Atmosphere at the soccer better?

[mustapha]

I will still remain an Essendon member but I rarely watch neutral AFL games like I used to. If Essendon folded I would not watch the sport that I have followed since 1985. I know many others who have similar feelings.

I previously had the opinion that the success of the Victory would help the AFL because it could cause the AFL administration to take notice of the opinions of fans. Unfortunately it may actually have the opposite effect. The irrational fear of other codes will probably cause the AFL to consider more ridiculous rule changes. Would anyone be surprised if a shot clock, super goals and timeouts were introduced next year?

 

[Grunty]

You'll never see the A-league have aboriginals make up 15% of its players like Australia's native game either, because it's not an Australian game.

'Never' is probably the wrong word to use, particulary given that soccer is booming at junior level, even among the Aboriginal communities.

I bet that in five years the A League will have a few Aboriginal soccer players, to follow in the footseps of Archie Thompson, Kasey Wehmann and Jade North.

The role models are there, the training programmes are now there, it is just a matter of time.

 

[Ronin]

So Lowie you are now a kinda bandwagon Bulldog only turning up in future because the A league season is over and the better experience of watching Victory is not open to you......thank Heaven your are not a tiger.

That is not what he said. He still loves the Bulldogs, but he likes watching the Victory. They are played in different seasons, geddit?

 

[mattwinter]

'Never' is probably the wrong word to use, particulary given that soccer is booming at junior level, even among the Aboriginal communities.

I bet that in five years the A League will have a few Aboriginal soccer players, to follow in the footseps of Archie Thompson, Kasey Wehmann and Jade North.

The role models are there, the training programmes are now there, it is just a matter of time.

Don't forget Travis Dodd...

Remember that Aboriginals only make up 2.5% of Australia's population - therfore AFL has a much higher percentage of Indigenous Australians than the general population. Football is much better at having a balanced amount of ethnicities than AFL - representitive of Multicultural Australia.

 

[realfootball]

I think it is YOU who has no idea.



That's spot on. That is the ONLY reason why the atmosphere seems better.

That world cup qualifier against Uruguay was a crowd of Aussie bandwagoners and foreign immigrants.

why were you there were you?
I was there, with my family, and i've been following football (and afl) all my life and i'm a 5th gen aussie. With all respect, if you really knew what you were talking about, you would know that the majority of tickets went to 'football family' members, people who are registered players or members of a-league clubs NOT Bandwagonners, and a fair cross-section of the aussie population. Infact, most of the people I saw were passionate aussies, singing the national anthem and 'LAND down under' like it has never been sung before.

 

[LightTower4]

......... singing the national anthem and 'men down under' like it has never been sung before.

Is that the Sydney version?
I prefer 'Land Down Under'.

 

[realfootball]

Is that the Sydney version?
I prefer 'Land Down Under'.

ha. I knew it wasn't a good idea to start work early this morning. What a mistake!

There probably is an oxford st version by this title!

 

[sabre_ac]

Ha.
The crowd is bored....I agree with you there...They sing more...

But cheering wise nothing competes to the afl IMHO.

 

[Ronin]

why were you there were you?
I was there, with my family, and i've been following football (and afl) all my life and i'm a 5th gen aussie. With all respect, if you really knew what you were talking about, you would know that the majority of tickets went to 'football family' members, people who are registered players or members of a-league clubs NOT Bandwagonners, and a fair cross-section of the aussie population. Infact, most of the people I saw were passionate aussies, singing the national anthem and 'LAND down under' like it has never been sung before.

I was there, along with plenty of workmates who's first passion is another footy code. All of them agreed that it was the most amazing sporting experience.

What do you expect, is there any other sport in the land that can have 80,000 in a stadium, of which 99% of the people are cheering for the one team?

Only happens in one game, Football.

 

[harmesy 37]

I have been to an AFL preliminary final match where the crowd noise was so great that I couldn't hear the siren.

A cousin who went with me said he was suffering from nervous exhaustion after the match.

I have been to a-league soccer matches - heard the singing - realised it was what it was - a whole lot of fakers wishing they were back in England and thought it was second rate. You can sing 1000 sea shanties and little ditties.. but it still doesn't change the fact that soccer is an example of cultural imperialism. If Australia ever wants to stand on its own two feet it must have pride in its own culture...not pander to what the poms want us to do.

oh.. but we can like both sports everyone says.. of course we can..

Few kids play both games at the same time on a saturday.. unless they have a time machine.
In the end - one has to favour one or the other .. the next generation of kids have to choose which game they will support.. oh that's right they can support each code equally i keep being told.

