You would be hard pressed to find anyone happier than Ben Graham about the NFL playing a regular season game Down Under at the MCG in 2026.

The former punter — the first Australian to play in a Super Bowl — said the impact of the announcement could not be understated.

“This is a momentous announcement,” he told The Nightly.

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“This is not the NFL looking for a quick hit and kicking the box of growing the game internationally.

“This is the start of something like we’ve seen in London, Germany, Spain, Brazil.

“This is the start of a magnificent partnership between the two countries.”

The match at the MCG is expected to be held during the opening round of the NFL in September, potentially during the AFL pre-finals bye week.

The 2022 Super Bowl champion LA Rams have been confirmed as one of the teams to play with speculation Philadelphia — who take on Kansas City in the Super Bowl on Monday and feature Australian big man Jordan Mailata — could be their opponents.

Graham, who is part of Channel Seven’s Super Bowl coverage this Monday (local time) said with the NFL now playing regular season games all over the world the MCG match would not be a one-off.

“Sports fans are going to love it,” Graham said.

“There will be other onshore cities around Australia that will have an opportunity to host an NFL game.

“There are seven million NFL fans in Australia right now, so they know that it is a market where there’s fandom that is going to support their game.

“There were only a few of us wearing NFL jerseys growing up now it’s much more part of our pop culture now and kids have a choice to play or support the NFL from a very young age.”

Here’s what we know so far about the match

• The match will be played in September 2026 during the week when the AFL has its pre-finals break.

• The LA Rams, who hold marketing rights in Australia as part of the league’s global markets program, are locked in as the designated home team.

• The Philadelphia Eagles, which feature Australian Jordan Mailata, could be the ‘away’ team.

• The game in Australia follows NFL regular season games in Germany, England and Brazil. Next season’s fixture will see a game played at Real Madrid’s iconic Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Spain for the first time.

• The game is not the first NFL match played in Australia with the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers playing a pre-season game in front of about 60,000 fans at Sydney’s newly built Stadium Australia in 1999.

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