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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine

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Speaker 1: from newstalks 'b.

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Speaker 2: Hey, let's get you across the Tasman. Adam Peacock, Australian correspondent,

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Speaker 2: as whether it's the NRL season starts in Vegas tomorrow,

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Speaker 2: Adam with two games there and then everybody else gets

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Speaker 2: their chance at the back end of next week. One

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Speaker 2: of the major storylines is the new season gets underway

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Speaker 2: up in the United States afternon pint.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I get a feeling that they're big on looking

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Speaker 3: beyond Vegas at the moment. What they do with Vegas

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Speaker 3: is they actually get all the CEOs over there. If

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Speaker 3: I'm not mistaken, I'm not sure who hasn't gone there.

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Speaker 3: Even the guys running the clubs that don't exist yet

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Speaker 3: are over there. So it's is big jamboree of executives

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Speaker 3: and ideas, and maybe they pass on a few things,

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Speaker 3: but I get the feeling that they're looking at expanding

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Speaker 3: this idea and going to other cities. Now I've got

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Speaker 3: actually friends in Hong Kong who have an interest in,

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Speaker 3: you know, setting up something with the NRL for instance,

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Speaker 3: to kind of maybe get a game there or a

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Speaker 3: weekend there, maybe we're looking at an entire round around

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Speaker 3: the world. The Landi's keeps on talking about London, which

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Speaker 3: is in London is one of the great cities of

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Speaker 3: the world, but it's the weird ones. I don't know

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Speaker 3: when you play the games, but look, I don't think

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Speaker 3: anything's off the table at the point, so we could see,

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Speaker 3: like it's not beyond the realms of possibilities. Within two

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Speaker 3: years we're seeing around where every game is played in

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Speaker 3: a different part of the world, or two games are

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Speaker 3: played in hubs around the world, and that's how we

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Speaker 3: do the arting round.

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Speaker 2: They do seem very ambitious, don't they, The Landi's Andrew abdo.

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Speaker 2: They seem ambitious about the growth of the NRL and

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Speaker 2: what you've just seen then, I guess as a perfect

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Speaker 2: illustration of that. They they're shameless and they're in their ambition,

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Speaker 2: aren't they.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, but they they look at rugby and

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Speaker 3: you know, they talk down on it and how to

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Speaker 3: laugh about it and they have a pot at AFL.

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Speaker 3: But one thing they take from rugby, I think, is

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Speaker 3: the fact that there's got a global footprint. You can't

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Speaker 3: deny that, and that's what Rugby League would love to have.

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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 3: It's one thing to sit there and look in the

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Speaker 3: mirror and go, we wish you had this, but they

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Speaker 3: actually go about being quite aggressive and they're approaching, investigating

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Speaker 3: and seeing it and it could be viewed as reckless.

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Speaker 3: But I mean that the figures came out last week

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Speaker 3: for twenty twenty five, they made a sixty million surplus.

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Speaker 3: That's after all the grants to all the clubs and

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Speaker 3: all distributions to state bodies and all of that. That's

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Speaker 3: just money left over in the till. So how they

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Speaker 3: reinvest that. And they're investing in things off Broadway, like

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Speaker 3: commercial property. So what they're doing is their future proofing

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Speaker 3: their business. Yes, they probably take a financial hit on Vegas,

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Speaker 3: but they see that this is like a season launch,

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Speaker 3: for instance, So if you're going to splash the cash,

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Speaker 3: you may as well do it this way. And kind

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Speaker 3: of we're talking about it for instance here, we all

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Speaker 3: know it's on on Sunday afternoon, so in that sense

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Speaker 3: it's a bit of an answer strike.

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Speaker 2: Indeed, right, let's got a football. The Women's Asian Cup

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Speaker 2: is underway on your shores. It starts when it's underway

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Speaker 2: tomorrow night when the Matildas meet the Philippines over in Perth,

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Speaker 2: that ops a stadium. The Matildas would be favored to

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Speaker 2: win this, wouldn't they? Are they favorites to win this

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Speaker 2: home tournament?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, on the balance of having home support and having

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Speaker 3: a really friendly atmosphere to play in and everyone behind them,

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Speaker 3: and I know that the team feeds off that. They

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Speaker 3: absolutely love the fact that they play in front of

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Speaker 3: pack houses and they get so much love from the stands.

