Dermott Brereton: AFL legend risks footy fans’ wrath by explaining why State of Origin is better than Australian Rules
- Dermott Brereton explains why he loves rugby league
- He says he would have loved to play rival code
- Brereton won five premierships with Hawthorn
In a move sure to upset AFL diehards, Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton has filled 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 at the MCG.
Brereton, a five-time premiership winner who played 211 AFL matches, this week joined NRL legends Laurie Daley and Mal Meninga to recreate the cover of the 1994 match program in which the captains of Origin were hanging out of 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 its brutality,” Brereton said.
“If I was this competitive beast, I would love to play it and I probably would have loved to play it.
Dermott Brereton (pictured) has praised State of Origin football as he explained why it is so popular in Melbourne despite the city being the heart of Australian 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 an extremely honest one where you have to somehow get past the guys on the other side. This is what I find wonderful about this sport.
“AFL is dangerous because contact can come from anywhere, but dangerous contact rarely happens, whereas rugby league is just exhausting. The beatings they inflict on the opposition are extreme.
“Rugby league has immediate contact. It gives people the opportunity to follow the movement and see, from the first whistle, someone rushing at the other and it’s an immediate competition.
“Having someone buck and stand in front of you, facing you, and you have to charge at the front of their shirt, it’s brutal.
“The AFL throws the ball in a dispute, it gets kicked to someone, they may or may not be hit, they give it to someone else who may or may not be tackled, depending on the tension of the game ”
“When you watch rugby league there is physical action from the start.
“It’s an extremely brutal and honest way to start your sport. That’s one thing they have on us. There is great honesty in the way it is formed, shaped and played.
“State of Origin is the best rugby football league you will see in the world. We love our sport in Melbourne, it’s just great.
“And in State of Origin, you have the chance to be part of a team in the best sporting match of its kind in the world.”
With the exception of the COVID-affected 2021 season, State of Origin has been played in Victoria every three years since 2006.
Brereton says rugby league has a physical element to it from the start that isn’t always in Australian rules
Brereton (pictured center with NRL legends Laurie Daley, left and Mal Meninga, right) believes rugby league is a brutal and extremely honest sport – and says he would have loved to play the game
Brereton says Victorian understands how great the Origin show is.
“Melbourne people love to go to a big game and if you tell us, we recognize it, we understand and see the proof that this is, in rugby league terms, the best football in the world, so we “We’ll look at it,” he said.
NSW must win game two in Melbourne to keep the series alive – with the Blues having last won the interstate trophy in 2021.
