AFL the "national sport" of Australia

[Rob]

Soccer participation rates blow the AFL out of the water in the eastern states.

Participation, yes. And only in NSW and Queensland. There is a monster bias towards those 2 states for soccer participation - something like 3/4 of all players. That's where footy has the potential to grow. In all the other states

Soccer is typically the second most popular sport in each state after whatever the local football code is (except in WA because the Glory have had a few **** seasons and the Force are new and shiny). Hence my comment that it has the potential to unify all the states in a way that no other code can.

What state is soccer the 2nd most popular sport? I'd expect a combination of football, rugby league and cricket would occupy the top 2 in every state, and soccer is no certainty to come in 3rd in any state. Certainly as a spectator sport, soccer is behind footy in every state, rugby league in 2 and rugby union in 3.

Perth is not representative of Australia. In fact Perth had the exact opposite type of season that the Victory had. Pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Actually, it's been on the downward slide in Perth for years. Perth is an example of what can happen to soccer. 6 or 7 years ago, it was remarkably similar to what's happening in Melbourne atm.

Look at it this way. The AFL has a great domestic comp but a non-existant international comp. Union has a barely existent domestic comp and a pretty big international comp. League has a mix of both and Soccer has a massive international comp and a huge grassroots participation base, aswell as a fast growing domestic comp. See where this is heading?

Massive international comp? Once every 4 years. Most of the time, internationals played by Australia are mostly ignored, short of the occasional hyped up friendly. And the domestic comp, as successful as it is, is a drop in the ocean for Australian domestic sport. Small overall atttendances and tiny TV ratings due to the FTA TV blackout.
And if you're going to look at where it's heading, i'm surprised you haven't brought up the substantial drop in junior boys playing soccer over the past 5 years. Something like 12% over that time. Not that footy has jumped sky high over that period either, but playing numbers haven't reduced.

You let your bias cloud your analysis of facts.

The FFA don't have to create some new 'auskick' program to recruit kids, they don't need to spend time promoting the game outside of Australia because it is already far and away the most popular and richest sport in the world. They don't have to do anything besides look after their own backyard (the domestic comp). With the new format of one team per city that the A-League has it will end up being the only true, unbiased, national competition in Australia.

And what's your point there?

 

[Rob]

Who remembers when freo were only gettign 15000 at matches and West coast no more than 30 000. I certainly remember as it was only a couple of years ago. During that tiem glory were selling out every match and this little NSL Grand Final had tickets selling on the Black market for as high as $600.

Perthites are Bandwagoners no disputing it.

A couple of years ago, average crowds for Fremantle were 35k and West Coast were 40k. At that time, neither side had made the top 4 for well over 10 years.

The lowest average crowds ever for Fremantle was 21k and West Coast 19k (and that was in 1989).

But don't let facts get in the way of your little rant.

 

[juddy_Like]

I cant believe this thread is still going on. OMG.

People you gotta realise that Australia has no national sport. Plain and simple. There are some close ones, but none that have a total domination of the market in Australia.

To sum Up:
AFL is the closet thing to being the 'national sport' in Australia today.
SOccer has the most potential to expand the game beyond the widest of imaginations.

Cappish??

 

[TheSaviour]

A couple of years ago, average crowds for Fremantle were 35k and West Coast were 40k. At that time, neither side had made the top 4 for well over 10 years.

The lowest average crowds ever for Fremantle was 21k and West Coast 19k (and that was in 1989).

But don't let facts get in the way of your little rant.

The waiting list only came in 2004.

I remember going to a St Kilda west coast match at Subiaco where we got pumped in front of 24 000 fans in 2002.

Eagles are f$$king bandwagoners of the highest order dont lie to us about how they are not.

the reason the average was 21 was because of the sell out hoem derby twat.

 

[TheSaviour]

Absolute rubbish .

There has been WCE membership waiting list for years .
The Dockers started with matches around 15k .
I've never heard of Glory selling out matches ,
either local or GF . The Glory have been sub 10k for years now .

Get real .

Go back into your box to watch International AFL ahhahahhaahah

dockers were 15000 before they got good hence bandwagoners.

