Bailey Mackey

I always remember screening at three where we had the programmers in there and we watched it and everyone was like, holy shit, this is, you know, this is, we're sitting on something here.

Series creator Bailey Mackey has a very specific answer about how the show came to be and the story he was hoping to tell.

I had a son who's now 25 who lived with his mother on the Gold Coast and I went over to visit him and I remember going to a barbecue restaurant and seeing Māori who were really confident, kind of not sort of, if I could say this, not weighed down by the baggage of where they were from and in some instances, I think, cultural baggage, all over there to make a better version of themselves.

And they were confident, they were good looking.

I've

always maintained, I remember talking to Bailey Mackey, who was one of, I think he's still on the NZR board or was on the NZR board, was at one stage polling to go as chairman of the NZR.

I have always maintained that the NPC should be a professional competition.

if it would work commercially, and that it should run right against the NRL, 26 weeks and go head to head.