Our film takes a journey through the suburbs of rugby league heartland, as a driver transports a mysterious passenger into the night. On the car radio, a talkback radio caller says that there are 10,080 minutes in a week - not an even ten thousand - and that those extra 80 minutes correspond with the exact length of a game of rugby league. It’s ‘almost sacred’, he says. We now glimpse scenes outside the car windows that celebrate the games’ diverse rituals, club culture, the season’s biggest player stories, and the game’s egalitarian spirit.

From interfaith prayer circles and Tongan family dental traditions, to bitter rivalries, future Immortals, and controversial defections, each club in the competition is represented.

The car drives through angry crowds of football fans, and we reveal that the passenger is NRL star James Tedesco, who jumped to a rival club for the 2018 season.

With audiences drifting from the NRL after years of controversy, the ad deliberately plays to fans who are ‘in the know’. As such, the film is packed with complex references to the clubs, their histories and the upcoming 2018 season. Although too numerous to list in full, some include:

A mural representing legend Greg Inglis’ return from injury - with the word ‘DEADLY’ meaning ‘excellent’ in Indigenous vernacular - commissioned in the urban Indigenous heartland of South Sydney.

The ‘Know your job…’ whiteboard was a recreation of a viral, profanity-filled image from the Gold Coast Titans dressing rooms.

The men with their kids are players with a history of close friendship, who are playing for the same club for the first time in 2018.

Australian captain Cameron Smith’s young daughter wears his Premiership ring - having been controversially stripped of two.