Aussie Rules is "Football" in Australia

[Ray Nolan]

How is it second best?, in most English speaking countries it is called soccer.. US, Canada, Australia, NZ, Ireland and many parts of northern ireland, probably south Africa as well.

IMO if it was here before aussie rules and was the dominant code and historically was called that then fine but its not and hopefully will never be.

Take your BS elsewhere.

In fact i have heard the british themselves on soccer shows from the UK calling it soccer.

It is second best because in this country it represents that 2nd class status we were forced to accept for too long from the Aussie Rules establishment. Calling Football by its rightful name is an act of emancipation from the crap we've had to put up with for a long time. The fact is in most languages the game is known as "Football", in the cradle of our language it is known as Football. "Soccer" is at best a slang term, similar to "Rugger". It is not the name of the Sport.

 

[fabulousphil]

How come all these soccer fans say we must be a power in world soccer so we are recognised by the world and accepted into real sporting landscape..... i have seen many people write this.

Crap i say - who will recognise us if we are a powerful soccer nation.... Columbia, Italy, Brazil, ah yes what wonderful trade deals etc etc etc we can do with them..... cheap cocaine from the cartels, oranges from Brazil and canned tomatoes from Italy..... yes we can gain much out of being a world soccer power.


Give me reasons why we must bow to the cultural imperialists from FIFA

 

[realfootball]

I have nothing against 'immigrants' themselves. But I hate 'globalisation'. I don't like how we had to kill of tasmanian tigers so we could accomodate sheep, and I don't like how we have to call Soccer football, just so the europeans/ethnics/south americans can feel more "at home" in what used to be a unique country.

calling 'soccer' football is hardly comparable to the killing off of the tassie tiger.

If you went to the WCQ recently, you'll find that the majority there were anglo aussies (although people of all backgrounds were there), and all, i'm sure, would be comfortable with the term football. Using the word soccer is no more Australian than calling it football.
You will find that globalisation effects everyone, good and bad, and you have probably benefited from it in some way. Our culture has absorbed customs, beliefs, goods, games, terms and norms form 'outside' since day dot.

 

[Ray Nolan]

How come all these soccer fans say we must be a power in world soccer so we are recognised by the world and accepted into real sporting landscape..... i have seen many people write this.

Crap i say - who will recognise us if we are a powerful soccer nation.... Columbia, Italy, Brazil, ah yes what wonderful trade deals etc etc etc we can do with them..... cheap cocaine from the cartels, oranges from Brazil and canned tomatoes from Italy..... yes we can gain much out of being a world soccer power.

Give me reasons why we must bow to the cultural imperialists from FIFA

The whole importance of our Football link with Asia and the opportunities that our success Football-wise in that region and globally will present for us at a Government & Business level obviously went right over the top of your head. The Government understand this and that's why they pumped $15 million into the game and brought down the old regime & ushered in the Lowy backed FFA. Football gives us a 'shop-window' into some of the world's biggest economies (China, Japan, Korea), draws us closer to the emerging powers in our region (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia) and gives us contacts with the oil-rich Middle East in a way that no other sport in this country can.

Western Bulldogs v Fremantle at Telstra Dome in front of 2 men & a dog can't come anywhere near to doing for our country what Sydney FC v Shanghai Shenhua can do.

 

[fabulousphil]

The whole importance of our Football link with Asia and the opportunities that our success Football-wise in that region and globally will present for us at a Government & Business level obviously went right over the top of your head. The Government understand this and that's why they pumped $15 million into the game and brought down the old regime & ushered in the Lowy backed FFA. Football gives us a 'shop-window' into some of the world's biggest economies (China, Japan, Korea), draws us closer to the emerging powers in our region (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia) and gives us contacts with the oil-rich Middle East in a way that no other sport in this country can.

Western Bulldogs v Fremantle at Telstra Dome in front of 2 men & a dog can't come anywhere to doing for our country what Sydney FC v Shanghai Shenhua can do.

Think your getting soccer mixed up with Golf, Badminton, table tennis and volleyball....asians love these sports ahead of soccer, especially golf with the japanese, you guys seriously over rate yourselves and your importance.

Back to the soccer board Ray

 

[harmesy 37]

what rot. How many people in NSW or QLD call AFL football?

