NRL 360 host Paul Kent has called for a shake-up to finals football after the NRL committed to just a one-year deal to play the grand final in Sydney.
Kent wants a return to the final two weeks of the season being played in Sydney in a huge call that would see preliminary finals no longer hosted in Townsville, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Canberra or Melbourne.
The NRL are looking for a commitment from the NSW Government to rebuild suburban grounds before they agree to a long-term deal for Sydney to host the grand final.
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Journalist Brent Read said he’d like to see the decider played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane “every three or four years” but Kent was having none it.
“I don’t think the game should ever go on the road, I think it should always be in Sydney. It’s a tradition,” Kent said.
“We’ve made so many changes to the game in recent years but the game has still got to have its traditions and respect its traditions. And one of the traditions is, other than the Covid year, the grand final has always been played in Sydney.
“If you talk to old players from the 90s from the Broncos and the Raiders who all had to go to Sydney and play semi-finals and grand finals in Sydney. They all speak about how there was just a feel in the air when they had to go to Sydney, they knew it was finals time.
“ They felt it, they felt the road trip added to the experience and it just brought a buzz around the game that I don’t believe is there when you’re playing semi-finals. Home semi-finals suck to be honest, they all should be in Sydney, you need to make it special.”
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That prompted a chuckle from NRL premiership winner Braith Anasta who asked Kent “why do they suck?”.
“You need to make it special. There was a period there where we had a couple of bad crowds for a few years and that’s when they brought up the chat that they should be played at home where they get the home crowd but it hasn’t really transpired into what they thought it would be,” Kent said.
Read rebutted “Suncorp is a pretty special ground, Kenty” before James Hooper interjected.
“You don’t run the Melbourne Cup at Randwick, it’s called history, it’s called tradition and you’ve got to respect it,” Hooper said.
“The Super Bowl is obviously shopped around and I understand the X-factor but it doesn’t mean it’s right.”
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Read then hit back with “I’m not saying alternate it every year, I’m saying once every five years” which triggered Kent.
“Oh please. Once every five years? That sucks even more. What a dud idea that is. They travelled to Vegas, they’ll travel to Sydney,” Kent said.
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