When it comes to sport in Australia, there’s nothing bigger than Aussie Rules. However, when you look across the pond to sporting nations like the UK, AFL stars like Sam Mitchell aren’t quite as well known as they are at home. This discrepancy in popularity is one that’s puzzled fans and industry insiders for years given that other sports with a national sway, such as basketball in the US, are still popular around the world. Indeed, back at the start of 2016, the Herald Sun ran a piece on Aussie Rules lack of popularity in countries other than Australia. Postulating a number of reasons for our love of the game and everyone else’s apathy, writer Mitchell Toy eventually concluded that it’s simply a generational thing. “We are the weird ones. We are the ones unreasonably obsessed with this game for reasons that nobody else can understand. For reasons that we ourselves can barely understand,” wrote Toy.
A Deep-Seated Love for Aussie Rules
Indeed, with an entire industry founded on the sport, it’s clear there’s a deep-seated love for Aussie Rules in Australia. In fact, beyond the actual players themselves, fans are engaged with the game on a daily basis.
Travelling to watch games is now more popular than ever with the average attendance in Melbourne increased from 36,948 in 2014 to 39,038 in 2015, but that’s not all. More people are now going online to get the latest results, read expert insights and even place a bet on their favourite team. In fact, such is the popularity of the game that online operators are now offering a one-stop-shop for all things AFL.
At bet365 fans of the games can now do so much more than simply bet on football. By navigating to the operator’s dedicated football betting platform, punters can get instant access to the latest team news, results and, of course, odds. Having everything available in a single platform not only makes it easier for fans to engage with the game, but demonstrates its popularity.
Despite Aussie Rules essentially being an isolated sport, the fact major platforms are willing to create dedicated AFL platforms suggests that there’s enough interest in the sport to make it worthwhile. However, while this infrastructure helps to demonstrate the popularity of Aussie Rules within Australia, it doesn’t answer the question: why isn’t it a global sport?
It’s Too Tough for Any Other Country
As Toy has pointed out, there’s something in our cultural DNA that makes Aussie Rules appealing and it appears as though those desires aren’t shared around the world. Another reason the game hasn’t caught on in other countries is that people aren’t very good at it.
Despite being highly athletic and skilled with a football (albeit a spherical one), Tottenham’s elite couldn’t get to grips with the game back in July 2016. After being the shown the basics by Hawthorn Hawks’ Sam Mitchell, the likes of Ledley King and Luke McGee tried their best to emulate the AFL’s finest.
Unfortunately, after some botched kicks and fumbled catches, Mitchell described their performances as “terrible”. Of course, to judge the potential of a global audience on the actions of a few soccer players isn’t fair, but it does help to demonstrate how tough Aussie Rules is as a game. Does that mean people can’t learn to play? Certainly not, but with other sports already there to choose from, it makes it a lot tougher for Aussie Rules to penetrate international markets.
Aussie Rules is a fantastic game and the infrastructure built around it in Australia is a testament to that. Having the ability to watch, play and even bet on the sport with ease just goes to show how popular it is. However, it’s also this national pride that’s stifling the game’s proliferation across the globe.
Does that really matter? Probably not, but it would be nice to see at least a few more countries take up Aussie Rules if for no other reason than it will give us another reason to shine on the international sporting stage.
