“But ... it’s really important that as the premier of New South Wales, I explain that we’ve got
$200 billion worth of debt and a crisis in both our schools and our hospitals. And they need to be turned around first.”

Asked how interested the Victorian government would be in hosting the NRL grand final, a spokesperson for Sports Minister Steve Dimopoulos said the state had the best sporting infrastructure in Australia.

“That’s why we are the sports capital of our nation,” the spokesperson said.

“We’re always working to secure the biggest and best events for Victoria.”

Outgoing AFL boss Gill McLachlan said he wasn’t concerned about the potential of back-to-back finals at the MCG (the NRL grand final is played the day after the AFL grand final).

“They should do what they want to do,” he said.

“[The NRL] make their own decisions ... it doesn’t make any difference to me.”

McClements said on Tuesday there was a real battle for the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

“From an economic perspective, from a brand perspective, that is a terrific event. We want two semi-finals, the three-v-four play-off and the final played there [MCG] in front of 100,000 people,” he said.

“I don’t understand why rugby just doesn’t say yes. It’s 80,000 more seats, it might be 100,000 more seats [than NSW]. From a commercial sense, what are you going to say, that’s $100 [per] rugby yielding visitors, so it’s probably $20, $30, $40 million more by selling 100,000 more seats.

With Andrew Wu