Strewth Mate, It’s The NGL!

When We First Started To Hear About An Ambitious Project To Launch A Professional League In Australia, Understandably We Were A Little Sceptical. Was There A Market, Where Would The Players Come From, Who Would Fund It? Move Forward A Few Months And The Signs Are, That It Will Be Happening!

The NGL (National Gridiron League) has its first games of a fourteen-week regular season slated to kick-off on October 9th. The league will feature eight teams. The North Coast Heat, Brisbane Outlaws, Logan City Wolverines, Gold Coast Kings, Newcastle Miners, Central Coast Cyclones, Sidney Express and Wollongong Devils, all fighting for a spot in the two week post season play-offs.

The players? They are (mostly) a combination of US college players (from division 1, 2 and 3 teams), former NFL trialists, and a smattering of Aussie and New Zealand nationals. A combine was held in Orlando earlier this year to select the US talent. Currently in the states there are far more talented players than there are spaces on pro team rosters, so the technical level should be high in the NGL.

How interested are the locals? When the trials were held for the nationals, 3,000 Australian amateur league players turned up to give it a shot! There will also be some European interest. Swedish standout quarterback Anders Hermodsson has signed for the Gold Coast Kings and will be joining as soon as the Italian season is over.

The SunCorp stadium in Brisbane will host four of the games. It has a capacity of just over 52,000. Even half full it would be impressive for a fledgling venture. At this point it’s not sure if UK viewers will be able to see the games, but in this technological age I’m sure there’s a way.

It’s an ambitious experiment, but league front man Marcin Soluch should be commended for having the drive and determination to give it a go. As you might expect with an Australian adventure, it looks like it will be in your face and colourful (check out those uniforms!). I’m certainly looking forward to see how it works out.

BREAKING NEWS!

Just as we were going to upload, news has come through that the NGL are to postpone the launch of the league to October 2017. They feel that the extra time will give them the opportunity to engage additional corporate partners and further develop relations with the Australian authorities.

Best turn my bar-b down to a low light for now then.