Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images
The announcement that three levels of government are combining to provide $40m of funding to upgrade Leichhardt Oval in Sydney is not only a major win for the NRL, but a flex of political muscle from a game that is now realising its own might.
Rugby league has long been one of the two most popular sporting codes, along with Australian rules football, but when it came to exercising political power it was the AFL out in front and then daylight. Even rugby union – by any measure less popular, culturally relevant, and capable of drawing money – outstripped its rival rugby code in currying political favour.
