Run your eyes over the 60-odd NRL players set to run out in Las Vegas on Sunday (AEDT) and you’ll spot one fascinating story line after another.
Wide World of Sports has picked out five players under the spotlight in America.
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Matt Burton
Australian Rugby League Commission boss Peter V’landys conceded this week that the NRL had not yet won over as many Americans as hoped in its push into the US sporting market.
Perhaps Matt Burton and his towering, swirling bombs — the kind of soaring meteorites that have turned the heads of NFL stars this week — can command the attention of Americans so strongly desired.
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Talk of Burton potentially heading for the NFL, specifically as a punter because of his booming left boot, has bubbled away for several years.
That talk grew louder this week when the star Bulldogs five-eighth sent a ball cannoning into the ceiling of the Las Vegas Raiders’ training facility.
Raiders star Thomas Booker IV said it was uncommon for kicks to reach the ceiling, believed to be 33.5 metres high.
Lachlan Galvin
Few players, if any, will be watched with as much scrutiny in Las Vegas on the weekend as Burton’s halves partner, young pup Lachlan Galvin.
Perhaps no player in the league had as many newspaper inches and bulletin minutes dedicated to them in 2025 as Galvin, whose every move throughout his bitter Wests Tigers divorce and awkward Bulldogs marriage was scrutinised intensely.
Very little of the 14-game stretch Galvin had in Canterbury colours at the end of last season had the Bulldogs faithful waving their blue and white flags. Ladder leaders humming to the tune of Toby Sexton one minute, they were a plane without a pilot the next, and they faded like a paper plane.
But 2026 is a new year, Galvin was “the best teenage footballer” Phil Gould had seen, and the young gun is coming off his first pre-season at Belmore.
The Bulldogs are shielding Galvin from the media in Las Vegas. They want him to lay low and focus on his football.
Rightly or wrongly (Galvin’s hefty wage is propped up primarily by the media), they’ve given him every chance to fire in Sin City.
Lachlan Galvin and Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo in Las Vegas. Getty
Dylan Brown
Newcastle’s $13 million recruit did little to allay fears that he’s not cut out to be an NRL halfback when prodded in an interview with Nine’s Danika Mason in Las Vegas.
“Do you like the responsibility of [playing] seven?” Mason asked.
“It’s interesting,” Dylan Brown replied, smiling sheepishly.
“Justin [Holbrook, the Knights’ new coach] hasn’t really put that responsibility on me as such.
“But he said to go out there, play my game, lead the boys around and just do your thing.”
Brown inked the richest deal in rugby league history when he signed a 10-year contract with Newcastle worth $13 million.
And the Kiwi Test star did so to play halfback, despite having never shown signs of having the ability to excel as a halfback in the NRL.
Nonetheless, he was named this week to wear the No.7 in the Knights’ clash with the Cowboys.
Brown fled Parramatta for Newcastle for the big bucks.
Now, under the bright lights of Las Vegas, he has a prime opportunity to send an early message to his knockers.
Reed Mahoney
There may not be a single player in the league heading into the new season with as big a chip on their shoulder as Reed Mahoney.
When it was put to the Cowboys recruit by Wide World of Sports in Las Vegas this week that Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo had extended an olive branch in a recent podcast interview, saying Mahoney was welcome to ring him any time, the Bulldogs discard made no secret of his feelings.
Reed Mahoney in action for the Cowboys in a practice match. NRL Imagery
“There’s no need to at all,” said Mahoney, who was benched in the back half of last season and ultimately pushed out with a year to run on his contract.
“That stuff is all in the past for me now, but I’m taking it as a little bit of motivation for myself and I’m really excited for what’s next.”
It’s a brilliant coincidence that Canterbury is also in Las Vegas for this year’s rugby league extravaganza, locked in to face St George Illawarra after North Queensland’s clash with Newcastle.
Mahoney is sure to be scheming a statement performance.
Daniel Atkinson
How will Daniel Atkinson go as a halfback in his first season in the Red V? Shane Flanagan will be hoping for a promising early-season sign when the former Shark partners his son, Kyle, in the halves in Vegas.
Atkinson is better known as a five-eighth than a halfback — not that that seems to faze him.
“Nothing changes for me with the No.6 or the No.7,” Atkinson said this week, per AAP.
Daniel Atkinson pictured during a practice match with St George Illawarra. NRL Imagery
“I still run the ball, tackle, kick. I think you can complicate it too much in your head.
“I’ve just got to play to my strengths. I’ll make it real simple going into the game and play to each of those things.
“I feel like it will go well.”
The Dragons are likely headed for another painful season, but the signing of Atkinson on a three-year deal could prove to be a silver lining.
Atkinson is set for his second game in Las Vegas in as many years, having played off the bench for Cronulla in its 28-22 loss to Penrith in the US last season.