A star-studded pre-game tribute at Accor Stadium put Jai Arrow and Nathan Charles at the centre of the Nrl Grand Final, with Amy Shark, Dave Gleeson and Phil Jamieson performing before kick-off. The performance was built around Charles, who said during the week that he had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
That diagnosis gave the night its weight. Charles said the news had been “extremely challenging and overwhelming” and, at times, “quite cruel,” while Peter V’Landys said the tribute was not just about Jai. His point was blunt: the Grand Final’s entertainment was being used to draw attention to MND as much as to honour a football career.
The sequence on the field made that clear. Shark began with an emotional rendition of You Will Never Walk Alone as Arrow and Charles completed a lap of honour. She then joined Gleeson for a cover of What’s Going On, before Jamieson walked on to sing Simply the Best. The three musicians finished together next to Arrow and Charles, turning the pre-match slot into a staged salute rather than a standard showpiece.
The reaction was mixed, and the route to the tribute was not as tidy as it looked. Reports said the NRL had tried to book Tones And I, but the negotiations fell through after she refused to perform Dance Monkey. Even so, Dance Monkey still played over Accor Stadium after the game’s first try, leaving the evening with a strange coda that underlined how much the program had shifted before the ball was kicked.
There is also the matter of money. The appearance fees for the musicians were reportedly being donated to the fight against MND, which means the performance was never just about a few songs before a final. It was part tribute, part fundraising message, and part public response to Charles’s diagnosis. The unresolved question is not whether the night moved people. It is whether the NRL can keep that purpose visible when the entertainment around the Grand Final becomes the story in its own right.