 

[Sir_Adrian84]

cricket's the national sport

anyone who doesn't watch some/all of 2nites game or take any notice of it should seriously question whether or not they are Australian.

No point in supporting the national team in one sport and getting all moral about it when you don't support our national team in other sports.

 

[Ronin]

And the domestic comp, as successful as it is, is a drop in the ocean for Australian domestic sport.

2006 attendences http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_league_attendances
AFL 6.2m (176 games)
NRL 3.1m (189 games)
A-League 1.2m (90 games)

Whilst the AFL figures are huge, it is a big call to write off 1.2m paying customers by calling it a drop in the ocean, particularly since the comp is only 2 years old.

 

[Sir_Adrian84]

2006 attendences http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_league_attendances
AFL 6.2m (176 games)
NRL 3.1m (189 games)
A-League 1.2m (90 games)

Whilst the AFL figures are huge, it is a big call to write off 1.2m paying customers by calling it a drop in the ocean, particularly since the comp is only 2 years old.

i reckon MNF for the NRL will be a big success especially if there is nothing else on a monday night.

 

[Ronin]

i reckon MNF for the NRL will be a big success especially if there is nothing else on a monday night.

It will rate well, but I would expect smaller crowds later in the year, as it is difficult to get out to night matches on a Monday night across Sydney.

 

[footballnutter]

FOOTBALL has the most potential to be the national sport of Australia with the A-league.

AFL is big only in VIC, TAS, SA, WA in all other states in lags behind as third or fourth main sport.

AFL is not an indeginous game it was brought over from England where the rules were translated in Australia as a mix of Rugby and Association Football. The rule makers in Australia used the English versions of the game to create the VFL which in turn has become the AFL. Association Football is clearly the game that every one decided to play in the UK and the world once the rules were formalised, it is unfortunate that these new formalised rules never made it to Australia early enough between trips from mother England as we would be the FIFA World Champions of World already.

 

[Footy Rules Australia]

cricket's the national sport

How can it be when one Swans crowd would surpass an entire season's attendances for the NSW cricket team. The same would go for the Lions and Bulls in Queensland. The highest drawing clubs in every state of Australia are AFL clubs.

 

[skipper kelly]

I dont think it was a troll if the A-league only got 700,000 viewers for the grand final. Thats less than 1/5th as many viewers as the AFL or NRL grand final got. Actually, its less than the NRL GF got just in Melbourne, and nobody would claim that wasn't mostly bandwagoners and bored people.

When was the grand final played???

 

[Ronin]

How can it be when one Swans crowd would surpass an entire season's attendances for the NSW cricket team. The same would go for the Lions and Bulls in Queensland. The highest drawing clubs in every state of Australia are AFL clubs.

Why don't you show us the total attendences for each sport in each state.

 

[I_LUV_AFL]

Apart from Victoria which is numerically stronger ,
WA , SA , QLD and NSW have approximately the same participation numbers , which are about double those of Tasmania understandably because of it's smaller population . The NT and ACT have healthy participation rates .
So , Australian Football has a good solid core of players around Australia .

Sounds pretty national to me .

The common person in NSW, QLD or the ACT have no interest in AFL. The common person in WA, SA and VIC have no interest in rugby league. Hence the reason that neither could be considered to be a 'national sport'. The common person in any of these states would have an interest in soccer. You can keep telling yourself that AFL SHOULD be the national sport of Australia but you have a blinkered and heavily biased view.

I'm not a soccer fan but I am a realist. Some people on these forums really do need to look out of the box they are living in and look at the facts and that applies to fans of any sport.

 

[skipper kelly]

The common person in NSW, QLD or the ACT have no interest in AFL. The common person in WA, SA and VIC have no interest in rugby league. Hence the reason that neither could be considered to be a 'national sport'. The common person in any of these states would have an interest in soccer. You can keep telling yourself that AFL SHOULD be the national sport of Australia but you have a blinkered and heavily biased view.

I'm not a soccer fan but I am a realist. Some people on these forums really do need to look out of the box they are living in and look at the facts and that applies to fans of any sport.

No..

 

[BigBadBustler]

The common person in NSW, QLD or the ACT have no interest in AFL.

