A historic first NFL game lands at Melbourne's MCG

0:00Well, for the first time, a regular season NFL match will be played in Australia in a matter of hours. The San Francisco 49ers are taking on the Los Angeles Rams at Melbourne's MCG. The visit also kicks off a bit of a cultural exchange, which my next guest has been at the forefront of. I was walking down the street. I saw a couple and they asked me what I was doing. I said, I'm going to go get a cabbub and they just smiled in a very Australian way. You sweet soul and they said, it's cabbub and I want to be like, no, I know what a cabbub is. It's pieces of meat on a skewer. At one point they were down 35 to 11 and they just turned it all around. How did they do it? I know how they did it. I think you know how they did it. His name is Patrick Dangerfield. That's a great kind there. Emerging himself in culture, food of Melbourne. He's a sports illustrated reporter who's been covering the San Francisco 49ers since 2011.

1:01He's been documenting his travels in Melbourne showcasing Australian sport culture to his viewership and joins me now. I'd grant. Welcome to Radio National Breakfast. Thanks so much for having me. What have you enjoyed most about this visit so far? Well, I didn't know what to expect from Melbourne. It's such an incredible sports town. My first night I went to an AFL game. I didn't even know what the AFL was. Now I'm here watching everyone gather around and make a big deal about the NFL. It's just really cool to see Australians embrace our culture and to see Americans embrace their culture. It's been a very interesting exchange this week. Grant, there's big money in the NFL. This match that's being played in Melbourne, how does this fit into the NFL strategy of trying to grow the game? They've tapped out the fan market in America. It's already the number one most popular sport and they're trying to expand overseas.

2:02They want one day to have a team most likely in the UK and they understand that Australia is a sports crazy country just like America. They think that there's a lot of untapped fans here and I think there's actually a lot of NFL fans already here. I mean, I've been covering the Niners for a long time. I've always had a lot of readers and viewers from Australia. I think this is a great thing. What do you make of these very different approaches of the Rams and the 49ers? The 49ers have been in town for a week, soaking up the culture, meeting the locals, getting some on side. The Rams are kind of in this time zone bubble of their own, have just flown in, they'll play the match and then fly out. Which way do you think is going to be most successful? I don't know. It's so interesting. The Rams should be tired because they just came off a long flight and the Niners should be tired because it's 830 in the morning for I'm tired. I mean, whoever plays a football or any type of a game at 10 in the morning. So I'm sort of expecting a low scoring game where both of you can sort of wake up around

3:06noon. So it's hard to say who did the bet. I guess we'll see in a few hours who was right. How does this fixture fit in? So this is right at the start of the season for the NFL? This is the first game. Yes, this is a big deal. So the 49ers in San Francisco, how do you see the depth of their team for this match? Grant. But they lost one of their starters, Alfred Collins in practice just a couple of days ago. And they're very thin on the defensive line, which is a very critical position. And it's going to be interesting to watch to see if they can stop the run. If you can't stop the run in football, it's hard to win because running the ball is like the easiest way to gain yards. You don't, you just hand it to someone and they run. So that's going to be the test for the 49ers. Can you run the ball? Can you stop the run? If not, they're going to have a very, very difficult afternoon. Morning, excuse me. Just finally, Grant, the big question. He's going to get up today. He's going to win. I'm picking the Rams and I'm doing so without any conviction or confidence. I say the Rams are going to win 17, 13, a low-storing game.

4:08That'll feel pretty ugly. It's kind of like extended preseason because a lot of these starters haven't played yet. I want to enjoy everything today in Melbourne. Thank you for joining me. Thank you so much for having me.