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1 year ago
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The Manly Sea Eagles have taken a different approach to promoting the 2024 NRL draw with players asked to draw their opponents logos for a social media video - with some hilarious results.
With the 27 round draw announced on Tuesday, including the groundbreaking split opening round featuring two games in Las Vegas, clubs have gotten creative to share their draw with their fans.
The challenge for the Sea Eagles players was simple, draw the opposition logo from memory for each round.
For some players, like star fullback Tom Trbojevic, the assignment was simple. All he had to do was write the word 'BYE' for the club's bye rounds.
Flying winger Jason Saab came out with a fairly decent version of the Melbourne Storm logo
Is that supposed to be a Tiger? Jake Arthurs' attempt at the Wests Tigers logo fell well short, but Reuben Garrick was pretty pleased with his Eels logo
Some, like centre Reuben Garrick turned out admirable efforts, with his version of the Parramatta Eels logo coming pretty close to the mark.
Other efforts left a lot to be desired.
Tommy Talau tried to be creative when tasked with the assignment of drawing the Penrith Panthers logo came up with a creation that looked more like the characters from Where the Wild Things Are.
Rising forward Austin Dias' attempt to draw the Canberra Raiders logo looked more like a cat while halfback Jake Arthur's attempt at the Wests Tigers classic logo came out looking nothing like a Tiger at all.
It was all in good fun, though, with fans praising the club for its efforts.
'Every game preview you post should feature the proper Sea Eagles logo up against the drawn one from the players,' one fan suggested.
'Elite content once again. We at least rule the socials,' added another.
'This wins the internet forever,' replied another.
Promoting the NRL draw in a unique way became a trend across the clubs, who all adopted different approaches to the task.
The North Queensland Cowboys used the adorable children of prop Reuben Cotter and star centre Valentine Holmes as a cute way to share their draw with fans.
Melbourne Storm took to the street to get random fans to announce their draw.
Perhaps one of the best efforts, though, was the Parramatta Eels.
The club stitched together a series of popular internet memes and songs to tie in with their opposition with hilarious results.
While the Sea Eagles have a reasonably favourable draw, clubs like Souths, Parramatta and the Melbourne Storm have difficult assignments ahead
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo insists that every effort was made to ensure that the 2024 season draw was fair
The NRL season kicks off with the much publicised Las Vegas double-header on March 3, but the first lot of matches on Australian soil begin the following week, with chief executive Andrew Abdo defending the decision to have the first game in Newcastle.
'It's an unusual year because we effectively had two round 1s,' Abdo said following reports the broadcasters weren't happy with the fixture on a Thursday night.
'We have two fixtures the week before in Vegas, and then we have the remainder of round 1 in the traditional spot.
'This is an opportunity to do something different this year. There are a number of blockbusters in the first few rounds, and round 1 has a number of big matches.
'The opportunity for us to play at McDonald Jones Stadium and have the Knights kick off the season hosting the Raiders in a rematch of that exciting game that we saw in the finals series is pretty exciting for our fans.'
Meanwhile, Abdo says things have been put in place to ensure player burnout doesn't become a factor in 2024.
The pre-season challenge kicks off on February 15, with the international window likely to end in November following a 27-round season and four weeks of finals as well as State of Origin.
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