Have you actually been to Qld or NSW?

Your ignorance surprises me.

The 70,000 plus people who play the game of Australian Football in qld would call it football.

The number of people who play the game in qld is just marginally less than what play it in western australia. Who would have thought that 10 years ago?
not me.


Also, have you ever been to wagga? a city of over 50,000 people. Have you been to Albury? another city with over 50,000 people. Narranderra? Broken Hill?
All of these towns/cities are in NSW and the majority of people in those locations would refer to Australian rules football as football. So i guess you only rate people who live in Sydney /newcastle/wollongong as that is where the majority of the population is. Fine. do that but to assume that people in nsw and qld do not refer to the australian game as football is an example of making gross generalisations.




you, my friend, appear to be a pawn in John ONeill's games. He is loving this. Divide and rule is what ONeill is all about. Name one of his long lasting achievements after the Rugby world cup? I would be most interested if you could give me some information on this.

 

[mighty tiges]

A lot of people in Australia might resent the use of the term "football" for the round ball code but the fact is Australia in global sporting terms is a pimple on the backside - not remotely important. Australia's football codes are unique but the fact is neither are played on a REALLY global scale, and I think that's what annoys them more than anything.

I think Aussie rules fans just find the whole idea stupid that a game that's been called soccer or Association football for a century in this country suddenly wants to call itself football. I played soccer and have never hated the term soccer. Sounds like an inferiority complex to me from certain small group of soccer-only hardliners (mostly from Sydney) who are annoyed soccer isn't the number one football code in Oz like it is around the world and are trying to shove their agenda down everybody elses throats.

The problem these hardlines don't understand is the three main reasons why most of the population tuned into the World-Cup qualifier was - 1) National pride, 2) Aussies know their sports and when a major contest matters (we love our cricket but we won't watch a crap WI side) and 3) because Aussies love to shove it up other countries who think they own a major sport especially if that sport isn't huge here and a bit of sweet revenge is on offer .

There's plenty of room for all footy codes and this hardline obsession with calling soccer 'football' from some is embarrassing and a waste of time and energy particularly when so many good things are finally happening for Aussie soccer. The game was a joke before because of pathetic administration and ethnic divisions not because it was called soccer .

 

[Ray Nolan]

Think your getting soccer mixed up with Golf, Badminton, table tennis and volleyball....asians love these sports ahead of soccer, especially golf with the japanese, you guys seriously over rate yourselves and your importance.

Back to the soccer board Ray

Your ignorance is staggering.

 

[fabulousphil]

I think Aussie rules fans just find the whole idea stupid that a game that's been called soccer or Association football for a century in this country suddenly wants to call itself football. I played soccer and have never hated the term soccer. Sounds like an inferiority complex to me from certain small group of soccer-only hardliners (mostly from Sydney) who are annoyed soccer isn't the number one football code in Oz like it is around the world and are trying to shove their agenda down everybody elses throats.

The problem these hardlines don't understand is the three main reasons why most of the population tuned into the World-Cup qualifier was - 1) National pride, 2) Aussies know their sports and when a major contest matters (we love our cricket but we won't watch a crap WI side) and 3) because Aussies love to shove it up other countries who think they own a major sport especially if that sport isn't huge here and a bit of sweet revenge is on offer .

There's plenty of room for all footy codes and this hardline obsession with calling soccer 'football' from some is embarrassing and a waste of time and energy particularly when so many good things are finally happening for Aussie soccer. The game was a joke before because of pathetic administration and ethnic divisions not because it was called soccer .

I think this post is spot for me.

 

[fabulousphil]

Your ignorance is staggering.

So is yours ..... are you still here.

 

[Hoops]

Some the drivel here seems to make the assertion that Football = Unaustralian. What a load of crap, Football is just as much a part of this country as any other sport. I was born here and for me Football is an essential part of the fabric of the Australia that I hold dear. Football is our game too and it has just as much place in our country as anything else.

F**k off you arrogant ********, If you are going to come on a football forum at least differentiate your game by not calling it football, The only Un-Australian thing on this thread is you, with your elitist attitude that football only refers to one game

And people wonder why we have a problem with it.