 

[rick James]

I have been to an AFL preliminary final match where the crowd noise was so great that I couldn't hear the siren.

A cousin who went with me said he was suffering from nervous exhaustion after the match.

I have been to a-league soccer matches - heard the singing - realised it was what it was - a whole lot of fakers wishing they were back in England and thought it was second rate. You can sing 1000 sea shanties and little ditties.. but it still doesn't change the fact that soccer is an example of cultural imperialism. If Australia ever wants to stand on its own two feet it must have pride in its own culture...not pander to what the poms want us to do.

oh.. but we can like both sports everyone says.. of course we can..

Few kids play both games at the same time on a saturday.. unless they have a time machine.
In the end - one has to favour one or the other .. the next generation of kids have to choose which game they will support.. oh that's right they can support each code equally i keep being told.

they can always play one through school and one on the weekend...

 

[Stealthy]

Ha.
The crowd is bored...

Yes, that's why it's the world's most popular sport.

 

[Kompany]

but it still doesn't change the fact that soccer is an example of cultural imperialism. If Australia ever wants to stand on its own two feet it must have pride in its own culture...not pander to what the poms want us to do.

And when all the stupid excuses don't work, let's come up with the dumbest one imaginable, "it's not Australian" . We're discussing sports here, let's not promote some poor right wing bull******** to give insecure and scared people a false feeling of self-esteem.

Instead of blaming the poms for so-called "telling you what to do", why don't you stop telling your fellow Australians what to do .

 

[Stealthy]

And when all the stupid excuses don't work, let's come up with the dumbest one imaginable, "it's not Australian" . We're discussing sports here, let's not promote some poor right wing bull******** to give insecure and scared people a false feeling of self-esteem.

Instead of blaming the poms for so-called "telling you what to do", why don't you stop telling your fellow Australians what to do .

But life is so much easier when you have a scapegoat.

Football chanting = cultural imperialism? There's a new angle every day. .

 

[sabre_ac]

Yes, that's why it's the world's most popular sport.

I think that has something to do with the ease at which it is to play and ground specifications.

 

[rick James]

That's what this thread has turned into.

 

[Rob]

TV ratings are never an accurate representation of the actual numbers of people watching games - they measure only viewing numbers in Capital cities and only measure the number of televisions, not the number of viewers.

Not sure about hte capital cities thing - I don't know what the coverage of the Pay TV ratings is. But I can assure you those figures are number of people, not televisions.
Whether they're accurate is another argument, but they are all we've got so the claim that the A-League is getting lots of people watching on TV is at best completely unsubstantiated, at worst just plain wrong.

The important thing to note is the way these ratings look compared to other things on TV - if you look at the total foxtel ratings, you would see that the A-league (as well as English Premier league) is pretty much the most popular thing on Foxtel during the Summer.

I wouldn't say the most popular, but it is up there. But then again it's probably the only live Australian sport on TV in summer on Pay TV, basketball and domestic cricket aside. English premier league is shown in the middle of the night, so would only get the diehards watching. Other shows are usually repeated numerous times and would therefore split the viewers. Live sport is a one off.

These ratings are generally bigger than those for Rugby Union, Cricket and even bigger than the ratings for most AFL games on Foxtel (going by 2006 AFL figures) - NRL ratings are bigger, but this is obviously because most of the really big NRL games are on Foxtel.

From the same week I took the A-League figures:
LIVE: INSIDE CRICKET FOX Sports 1 57,070
LIVE: CRICKET: DOMESTIC ONE-DAY CUP FOX Sports 2 47,994

Cricket seems to rate about the same, which is actually pretty impressive given it's averaged over at least twice as long. I dunno about Rugby Union games.

And AFL matches tended to rate between 75,000-150,000 on Pay TV, which understates the audience as rarely did Fox Footy show games nationally, for most games they covered it would be on FTA in at least one market - usually the largest rating market. eg. They covered the Perth game most weeks, but it was never shown on Fox in Perth - always on FTA. That obviously takes quite a few viewers off Fox Footy, because usually over 200,000 viewers would watch the match in Perth on FTA alone. This is something Fox never had to do with the NRL - their games were live in every city. But despite that, most AFL games seemed to rate at least 75,000.

 

[marz]

Who's a w*nker referee?...You're sh1t and you know you are.... Bullsh1t Ahhhh!!!....


I could go on and on with the endlessly inventive soccer chants were it not for the fact that they are all the same. I've been to 8 premiership grounds in england and the chants were exactly the same at all of them.

