Gold Coast chairman Tony Cochrane has responded to ARLC chairman Peter V’landys’ inflammatory comments on the AFL.
V’Landys, who has been the NRL’s most public figure throughout the 2020 season, lashed out at “AFL types” who criticised his forthright approach in restarting their own competition in late May.
Cochrane urged “loud mouth” V’Landys to take a look at the AFL’s growth in Queensland this year, especially after most of the competition moved up north in order to complete the season.
"The only problem with having a loud mouth is unless you can keep delivering on it eventually everyone sees through it and I think they have already seen through this one,” he said on SEN’s Crunch Time.
“He can make his wise-cracks but there are the facts, we had two Victorian sides make it to the Grand Final, the AFL were left with nearly 9,000 tickets left to sell to the public with the average price being $400 – that’s really testing the market in Brisbane.
“And guess what, they were sold out in 19 minutes. You can make out that this is just a passing fad or doesn’t have longevity but I’d prefer him to go and have a look at the media coverage and the TV numbers throughout this year.
“We’ve consistency beaten the NRL by 15 or 20 per cent this year when we’ve been up against each other on TV.”