 

[fabulousphil]

F**k off you arrogant ********, If you are going to come on a football forum at least differentiate your game by not calling it football, The only Un-Australian thing on this thread is you, with your elitist attitude that football only refers to one game

And people wonder why we have a problem with it.

He is obviously a soccer funda MENTAL ist.

 

[Giants FC]

There's only one game where a major score, the fundamental aim of the game, can only be generated by way of the foot connecting to the ball.

 

[asdqwe1]

yes but its not how you score its the build up to the score and in soccer the ball touches the foot loads more times than in aussie rules.

 

[iscah]

I think you'll find it won't ever go away now.

With 1.2 million players over aged 14 (compared to 600,000 Aussies rules players over 14) then you are right. It won't go away. It is clearly the most popular teamsport in Australia. But we can all survive and many people like both sports anyhow ..

 

[cos789]

It is second best because in this country it represents that 2nd class status we were forced to accept for too long from the Aussie Rules establishment. Calling Football by its rightful name is an act of emancipation from the crap we've had to put up with for a long time. The fact is in most languages the game is known as "Football", in the cradle of our language it is known as Football. "Soccer" is at best a slang term, similar to "Rugger". It is not the name of the Sport.

You must remember two things .

Firstly , before Australian Football was known as "Australian Football" it was simply known as football . There was no need to differentiate .Even when they standardized the rules between the states it was still known as just football .Whatever happens anywhere else it will always be "Australian Football" , the football indeginous to Australia .

Secondly , the English were the ones who needed to distiguish between codes .So Rugby Football and Association Football were born .
There still is a need to differentiate between the different types of football .
And insisting soccer be called football means you will have "football" football , which will join Rugby League leagues and Association Football associations as abominations .

The correct title for the roundball game is Cambridge Rules Football as that is where the rules were first penned and haven't significantly altered .

 

[littleduck]

I agree, although the meaning of football differs between each person rather than region. But still, we made the dicision a long time ago to call our game football. You can call a prawn a shrimp, and you can call koala a bear, but you have to respect that in (half of) our country, we have branded our native game as football. To undermine that is disrespectful to say the least.

soccer isnt disrespecting Australian Rules by adopting the globally accepted shorthand name for their sport. there are sound reasons for moving away from the negative stereotypes associated with 'soccer'. but they are deliberately causing confusion.

ps. in the other half its branded as "AFL".

 

[littleduck]

what rot. How many people in NSW or QLD call AFL football?

expat southerners only.

 

[littleduck]

Have you actually been to Qld or NSW?

Your ignorance surprises me.

The 70,000 plus people who play the game of Australian Football in qld would call it football.

wrong.

Fine. do that but to assume that people in nsw and qld do not refer to the australian game as football is an example of making gross generalisations.

why? the accepted meaning of "football" for nearly 100 years in NSW QLD is "rugby league"..

 

[littleduck]

The correct title for the roundball game is Cambridge Rules Football as that is where the rules were first penned and haven't significantly altered .

Please direct me to an online website that has used that name.. or have you made it up to suit yourself?

 

[MSG77]

I originally posted this on the "Soccer will always be soccer in Australia" thread, but it might as well go here as well.

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I really try not to add to these troll posts (which is all “soccer posts” on footy boards/”footy posts” on soccer boards are really), but I could not agree more with the title of this post (Soccer will always be soccer in Australia). I can’t speak on Australia, but I will let you know about how it is in the US, as I think it will relate to you as well.

The “soccer revolution” as I will call it, started in the US about 35 years ago in the early 70s. Most schools (high school and colleges) had teams and there was a big youth movement. All the soccer advocates said, “We’re going to take over in 25 years” or something like that, probably the same crap soccer advocates are spreading in Australia. Soccer made huge strides in the US over the last 35 years. Tons of kids play soccer. <a href="http://www.nike.com/nikesoccer/dtom/manifesto.pdf">Here</a> is a recent Nike add hyping up soccer for the World Cup. They also have a nice TV spot to go with the campaign. All the numbers are true (17 million players, 5 straight World Cup qualifiers, etc.) All the youth leagues have produced a pretty good national team (8th in the world currently). Our women’s team is widely regarded as the best in the world. The Nike TV ad would have you believe people are playing soccer all over this country, and they very well might be. But I will tell you this with complete conviction and no reservations:

MOST AMERICANS DON”T GIVE A **** ABOUT SOCCER!

