Footy legend slams the NRL’s grand final entertainment choice: ‘Our fans deserve better’
- Wendell Sailor is not impressed with NRL’s choice of entertainment in the Grand Final
- NRL has officially gone retro and has chosen Tina Turner as their cover artist
- Turner died in May at the age of 83 after a battle with illness
- Her iconic song ‘Simply The Best’ remains an anthem of rugby league
Footy legend Wendell Sailor has condemned the NRL’s entertainment choice in the Grand Final, declaring the Code’s fans ‘deserve better’.
Sailor, who also represented the Wallabies in his decorated sporting career, felt the NRL had ‘dropped the ball’ by not securing a headliner before the decider at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on October 1.
“I’m disappointed to be honest… look, I love Tina Turner, I’ve met her a few times, but I think we as the NRL need to do better, our fans deserve better,” Sailor told listeners of Triple M.
“We can get someone from all over the world. The AFL has KISS and we got a take-off from Tina Turner.
“They need a headline act, they had to go all in, they dropped the ball again.”
Footy legend Wendell Sailor (pictured left) has criticized the NRL’s grand final entertainment choice, declaring the Code’s fans ‘deserve better’
It follows the NRL’s announcement that they will go retro in 2023, with a musical tribute to Tina Turner headlining the pre-game entertainment (Turner is pictured in the lead-up to the 1993 grand final at the SFS)
Ruva Ngwenya won many admirers as Tina Turner in the Tina Turner Musical
Sailor’s sentiment was echoed by many competition fans, who flooded the comments section of the official NRL grand final announcement post on X (formerly Twitter).
“I think if this had been a side act at some point during the day it would have been a lovely and fitting tribute,” one NRL fan wrote.
“However, it seems a bit cheap to have it as the main entertainment. I bet it costs 10 percent of what they normally pay.
“I love Tina, but this is cheap. If I needed to, I could go to the local RSL and watch covers of songs. How cheap are they. Shameful,” wrote another.
“The AFL gets global superstars KISS, while the NRL gets a woman most people have never heard of, releasing Tina Turner covers,” a third fan wrote.
‘Is that really the best you can do NRL? No wonder the AFL runs rings around the NRL.”
Turner turned rugby league on its head in the 1990s and the greatest game of them all will officially go retro in 2023 with a musical tribute to the late superstar.
The NRL felt Turner’s passing in May as much as anyone, given the rock icon’s lasting impact on the game through arguably one of the biggest marketing campaigns in Australian sport, rugby league’s ‘Simply the Best’ in 1990.
Cross-code star Wendell Sailor (pictured right) shared his thoughts on the NRL’s Grand Final entertainment on Triple M
Turner died at the age of 83 after a long illness and on the grand final day the cast got underway Tina – The Tina Turner Musical will release some of her biggest hits.
“Thirty years later, Tina Turner’s performance in 1993 remains one of the great moments of the Grand Final,” NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said.
“This partnership is a perfect way for Rugby League to pay tribute to Tina and all she has done for our game.”
The musical features iconic songs including ‘Simply The Best’, ‘Nutbush’ and ‘Proud Mary’, which will be released on October 1 this year.