it were to seal another Sydney final. “We could sell the grand final interstate tomorrow,” V’landys said. “There is enormous interest. Every state in Australia would love to have it.”

Oh, he would personally prefer to have it in Sydney, he hedged, “but you’ve got to do what’s best for the game”. Earlier this month he again suggested he was open to staging the final at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.

Ever the wheeler-dealer, he is expected to begin talks soon with the newly installed Minns Labor government, which no doubt is in for its own dose of V’landys brinkmanship.

V’landys is naturally delighted to have Victoria join the list of suitors he can parade before the NSW government and its chequebook. We shouldn’t forget that the NRL grand final has been played away from Sydney only once since 1908, and that was because of the COVID-19 pandemic. History exerts its own inertia.

However, V’landys may not be entirely bluffing when he says he’s open to rotating the event around the highest bidders. He surely has to be tempted not only by the prospect of a better deal from another state but by the opportunity to promote rugby beyond its NSW-Queensland heartland, already conquered territory.

Melbourne would be the natural choice, thanks to our world-class 100,000-seat stadium and our city’s nascent embrace of the code thanks to the success of Melbourne Storm, already four-time premiers since their foundation in 1998. State of Origin matches have frequently been successfully hosted in Perth and Adelaide, as well as Melbourne.

In fact, the biggest Origin crowd was for a match hosted at the MCG in 2015.

So, would we want it? Certainly. Hosting the NRL grand final would give us the attraction of an unparalleled sporting double in September-October with the AFL and NRL showpieces so close together. This would bring an economic boost as hundreds of thousands of fans from both codes flooded CBD restaurants, bars and hotels.

Cost, as always, will be key, as will transparency in the bidding process, if we are to pursue what may yet prove to be a red herring. The state has a dubious record in this regard, which will always chill some of the enthusiasm.

Still, V’landys has dangled the carrot. Let’s take a tentative nibble.

Patrick Elligett sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week. Sign up to receive his Note from the Editor.

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