Speak for yourself, you common troll.

 

[Ted Ed Fred]

AFL is not an indeginous game it was brought over from England where the rules were translated in Australia as a mix of Rugby and Association Football. The rule makers in Australia used the English versions of the game to create the VFL which in turn has become the AFL. Association Football is clearly the game that every one decided to play in the UK and the world once the rules were formalised, it is unfortunate that these new formalised rules never made it to Australia early enough between trips from mother England as we would be the FIFA World Champions of World already.

Oh dear

Yes, I like fiction too

 

[LightTower4]

AFL is not an indeginous game it was brought over from England where the rules were translated in Australia as a mix of Rugby and Association Football. The rule makers in Australia used the English versions of the game to create the VFL which in turn has become the AFL.

Brought to you by the ministry of misinformation.

 

[Ted Ed Fred]

The common person in NSW, QLD or the ACT have no interest in AFL. The common person in WA, SA and VIC have no interest in rugby league. Hence the reason that neither could be considered to be a 'national sport'. The common person in any of these states would have an interest in soccer. You can keep telling yourself that AFL SHOULD be the national sport of Australia but you have a blinkered and heavily biased view.

I'm not a soccer fan but I am a realist. Some people on these forums really do need to look out of the box they are living in and look at the facts and that applies to fans of any sport.

So do you disagree with all of these points

And soccer doesn't dominate any state. The point is AFL is closer to a national sport than any of the other football codes. Realistically RL is not on the same level as AFL. The AFL has more attendances, more members, better ratings (arugably), more money, arguably more passion among its fans, a far longer history, is uniquely Australian, has a much bigger link (both historic and current) with Indigenous Australians and a team in every major state of Australia.

 

[Sir_Adrian84]

The common person in NSW, QLD or the ACT have no interest in AFL. The common person in WA, SA and VIC have no interest in rugby league. Hence the reason that neither could be considered to be a 'national sport'. The common person in any of these states would have an interest in soccer. You can keep telling yourself that AFL SHOULD be the national sport of Australia but you have a blinkered and heavily biased view.

I'm not a soccer fan but I am a realist. Some people on these forums really do need to look out of the box they are living in and look at the facts and that applies to fans of any sport.

how about cricket?

are soccer people ashamed of this country or something?

 

[Sir_Adrian84]

How can it be when one Swans crowd would surpass an entire season's attendances for the NSW cricket team. The same would go for the Lions and Bulls in Queensland. The highest drawing clubs in every state of Australia are AFL clubs.

national sport does not equal highest crowds
it is about CULTURE of the country

swimming is more of a national sport than any football code and if you are offended by that comment then go to the airport and go away.

 

[I_LUV_AFL]

Speak for yourself, you common troll.

Grow a brain dumbass. You have selected one statement out of abut 500 that I have posted about rugby league, AFL and soccer.

Is a troll any person who dare say anything negative about AFL be it fact or not. You're the troll posting small irrelevant posts designed to annoy people.

 

[I_LUV_AFL]

No..

Another example of a good constructive post.

 

[I_LUV_AFL]

how about cricket?

are soccer people ashamed of this country or something?

I don;t understand what you are getting at, Adrian. Please explain

 

[BigBadBustler]

The common person in NSW, QLD or the ACT have no interest in AFL. The common person in WA, SA and VIC have no interest in rugby league. Hence the reason that neither could be considered to be a 'national sport'. The common person in any of these states would have an interest in soccer. You can keep telling yourself that AFL SHOULD be the national sport of Australia but you have a blinkered and heavily biased view.

I'm not a soccer fan but I am a realist. Some people on these forums really do need to look out of the box they are living in and look at the facts and that applies to fans of any sport.

Allow me to interject then. By this rationale, everyone that follows primarily league and/or afl should view soccer as the national sport. A quick scan of the league and afl forums would suggest that outside the WC very few people have more than a passing interest in the sport. Ergo, soccer as a whole would struggle to be deemed THE national code. Perhaps you're trying to deflect the fact that AFL is considerably more likely to be considered the national game than league is? Either way, your logic is faulty.