The NRL Grand Final Was More Than A Battle Of The Best Sides

The NRL couldn’t have picked a better pair of teams in the Penrith Panthers and Parramatta Eels to make yesterday’s grand final… it was a battle of the west!

For the league though, it wasn’t just about determining which team in Sydney’s western suburbs was named the best for 2022, it was about the broader battle to establish the sport’s dominance as the nation’s leading sport code.

The NRL is in its own battle of the west with the AFL, a fight that has been going on for the last decade when Aussie Rules introduced their 18^th club, the Greater Western Sydney Giants.

Listen to host Sam Squiers talk with Amy Goggins on this week’s episode of The Sport, where the duo discusses what the battle of the west is really all about.

Amy Goggins said The Sport podcast this week that if either league want to assert its position as Australia’s number one sport, they’ll need to win over Sydney’s west.

“It’s a battle for the codes this game in particular. Western Sydney is a huge and growing population centre and the AFL knows if it’s going to set a foothold outside of Victoria, it is going to be here,” she said.

“The NRL also knows that its future is dependent on capturing fans and young players in the regions. It really is a real fight.”

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