- Dermott Brereton explains why he loves rugby league
- He says he would have loved to have played rival code
- Brereton won five first places with Hawthorn
In a move sure to upset AFL fans, Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton has taken a dig at rugby league by describing the game as more brutal than Australian rules football.
The State of Origin series heads to Melbourne on Wednesday night with a crowd of 90,000 expected to watch at the MCG.
Brereton, a five-time premiership winner who played 211 AFL games, this week joined NRL legends Laurie Daley and Mal Meninga to recreate the cover of the 1994 match program in which the Origin captains They were hanging from a tram driven by the AFL star.
“I think it’s the most brutal sport in the world, because it’s so constant and because of the sheer brutality of it,” Brereton said.
‘If I was that competitive beast, I would love to play it and I probably would have loved to play it.
Dermott Brereton (pictured) praised State of Origin football and explained why it is so popular in Melbourne despite the city being the heart of Aussie Rules.
Brereton says State of Origin is the most brutal sporting competition on the planet, and incidents like Joseph Sua’ali’i’s illegal knockout of Reece Walsh (pictured) back him up.
“Rugby league is an incredibly physical and brutal sport, and it’s brutally honest, where you somehow have to outplay the guys on the other side. That’s what I find wonderful about the sport.
“AFL is dangerous because contact can come from anywhere, but dangerous contact happens infrequently, where rugby league is just exhausting. “The hit they give to the opposition is extreme.
‘Rugby league has immediate contact. It gives people the opportunity to go and see from the first whistle that someone collides with the other and it is an immediate competition.
“To have someone object and stand in front of you, in front of you, and you have to charge into their shirt, that’s brutal.”
“The AFL starts the dispute for the ball, they touch it to someone, they may or may not touch it, they kick it to another person who may or may not be tackled, depending on the tension of the game.
“When you watch rugby league, there’s physical action from the get-go.
“That’s a tremendously brutal and honest way to start your sport.” That’s something they have about us. There is great honesty in the way it is formed, shaped and played.
‘State of Origin is the best rugby league you will see in the world. We love our sport in Melbourne, it’s just amazing.
“And in State of Origin, you have the opportunity to be part of a team in the best sporting event of its kind in the world.”
With the exception of the COVID-impacted 2021 season, State of Origin has been played in Victoria every three years since 2006.
Brereton says rugby league has a physical element from the start that may not always appear in Australian Rules
Brereton (pictured center with NRL legends Laurie Daley, left, and Mal Meninga, right) believes rugby league is a brutal and brutally honest sport, and says he would love to have played.
Brereton says Victorians understand how great the Origin show is.
“The people of Melbourne love to watch a great game and if you tell us that, we recognize it, we understand it and we see the evidence that this is, in rugby league terms, the best football in the world, then we will see it.” , he claimed.
NSW must win the second game in Melbourne to keep the series alive, with the Blues last lifting the interstate trophy in 2021.