The doomsayers will tell you it's all about the money. Jarryd Hayne himself sells it as a new challenge.

But the awkward truth for the NRL and other topline Australian competitions is big time US sports leagues like the NFL are slowly moving in on their turf – winning over a younger generation of fans, and now luring away its athletes.

While the NRL is most commonly shown on broadcast TV in standard definition, on delay, with a boorish boys club commentary team more concerned with playful banter than the game itself, the NFL is beamed into the homes and phones of a younger generation live and in crisp HD, by a team of independent analysts who focus in on teams' every moves.

This is a game followed by hundreds of millions, played in front of hundreds of thousands and performed by names bigger than Hollywood stars.