JACKSON BARRETT: Luka Doncic NBA trade shows why AFL should have mid-season trades

For the first time, Australia is about to get a first-hand taste of the United States’ two biggest sports.

The NFL has announced the LA Rams will host games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from 2026 in Australia’s latest major sporting coup, while the NBA appears set to confirm a similar ploy.

Interest in sports out of the USA — football and basketball in particular — is on a meteoric rise in Australia, particularly with younger fans that connect to athletes through social media, through celebrity involvement, video games and fantasy leagues.

But Aussies are having an impact in the States as well. Former Sydney Rabbitohs player Jordan Malaita became the first-ever Australian to leave a Super Bowl with a ring and Patty Mills’ — and the Ben Simmons’ weeks later — shift to the Los Angeles Clippers now means Aussies have played at every NBA franchise.

That extends to the college ranks, too. Eight of the past 12 Ray Guy Awards — the prize for the best punter in college football — have been won by Australians taking their Aussie rules kicking skills on the road.

When the Rams confirmed their trip to the MCG, the NFL thanked the AFL for working with them to help secure the venue and pledged to maintain a relationship with the code.

The US leagues are the biggest sporting behemoths in the world, so there’s plenty we can learn off them.

The AFL has already extended half-time of the grand final to squeeze in another bit of entertainment. While it’s not quite Kendrick Lamar grilling Drake on the big stage, it does add another element to the experience.

The Super Bowl really is the genesis for the long and well-worn discussion around whether or not the AFL should play its grand final at night.

The NRL has already made the switch and has dominated the Sunday evening space, but the AFL has only briefly flirted with the prospect of deciding a premiership under lights.

The other element of US sports we could tap into is mid-season trading.

The NBA world was left rocked last week when Dallas Mavericks megastar Luka Doncic — a top-three player in the league who had carried them to last year’s finals — was traded to the LA Lakers in a blockbuster deal that included Anthony Davis.

And it piqued Australian interest in the final days of the NBA’s trade period, which runs through to the mid-point of its season, and included Jimmy Butler going from Miami to Golden State in another heavyweight move.

That has sparked debate around whether or not a mid-season trade period would work in the AFL.

What it would do, is create significant interest in the middle part of the season, when the winters are cold, not every game is filling the ‘G and some teams are already out of the running.

It would give teams the chance to be aggressive, to either hunt finals and premierships from positions they didn’t think were possible, or to be aggressive in fast-tracking their rebuilds.

Think of Richmond. The Tigers have cut fast and are launching a rebuild, but by gutting Punt Road and starting again, they are a good chance to accelerate quicker than West Coast.

A mid-season trade period would help them add more pieces as they go.

Or think about injury-riddled teams. Melbourne last year could have chased an on-baller to cover the hurt Christian Petracca and the struggling Clayton Oliver.

But it would require some of the power being taken away from the players and given back to the clubs. It would almost certainly need players to be traded without their consent, like in the US.

Aussie sports fans often lament the “Americanism” of our codes, but there are absolutely elements we can continue to take from their sports to help grow ours.