'Tina got girls loving the game': Fittler tells Blues of Turner's legacy

NSW coach Brad Fittler told his players how Tina Turner had changed the image of the game and influenced the growth of females watching and playing rugby league as the Blues paid tribute to the iconic American singer by playing her songs in camp.

Fittler, Greg Alexander and Paul Sironen, who are members of his NSW coaching staff, all featured in the ground-breaking advertising campaigns with Turner during the early 1990s and after learning of her death he addressed the NSW players before training on Thursday.

“It was at the absolute start of my career, in 1989, and I could feel the difference straight away that it had on the audience and the way that rugby league was looked at,” Fittler told NRL.com.

“It was brilliant and if you look at what happened from there, all of a sudden more women started going to the games and then more women started playing the game, and you look at the impact women are having on the game now.

"That was the first step, and the campaign was definitely to get more girls to the game, but I don’t think that 30 years ago anyone suggested that girls would be loving the game so much they would want to play. 

“Ruan Sims always says you can’t be what you can’t see, and that got girls to the game, and all of a sudden they started thinking I can do that, so it had a massive impact.”

Significantly, Fittler told the Blues camp, the idea to make the iconic American singer the face of the game was the brainchild of then NSWRL general manager John Quayle.

Turner’s first involvement was the ‘What You Get Is What You See’ campaign in 1989 and she remained as the voice of the game until 1995, including a performance of Simply The Best at the 1993 grand final.

“John Quayle was the boss of the NSWRL so it was through this organisation that it started,” Fittler said.

“I just spoke about that, and spoke about the impact, and what the league did under John Quayle. John went out on a limb under a lot of pressure, and it is one of the greatest successes in our game.

“It was a big part of my life really, those ad campaigns. There were a couple of ad series that have done that but none better than those ones. That put rugby league front and centre for many people.”

Blues players played a series of Turner songs as a tribute, as did their Maroons opponents before a training session on the Gold Coast.

The NSW women's team is also in camp ahead of next Thursday night's match at CommBank Stadium and Sky Blues coach Kylie Hilder said the advertising campaign had an impact on her.

"When I woke up this morning and heard that she'd died I was really sad," Hilder told NRL.com.

"The best thing the NSWRL did was bring in Tina Turner at that time. It showed there was a female side to our game.

"Growing up you just resonated Simply The Best with rugby league. It was probably more sexualised back then too so we've definitely changed since then."

Few of the players in next Wednesday night’s series opener at Adelaide Oval were born when Turner performed at the 1993 grand final between Brisbane and St George, but they know songs like ‘The Best’ and ‘What You Get Is What You See’.

“Obviously she has got some classics, and everyone knows them,” NSW forward Cameron Murray said.

“Freddy had a bit of a chat to us, especially the younger boys who weren’t around when she came over and did that ad in 1989.

“Freddy just told us about how influential she was in growing the game and growing the women in our sport, as well, so it’s a sad day for rugby league.”

NSW assistant coach Danny Buderus, whose career began in 1997, said the advertising campaign had been ahead of its time and was still having an impact.

“We all spoke about the introduction of a lot of females into our sport – mums, daughters, aunties and even nans,” Buderus said.

“Still to this day I think every sporting code is chasing that sort of advertising or marketing campaign but I don’t think that has ever been repeated.”

The NRL paid tribute to Turner with a re-enactment of Simply The Best in 2020 and Jillaroos stars Simaima Taufa and Sam Bremner said the original campaign had played a significant role in shaping the profile of women's rugby league.

"The game's come such a long way and that was one of the steps to the NRL being known as a sport that includes everyone – every gender, nationality, age," Bremner said. "It came out before we were born but we know it so well."

Taufa said the decision to choose an African-American woman as the face of rugby league demonstrated the game's inclusiveness, 

"Having an icon like Tina Turner being part of the game, coming up with such an incredible song that resonates with everyone to this day and motivates and brings families together, and especially inspires girls to be involved, allows us to thrive and make changes which it has now with NRLW being part of the game and a lot more female participation," she said.