The NRL has planted a flag in Las Vegas. The AFL wants a big one in western Sydney

As the NRL once again planted its flag in Las Vegas last week, the AFL hired two drivers to transport a 10-metre Sherrin by truck from Melbourne to western Sydney.

The giant red ball, which took two hours to assemble on Tuesday morning, loomed over the playground at Rosehill Public School – a 10-minute drive from Engie Stadium, where Greater Western Sydney host Hawthorn on Saturday in their AFL season opener.

The symbolism as the AFL pitched its own tent was striking.

“It’s so good,” AFL boss Andrew Dillon told this masthead as glanced back at the ball, watching a few dozen schoolchildren in orange Giants shirts kick a ball nearby.

“There are so many options for boys and girls out here, so that’s why we have to invest and get in front of the kids.”

The optics of the media opportunity, ahead of the AFL’s Opening Round in Sydney, were telling – and absolutely deliberate. Dillon’s boots-on-the-ground approach in western Sydney came as NRL executives and players returned from a successful third venture in Las Vegas.

The AFL has made no secret of its ambition to infiltrate western Sydney – to capture not just rugby league talent, but attention. Since the Giants entered the competition in 2012, rugby league has remained king in the region. But Dillon and his predecessors, Andrew Demetriou and Gillon McLachlan, have chipped away steadily over the years.

NRL supremo Peter V’landys rarely misses an opportunity to take a public pot shot at the AFL, and most league fans love him for it.

“It’s actually lifted the AFL,” V’landys told Melbourne radio of the NRL’s Vegas venture last week. “They’ve come out of their slumber. They’re soon going to wake up and have a go. They should not be scared of competition.”

On Tuesday, a day after brushing off V’landys’ light-hearted barbs with a calm reminder that his code was “the most attended, played and watched sport in Australia,” Dillon remained unperturbed. He is not an administrator inclined to get drawn into a mud-slinging contest.

Instead, he stayed on message when asked about the possibility that, one day, the AFL could close the gap in rugby league heartland.

“In league, there are four big clubs out west. We just want to continue to grow here,” Dillon said. “If we’re growing, and if we’re growing at a faster rate, then, yeah, we’re closing the gap. We feel that we’ve got a game that is really attractive for boys and girls to play, and we feel if we can get that game in front of them, that they’ll choose to play it.

“Any time we spend thinking about something other than the AFL, it’s time we’re not focusing on the game. Opportunities in New South Wales and Queensland in particular, that’s our laser focus.”

Dillon pointed to the AFL’s ‘School Connect Program’ as one example of a long-term play by the code. A PE teacher is paid to spend one day a fortnight at Rosehill Public School, and nine others nearby, introducing students to the fundamentals of Australian rules. They are scattered across the region.

If kids can leave primary school with good marking ability and decent handball skills, that’s a win for the AFL. A few may go on to become professional footballers, but even if they start following a team and regularly attend games, that’s just as big a victory.

With 78,000 participants across NSW and the ACT last year – up 10 per cent year-on-year – Dillon believes the AFL is making incremental but meaningful inroads.

“It’s an investment that doesn’t necessarily pay off straight away, with people going to the game on Saturday, but we know that it’s about introducing boys and girls to our game and to become lifelong fans,” Dillon said. “We’ll back our game. It’s a great game.”

The AFL says average home attendances in NSW have risen 62 per cent over the past decade, while club memberships in Sydney have grown by 200 per cent. The Swans still consistently draw bigger crowds at the SCG than their western rivals. Yet the Giants have played finals in eight of the past 10 seasons.

When the schoolchildren were gathered for a photo and a Giants chant, Dillon found himself joining in. While he is obliged to remain neutral as the game’s chief executive, there is little doubt a premiership in western Sydney would be intensely pleasing, and a significant moment for both the code and the grand plan.

Australia-wide, the AFL wants one million participants by 2033 – up from about 625,000 now – with 20 per cent coming from NSW.

“It’d be great for footy in Sydney for them to win one,” Dillon said. “But it’d be great for the Swans, and it’d be great if the Suns up on the Gold Coast, too. The Giants have done an incredible job starting from scratch only 13 years ago.”

Giants chief executive David Matthews, who has been at the club since day one, believes the gap is narrowing.

“The foundation players of the Giants talk about when they started doing school clinics in western Sydney, they were unrecognisable,” Matthews said. “People didn’t recognise the jumper, let alone the players. That’s changed significantly.

“We’re targeting 40,000 members [in the years to come]. We’re still a young club, but our growth has been rapid. I think it’s just going to accelerate.”

As the NRL rolls on in AFL heartland on Thursday, when the Melbourne Storm host Parramatta in their season opener, Dillon knows the jabs from V’Landys are unlikely to stop.

Do they bother him? A smile, then back to the script.

“We know we’ve got average crowds in the men’s competition a tick under 38,000, we’ve got massive viewership over our 207 home and away games, we’ve got 1.4 million club members and revenue of over a billion dollars a year,” Dillon said.

“So we just measure ourselves by those. We know what those [numbers] say.”