Gerard Whateley “absolutely believes” NRL boss Peter V’Landys saved the AFL from financial ruin in 2020.
The NRL was one the first competitions in Australia to return after the COVID situation worsened in March last year, and V'Landys boldly believes without his league pushing to start in May, the AFL would have hesitated to restart their season shortly after.
The outspoken ARL chairman made the eyebrow-raising comments on Fox League’s Face to Face with Matty Johns.
“In an unusual way we saved a lot of sports,” V’Landys said.
“Because a lot of sports were looking at much later dates. They were looking at August-September and the financial losses they would have incurred would have been significant.
“I think the AFL were looking at a billion-dollar loss, is what they announced. They made a $24 million loss because they started earlier.
“So, we proved we could be leaders, and we led, and everyone else followed.”
One year on since rugby league shut down due to COVID, Whateley told Andrew Voss that he agrees with V’Landys’ sentiment.
“That (V'Landys' comment) is true, I absolutely believe that,” he said on SEN's Whateley.
“Peter V’Landys paved the way back to sport in a way that was unforeseen at the time.”
Voss agreed with Gerard, saying the NRL have every right to be proud of the way they navigated last year’s circumstances.
“It comes across in isolation as gloating, but it is a statement of fact,” Voss replied.
“He should be proud of it, it wasn’t Peter V’Landys alone, he assembled a team around him with Project Apollo with the NRL.
“They can be proud of what they achieved last year, not just on the domestic sport stage, but I think it should be admired globally.”
Listen to the full chat below.
