Australians love sport - but can the NFL win them over in debut Melbourne match?

Australians love sport - but can the NFL win them over in debut Melbourne match?

George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers and other players were welcomed by fans in Melbourne this week.

In Melbourne in September, an oval ball usually signals only one thing: the business end of the Australian rules football (AFL) season.

But on Friday, at the unsportingly early hour of 7am, 100,000 people will start streaming into the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for a very un-Australian sporting event - American football.

The LA Rams face the San Francisco 49ers in their opening National Football League (NFL) game, the first time the country has staged a meaningful, non-exhibition regular season match.

The game sold out months ago, and more than half the crowd is expected to come from outside Victoria. On the official ticket resale site, a restricted-view seat costs more than A$650 (£350/US$470).

"Walking down the street, it's AFL finals week and you wouldn't even know," says Thomas McMillan, host of the NFL podcast Any Given Sunday Australia.

"It's all NFL everywhere. There are bars that are nothing but 49ers bars or Rams bars. We have a Ram Tram getting around the district. When you're in Melbourne and AFL isn't visible, it shows how big this is at the moment."

Kickoff at 10.35am local time on Friday may be unusual for local supporters, but it suits prime-time US television schedules and advertisers.

The league staged its first international game in 2007, and over the past two decades overseas matches have become a long-term plan to draw fans and their money.

Nine games outside the US are set for the coming season, including three in London. But Melbourne is the farthest players and US-based fans will need to travel.

"Obviously there are question marks when you hear you are playing in Australia," 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey told a press conference this week.

"But it has been so cool… the food's incredible, the coffee's great."

That caffeine remark may have been as much about the time difference as a nod to the city's well-known café culture.

Melbourne is a mind-bending 17 hours ahead of California, where both teams are based, and much of the build-up has focused on the two sides and their different attempts to "beat" jet lag.

For the 49ers, who arrived late last week, players have had time to recover from the long trip, adjust to the time zone, acclimatise and train at a nearby stadium.

In a controversial move, the LA Rams are doing the opposite, planning to arrive on Thursday morning local time on a charted Qantas A380 superjumbo, play on Friday, and return to the US west coast soon after, in theory to prepare for their next game with minimal disruption to the players' body clocks.

"Definitely it's a gamble," says McMillan. "If they don't quite get things right after the 16-hour flight, you still might have that jet lag, even though you're trying to avoid it."

"And not everyone can sleep on planes," says his co-host Danny Webb. "Whether you're in first class, business class, whatever it is, you're still on a plane."

"And", adds McMillan: "And they're six foot six most of them, so it's going to be even tighter seats".

Although it is technically a "home" game for the Rams, who secured NFL marketing rights in Australia under the league's Global Markets programme, the San Francisco 49ers have had a bigger presence around Melbourne this week.

And while most training sessions have been closed to the public, there have been player appearances at a fan rally and an AFL match, while former stars showed up at that most Australian of customs, the weekly fundraising "sausage sizzle" at the country's most prominent hardware chain.

American sports journalist Dontay Atkinson predicts that fan engagement will be reflected inside the stadium and that the MCG will be "heavily red" (the 49ers colour), accusing the Rams of doing "exactly jack squat to sell the NFL brand or connect with Australians".

Writing on X he added: "Fly in, fly out, no contact. I'm sure the Aussies feel great about that snub."

McMillan says he understands the Rams' approach, with the team viewed as contenders for the 2027 Superbowl.

"They're looking at this as a game they need to win," he says.

"We do feel a bit snubbed, and feel the 49ers are doing the right thing,

"But it is their job, so that's where the Rams coaching staff has gone 'nah, we're taking this approach'.

"I just worry that they have missed the boat of ingraining themselves as the Australian team. It leaves it open for others, and the 49ers have really jumped on that."

The LA Rams insist there has been no snub, though speaking to the BBC, the club's Head of International Stephanie Cheng avoided the question of whether she would have preferred her players to have been in town this week.

"It's really a culmination of more than four years of work," she said. "It's not just about game week. We have long term rights."

Cheng says the Rams are the only NFL team with a membership programme for Australian fans, and that it has sent coaches into schools and communities to promote "flag football" - the non-contact version of the sport which will feature in the LA 2028 Olympics.

She also points to regular earlier visits by star players including running back Kyren Williams in March. This week its cheerleaders have visited US military bases in Australia before coming to Melbourne, and the franchise has installed a 22-yard floating football field on Melbourne's Yarra River serving as a fan zone.

"From day one, when we've come to Australia, there's been incredible enthusiasm," Cheng said.

While no Australian players will be on the field on Friday, there are dozens playing US college football and a handful in the NFL.

Most are punters, kicking specialists recruited after showing their skill in AFL or rugby league.

But it is the success of Jordan Mailata, an offensive left tackle with the Philadelphia Eagles, who in 2025 became the first Australian to play in, and win, a Superbowl that was a "major turning point in Australia's fandom of the NFL " says Webb.

"Seeing an Australian in what we'd called a skilled position and then winning a Superbowl. It doesn't get better than that".

Friday's game is the first of three matches in Melbourne to be played over four years, under a contract between the NFL and the state of Victoria.

The league's preference, says Gerrit Meier, managing director and head of NFL International, is to hold annual games in Australia, similar to the way the sport has expanded in the UK.

"We're working off the hypothesis that we need to make a commitment to a market," he told Reuters.

And while many US-based supporters are not fans of the international fixtures, these games are here to stay, says Webb, and the hype and sold-out crowd in Australia bode well for it becoming a long-term fixture.

"I had mates four years ago asking why are you doing an NFL podcast? It's not a big sport here," he said.

"And now every single one of those mates are asking me for tickets for the game."