{"id":481722,"date":"2026-02-15T14:13:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T14:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/481722\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T14:13:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T14:13:41","slug":"the-mole-exclusive-peter-vlandys-comments-on-afl-state-of-origin-ratings-outcome-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/481722\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mole exclusive; Peter V’Landys comments on AFL State of Origin ratings outcome, comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFL’s State of Origin<\/a> on Saturday night has been given a bath in the ratings by its rugby league equivalent. <\/p>\n

The Victoria v Western Australia game drew ratings of 1.98 million viewers on Seven.<\/p>\n

But that doesn’t even come close to the final league Origin game last season, which attracted 5.66 million viewers on Channel 9 in early July.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘One of the worst decisions’ mars high-profile FA Cup clash<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Mustang destroyed in 250k\/h collision with kangaroo<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Burton’s Vegas trip in doubt as trial injury hits Dogs<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/p>\n

Peter V’landys, chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission.\u00a0Mark Kolbe via Getty Images<\/p>\n

In fairness, the AFL drew a sell out crowd of 58,000 at the impressive Optus Stadium in Perth on Saturday evening – but in the all-important terms of free-to-air television interest, it was a disaster compared to the NRL.<\/p>\n

Even the first NRL women’s State of Origin game last season out-rated the men’s AFL with 2.009 million viewers on Nine.<\/p>\n

Origin has been the jewel in rugby league’s ratings crown for decades, often proving among the highest ratings shows of all genres.<\/p>\n

The figures drew a delighted response from NRL boss Peter V’Landys.<\/p>\n

\"Bailey<\/p>\n

Bailey Smith, Nick Daicos, Lachie Ash and the Victorian side.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“They followed our lead during COVID and played two weeks after us,” he told Wide World of Sports after the AFL clash.<\/p>\n

“This was months earlier than they planned.<\/p>\n

“They copied Magic Round, now State of Origin. I’m surprised they are not in Vegas yet.<\/p>\n

“No matter what they do rugby league is the greatest game of all.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL’s State of Origin on Saturday night has been given a bath in the ratings by its rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-481722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}