The AFL/VIctoria bagging from NSW simply shows how deep the NRL inferiority complex runs. The AFL never mentions other sports. As if Coke would waste air time bagging Pepsi, or Maccas / Hungry Jacks? It is always the Number 2 bagging the market leader. It smacks of desperation.
‘AFL fans are boring’, but ‘we want to steal them’. How is this helping?
RL is has been wobbly in recent times, sure, but the national split of interest in RL is still virtually 50/50 with AFL. The ‘War’ NSW people speak of has not been lost. MJ can take some blame (not the sharpest tool on the shed), but PVL should put his ego aside (‘I saved the AFL’ - really?) and stop speaking like a loser.
I agree to a point.
PVL was unmercifully howled down by the "holier-than-thou" AFL types in Melbourne when he set the date to resume the comp.
He got it done, and they, along with other sports, got back up n running far sooner because of his work. The comment about "Saving AFL" wasn't championing what he did was being a saviour, but what he did led to them getting themselves up and running again way before they otherwise would have - saving them from bleeding many more millions. PVL was the one being bagged by McGuire, Kennett, and many lead journos in AFL world. The only one I saw actually being objective about it was a guy much loathed in SA - Kane Cornes - who threw it back to the naysayers on the football show he's on.
And well before this - he was ridiculed by Racing Victoria..... He's taken both of these sporting bodies on, right in their faces. I don't mind that - and actually respect it. Just not some of the things he's said. Although - journo's know he'll speak his mind truthfully and unashamedly. I've only ever seen Vlandy's bag AFL & it's figureheads when asked about it by journos - he doesn't beat the drum against them on his own.
Against PVL - I thought comments around Victorians was pretty petulant. The most successful team is from Melbourne, which has developed a large, passionate, core group of fans for a "foreign sport". It just irks me that bagging "Victorians" on the whole is just beneath a person of his level. Especially having a great club like the Storm as an integral part of the comp. I could understand why storm fans would be annoyed at this stuff.
On the whole I like what he's about and what he drove last year to save the NRL. God only knows what may have happened if anyone of the former leaders was in charge when Covid hit.
I've never been a believer that you sell a BMW by bagging a Mercedes. Yep much of it is tongue-in-cheek honesty from Vlandys in answering baited questions. But continually saying things like this then dilutes the great work he's actually doing.