Fans have received their first look at the NRL marketing campaign for the 2022 season, built around the theme of the “Unreal” game (watch the video in the player above).
Nathan Cleary, James Tedesco, Daly Cherry-Evans and Josh Addo-Carr star in the 60-second commercial, which also includes a tribute to Benji Marshall.
The NRLW is also recognised with Jess Sergis and Tazmin Gray featuring prominently.
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The advertisement begins with the voice of rugby league, Nine’s Ray Warren, as Dally M Player of the Year Tom Trbojevic scores a try.
“Unreal, where did that come from?” Warren says.
A rewind of the Trbojevic play shows a Manly play the ball in the lead-up to the try, but the ball is picked up by some juniors instead as 10-year-old Axel Wolthers, decked out in Eels colours, tackles an opponent double his size.
The ball is then played out to Sergis who fends off the camera as she is tackled.
The screen quickly transitions to a State of Origin photoshoot with Tedesco and Cherry-Evans holding the Origin shield as they exchange menacing glares with each other.
After the Tedesco-Cherry-Evans shot is published in the newspapers, the screen shifts to a pensive looking Benji Marshall in his Souths gear.
“The last game for Benji Marshall,” says Warren on commentary, as highlights from his Wests Tigers heyday play on the screen behind him.
Addo-Carr then makes his appearance with his nod to Indigenous AFL icon Nicky Winmar’s ‘I’m Black and I’m Proud’ gesture with his jersey lifted.
A series of plays from last season are then shown including Souths star Cody Walker’s now-infamous pass that resulted in Stephen Crichton’s intercept and grand final-winning try.
The commercial ends with a wonderful moment of symmetry, with Panthers coach Ivan Cleary walking out of a darkened arena with his son after winning the premiership, as the scene is echoed by Wolthers and his father also walking out of a local ground after his match.
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