He took to X and posted three images which included Adelaide Oval, Norwood Oval and Barossa Park. The caption simply read: \u201c3 venues. 9 AFL matches. One state – South Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether he meant to go fishing or not, NRL fans took the bait hook, line and sinker as they hit back and stated why Magic Round was the better of the two events.<\/p>\n
Mark Gottlieb wrote in response: \u201c1 venue. 8 NRL matches. One state – Queensland.\u201d<\/p>\n
AAP\u2019s Scott Bailey added: \u201cThis is not a knock on the AFL, but for the life of me I can\u2019t wrap my head around Gather Round being at different stadiums. The best bit of Magic Round is you can get a bunch of mates together, and watch everyone\u2019s team play over the course of three days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Countless AFL fans however said the NRL\u2019s Magic Round had nothing on the spectacle that was Gather Round and it\u2019s beauty of playing games around the city and not confining it all into one venue.<\/p>\n
The ABC\u2019s Brett Sprigg wrote: \u201cIt\u2019s cool, it\u2019s like a little footy Olympics. I was skeptical but I like that Gather Round has that difference (and I\u2019ve done both).\u201d<\/p>\n
Another added: \u201cThis is not a knock on the NRL, but for the life of me I can\u2019t wrap my head around why Magic Round isn\u2019t done during the school holiday\u2019s when more families can attend.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third wrote: \u201cIt\u2019s awesome you get to experience different event and venues and see different parts of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Images expose why AFL is the clear winner in this debate<\/p>\n
Sorry NRL fans, you can have your Magic Round. Gather Round has you covered.<\/p>\n
Keeping the entire course of the four days confined to within the four walls of Suncorp Stadium lacks the charm and appeal on offer in Adelaide.<\/p>\n
While the majority of games that take place over the course of Gather Round are held at Adelaide Oval, it\u2019s the minority that provide the real Magic.<\/p>\n
Norwood Oval and Barossa Park give fans a spectacle that you simply aren\u2019t going to get by sitting in the stands of a proper AFL or NRL stadium.<\/p>\n
With crowds hovering around the 10,000 mark, it\u2019s the atmosphere that is a completely different kettle of fish.<\/p>\n
At Norwood Oval you\u2019re greeted with only two stands, the normal seated arrangements you find at your usual footy game are replaced with standing room only.<\/p>\n
Fans from both teams stand shoulder to shoulder as the action unfolds only mere metres in front of their eyes.<\/p>\n
The games have a genuine local footy feel to them with fans from every corner of the ground feeling like they\u2019re about to be the next link in a chain of handballs out of defence.<\/p>\n
While the noise may not bounce around and echo off the walls like it does inside a stadium, the echoes of the crowd ring deep into the eardrums even if its just another holding the ball shout or goal celebration.<\/p>\n
Hearing the players shouting instructions or yelling out to a teammate from the bench are yet another aspect you simply do not get to experience at your every day AFL game.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a similar story an hour out of the city at Barossa Park. While the ground has makeshift stands set up to accommodate the flocking fans, it doesn\u2019t take away from the feel.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re getting a chance to watch your heroes run around within what is touching distance from the fence.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s what separates the AFL\u2019s Gather Round from the NRL\u2019s Magic Round. The use of local footy grounds elevates the spectacle of the event to heights the NRL hasn\u2019t reached.<\/p>\n
The charm factor of fans crowding into a local venue can\u2019t be matched by hosting every game over four days inside the same venue.<\/p>\n
While the AFL may have taken a page out of the NRL\u2019s book with their Gather Round concept, they\u2019ve left rugby league in the dust with how they\u2019ve held the festival of footy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has inadvertently ignited a war of words between AFL and NRL fans. As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-600047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600047","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=600047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}