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Speaker 3: That is the great undeniable. So how you weigh that

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Speaker 3: up against form? Because on form, probably Japan should be favorites,

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Speaker 3: But it's not as lenyar as that for Paull. It's

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Speaker 3: an emotional sports, so sometimes things can happen where you

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Speaker 3: just can't explain it. I reckon you called one last

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Speaker 3: week at Wellington. Go'll keep a misjudging a bounce like

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Speaker 3: that that happens on a regular basis that stuff, So

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Speaker 3: I would say, yes, we're probably I'll call it joint

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Speaker 3: favorites with Japan. Japan on fure football if you were

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Speaker 3: just going to line them up football wise, but the home,

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Speaker 3: the home crowd factor certainly brings them. The Tilda's into it.

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Speaker 3: And then you've got three other teams that can possibly

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Speaker 3: win at China, Korea and North Korea.

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Speaker 2: All I look forward to that playing out, and just

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Speaker 2: to finish, Craig Tiley as a guy you've had a

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Speaker 2: bit to do with Australian Open tennis tournament director. He's

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Speaker 2: got a new job as Chief executive of the United

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Speaker 2: States Tennis Association. I think he's been with Tennis Australia

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Speaker 2: for well over a decade. What will his legacy be

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Speaker 2: as he leaves.

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Speaker 3: Oh, that the Australian Open and what it's become has

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Speaker 3: become this huge, huge event where you know, it spreads

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Speaker 3: across three weeks now, it's got a huge footprint in

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Speaker 3: the area that it has and wants to grow again

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Speaker 3: as an area across the road where they have it

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Speaker 3: the Australian Open, where they want to go into there

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Speaker 3: and maybe make use of some land over there for

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Speaker 3: the three weeks. It's an incredible event and he's driven that.

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Speaker 3: He's had a play a centric approach. He knows that

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Speaker 3: Australia finance with our dollar can't compete dollar a dollar

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Speaker 3: with a US opener Wimbledon. But what we can do

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Speaker 3: is make it the best possible experience for the players,

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Speaker 3: and that's exactly what he's done it. There's a lot

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Speaker 3: of the players while working in the freaking five far

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Speaker 3: five star hotel where they play at Australia at it's incredible.

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Speaker 3: So yeah that big big legs peace.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well big shows to Phil have they Are there

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Speaker 2: any candidates around apart from yourself who could take over

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Speaker 2: as tournament directors?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they've got a couple internal and even Gil McLaughlin.

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Speaker 3: I'm not sure if you're aware that name. He's a

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Speaker 3: guy that ran AFL. You know, he's one of these

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Speaker 3: Melbourne families that has been around for one hundred years

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Speaker 3: down in AFL States. He's he's got a very good

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Speaker 3: reputation of being a very strong leader. He's currently running

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Speaker 3: the CID over here. But yeah, his name's been floated,

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Speaker 3: but no, they'll do a proper search. I think Tyler's

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Speaker 3: going in a couple of month times, so it's no Russia.

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Speaker 3: He's going over to America to do exactly the same

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Speaker 3: job at the us TA, which is overseeing the US Open,

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Speaker 3: So great job for him. He choose to fil but

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Speaker 3: do'll find someone.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure they will always great to catch up on

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Speaker 2: Australian Sport. Adam thinks indeed we'll do it again next Saturday. Funny, no,

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Speaker 2: thank you made. That's Adam Peacock. Hear him every Saturday

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Speaker 2: afternoon at a round about this time just on the

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Speaker 2: NRL's Vegas Round with those two games tomorrow on the

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Speaker 2: show tomorrow, we're going to preview those games with Chad Townsend,

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Speaker 2: who's over there in Vegas. It seems like everybody's got

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Speaker 2: a ticket over there in terms of the broadcasts, the

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Speaker 2: four teams and is it Fremont Street over there seems

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Speaker 2: to be absolutely going off. So yeah, we'll preview the

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Speaker 2: opening round or the opening two matches of the opening

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Speaker 2: Round in Vegas with Chad Townsend on the show tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talk zed B weekends from midday, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio