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Speaker 1: Graham Bridge.

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Speaker 2: First, though, the NRL is back this weekend, with the

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Speaker 2: opening round kicking off in the glistening lights of Las Vegas.

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Speaker 2: The Warriors are one of four teams playing in Sin

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Speaker 2: City this weekend. It's the NRL is looking to expand

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Speaker 2: the game into America. Brad Walter is a very lucky man.

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Speaker 2: He's there. He's a Rugby league journalist for NRL Digital. Brad,

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Speaker 2: First of all, where are you? What's it like where

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Speaker 2: you are?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm at the fan fest in Fremont's Street

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Speaker 1: in Vegas. It's like a big mall and it's absolutely heaving.

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Speaker 1: There's thousands and thousands of people all in NRL or

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Speaker 1: Super League jerseys for as far as the eye can

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Speaker 1: see in every direction. And it's yes, they're just jam

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Speaker 1: packed in this in this mall. It's it's incredible. This

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Speaker 1: is the atmosphere here in Las Vegas this week and

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Speaker 1: the build up to the to the game has been

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Speaker 1: that's a that's a massive step up on last year.

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Speaker 1: I think just the English fans bring so much, you know,

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Speaker 1: the sea and the chants and things like that. You

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Speaker 1: just see English stands around. But the one thing I've

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Speaker 1: noticed everywhere is the number of Warriors jerseys. It's incredible.

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Speaker 1: I would say the Warriors will be the most supported

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Speaker 1: team at Allegian Stadium on the weekend.

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Speaker 2: Are they Kiwis or are they Americans or Brits or what.

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Speaker 1: Well they could be. I don't know, to be honest.

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Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, look, there's a there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: Kiwi's here. Whether they whether they live in the States

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Speaker 1: or whether they've flown over for the game. I'm not sure,

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Speaker 1: but I think thirty eight percent of tickets have been

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Speaker 1: sold in the United States, So I don't know everyone

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Speaker 1: he's got a head rel jersey on. So those people

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Speaker 1: living in the States obviously followed the NRL as well.

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Speaker 1: But I think there's I do feel like that there's

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Speaker 1: a lot of maybe a lot of people who saw

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Speaker 1: it last year and maybe they've been told about it

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Speaker 1: by friends or they are of rugby league, like I'm

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Speaker 1: talking about Americans, and you know, maybe they and they've

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Speaker 1: decided to come as well. Because there's definitely, you know,

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Speaker 1: there's definitely a lot of local interests and you sort

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Speaker 1: of feel like now too that now that the game

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Speaker 1: was here last year, or that the event was here

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Speaker 1: last year, and that the NRL's come back. This time,

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Speaker 1: people are much more aware of what's happening the event itself,

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Speaker 1: and also of what of the difference between rugby league

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Speaker 1: and rugby union, which certainly wasn't the case last year.

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Speaker 2: Is Dana White there yet? What's he What's he actually

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Speaker 2: going to do? Do you know?

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Speaker 1: I don't know he's been invited. I don't look, I

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Speaker 1: don't know if he's here, and I don't know what

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Speaker 1: he's going to do if he is here. But I

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Speaker 1: know that he has been invited to blow the Raider's horn,

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Speaker 1: the Viking horn before the game against the Warriors. I

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Speaker 1: don't know whether that's that's come off or not. I'm

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Speaker 1: not I'm not really sure who's going to blow the

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Speaker 1: horn for the Raiders or whether whether Dana White or

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump or any of those people you know who

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Speaker 1: will be here. But I think one thing I will

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Speaker 1: say that is that, yeah, there's definitely more interest and

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Speaker 1: more you know, I think maybe more high profile American

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Speaker 1: athletes in particular that are key to come. You know,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of Pacific people with Pacific Island heritage

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Speaker 1: in the States and especially on the West Coast and

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Speaker 1: a lot of athletes in the NFL in particular, who

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Speaker 1: have like a connection with the game, you know, whether

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Speaker 1: it be rugby league or rugby union.

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Speaker 2: Hey bread, just quickly before you go. The Raiders Warriors

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Speaker 2: game is going to be broadcast on Fox. They have

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Speaker 2: a distribution of one hundred and twenty five million homes.

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Speaker 2: Do you know how many people they are expecting to

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Speaker 2: watch it?

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Speaker 1: No, I don't. I don't know, but hopefully, you know,

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Speaker 1: hopefully that's hopefully a.

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Speaker 2: Lot of people, but hopefully all of them.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully all of them. One thing I think, like everybody

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Speaker 1: agrees is that any American who sees rugby league likes it,

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Speaker 1: They're just going to be exposed to us. So hopefully

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Speaker 1: they tune in because if they do, they can relate

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Speaker 1: to it.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: The six tackles is like downs in NFL American football,

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Speaker 1: and I think they really like the contact and the game.

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Speaker 1: For me of the weekend, you know, the Warriors Raiders

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Speaker 1: is going to be a tracking game. But for me,

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Speaker 1: I think Americans are going to be absolutely blown away

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Speaker 1: when they see the physicality and skill and athleticism of

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Speaker 1: the Australian and England women's players. I think that's going

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Speaker 1: to be a shock because last year they were all

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Speaker 1: raving about no pats, no helmets. When the men played, well,

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Speaker 1: the women play exactly. They played just as hard as

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Speaker 1: the men do.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, quite true, Brad, Hey, good luck this weekend. Hang

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Speaker 2: in there, drink lots of water. Brad Walter, Rugby league

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Speaker 2: journalist inter Our Digital in Las Vegas. For more from

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Speaker 2: Hither Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live to news talks they'd

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Speaker 2: be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.