You should have come up to Glasgow and watched 60,000 at Parkhead sing 'fields of athenry'. (nothing like it)

Ive been to over 20 GF's and 3 yrs worth of games at Parkhead and on european night or old firm day the atmosphere is unbelievable. Unfortunately the AFL these days can very rarely compete for atmosphere.

 

[wce4premiership]

yes i would have to agree, it's good but ot enough happens.

 

[Lazlo]

The reason the crowds chant is because the game is so boring that they have to make their own entertainment.

Pretty much the automated answer from any AFL diehard redneck!

1. Yuppie and bandwaggoning types

You've got your codes mixed up. Thats Union.

2. Mainly bogans.

Laughable, coming from someone who follows the AFL.
Would you like some self-contradiction with your irony, ya muppet?!

Most of you who go on about athmosphere have probably never been to big european soccer games. The undercurrent of aggression is always there. the police presence is huge. it really is a poor experience.

So you didn't see last years FA Cup final, did you? How about some of the World Cup in Germany?
A poor experience? What are you smoking?

 

[Lazlo]

And its all simply coz their mums didnt want little jimmy to get hurt by playing aussie rules or rugby when they were 10. Daddy woulda preffered little jimmy to grow up stronger with a tough edge ready to take on the world...

Beating up bartenders, the true, Aussie, foody way!
Drink driving and then running from the police.....so tough! ARF!
Rooting your teammate's woman, while married - yep, take on the world!
Well, "bollox", it looks like you're living up to your name!

AFL is a very inclusive game, sometimes things do get heated between fans but there's nothing really on the scale of the ugly incidents that you see in soccer.

Well since you've got most of the Aussie redneck media on your side, why would any violence be reported anyway?
Too many jobs at risk, too many muppets that believe things as quoted above.
And FYI, Aboriginals make great footballers. Let the youth poaching begin!

 

[Lazlo]

This place reminds me of a Bob Dylan song...."Idiot wind"!

That world cup qualifier against Uruguay was a crowd of Aussie bandwagoners and foreign immigrants.

It was the greateast sporting event in recent Australian memory. It was FILLED with football fans for the most part. Even one of your so called "AFL media army" admitted, on air, it was the most suspenseful passage of sport they'd ever seen.

I think you should just stick with your earth-shattering <s******> Grand Final days!

So for me, it's a fast, tough, non-stop, athletic, high scoring spectacle versus a totally predictably bouncing spherical ball drifting aimlessly between 2 impenetrable defences for 88 minutes. Bit of a no-brainer, really.....

So for me, it's a fast, tough, non-stop, athletic, high tension spectacle versus a totally predictably bouncing eggball drifting aimlessly between 2 sets of goal posts, and where you are rewarded for failing to achieve your primary objective. Bit of a no-brainer, really.....ARF!

 

[Roonaldo!]

AFL is a very inclusive game, sometimes things do get heated between fans but there's nothing really on the scale of the ugly incidents that you see in soccer. You'll never see the A-league have aboriginals make up 15% of its players like Australia's native game either, because it's not an Australian game.

******** off its inclusve, why do I get people giving me dirty loosk for being asain at the AFL matches?

The Socceroos represented a true multicultural Australia.

 

[Roonaldo!]

Ha.
The crowd is bored....I agree with you there...They sing more...

But cheering wise nothing competes to the afl IMHO.

Let's go *insert club nasme here* lets go

 

[Lazlo]

I have been to an AFL preliminary final match where the crowd noise was so great that I couldn't hear the siren.

Must have been those chunks of Four n Twenty stuck in yer ear, ARF!

I have been to a-league soccer matches - heard the singing - realised it was what it was - a whole lot of fakers wishing they were back in England and thought it was second rate. You can sing 1000 sea shanties and little ditties.. but it still doesn't change the fact that soccer is an example of cultural imperialism. If Australia ever wants to stand on its own two feet it must have pride in its own culture...not pander to what the poms want us to do.

And thats why the "international rules" was developed eh? So Australia could "stand on its two feet" <s******> with some sort of AFL reference?
Pathetic.
You need to realise how insignifigant AFL is, you'll become a better person for it!

Ha.
The crowd is bored....I agree with you there...They sing more...

But cheering wise nothing competes to the afl IMHO.

I'm guessing that along with other certain high profile AFL personalities you were watching Fox Foody Channel when Aloisi sunk that final penalty? Or when Cahill hit our first ever World Cup goal?
Remember any of those cheers, ya bogan?