There was a Pro soccer league in the 70s, even Pele played in it. It failed.

We hosted the 1994 World Cup, everyone got excited. This lead to the formation of MLS (Major League Soccer, analogous to your A-League) in 1996. They paid big bucks to keep all the good US players from going across the pond and even signed some older international players to bigger contracts than they could have gotten from their previous teams. I went to the first game of MLS (just because I’m a sports history buff) and I haven’t been back since. The league still exists, but it is a niche sport. The crowds are small; the money isn’t there, so anyone who’s any good goes to Europe, leaving an inferior league. I couldn’t care less about the quality of play; I’m not paying to go to a soccer game anyway.

After the women won the 1999 Women’s World Cup (which we also hosted), they made a professional women’s league, the WUSA (Women’s United Soccer Association). It folded after a few seasons as well.

If you call in to any sports talk radio show and try to bring up soccer, you will most likely get laughed off the air. Soccer gets little blurbs towards the back of the sports section of the newspaper.

Don’t get me wrong; there are tons of people playing soccer. There are lot of Adult rec. leagues, youth leagues, school teams, etc. This is because it is an easy game to play. It has simple rules, it’s not physical, and even if you are terrible, there is always some team to play on. But this doesn’t translate to marketable interest. It never has and it never will. Pretty much the only “die-hard” soccer fans are first (and sometimes second) generation immigrants. Almost all of their kids and grandkids assimilate to society and follow other sports. You know why?

SOCCER IS BORING!

When they are exposed to other sports they realize this. My brother currently plays baseball in college. When he was younger, he played soccer with the MLS Rookie of the Year. That player was also an All-American in college. When they were younger, my brother played goalie and he played sweeper in front of him. Is my brother jealous of his success? No, because my brother loves baseball! He quit soccer after his sophomore year of high school because he wanted to focus on baseball.

Look, I hope the US wins the World Cup, even though I don’t like soccer. I’m just too patriotic to root against them. I’m also confident it won’t mean a thing to the other sports in the US. I hope Australia finishes second for the same reason. (The odds of the US winning and Australia finishing second are about as good as me swimming from San Diego to Sydney, by the way) If they do well, interest will go up for 6 months to a year, and then it will be back to normal. Australian Rules football is one of the greatest, most exciting games ever invented. I wish it were more popular in the US. Footy fans in Australia have to worry more about the shortsightedness of the people running the AFL (see the Hawks/NZ disaster) than they have to worry about soccer taking over footy in popularity.

Soccer is soccer. It is what it is. The only countries that call soccer football are the ones who don’t have any better game to call football.

 

[Ferox]

football is a generic term that describes all mentioned codes. the use of this word and the meaning it will impart at any particular time is influenced by individual and local context.

Job done - it is a generic term.

Furthermore, what do these sports call the "object used for scoring"?

WRT to AFL - football, footy, ball (the later within the context of the game).

When I say "I want a new football for xmas" there is no confusion as to what I mean amongst my family/friends.

What would I be given if I said this in Uruguay?...or Wales?

 

[fabulousphil]

soccer isnt disrespecting Australian Rules by adopting the globally accepted shorthand name for their sport. there are sound reasons for moving away from the negative stereotypes associated with 'soccer'. but they are deliberately causing confusion.

I disagree i think soccer is intending to disrespect the other codes of football in this country.... as has already been said but maybe you did not read..soccer is only called football in the UK and not even all of that as parts of northern ireland football is Gaelic footy, most English speaking countries call soccer soccer.....OZ, NZ, Canada, USA, SA. Non english speaking countries call it fusbul or cheeseball or gayball or flareball or whatever.

This is a ploy by Sydney centric soccer fundamentalists to enforce their BS on everyone..... remember if you dont live in Sydney you are only camping out...... as you might be aware LD Sydney thinks itself better than the rest of OZ.

 

[littleduck]

When I say "I want a new football for xmas" there is no confusion as to what I mean amongst my family/friends.

Where I come from that request would get you a Steeden.

 

[littleduck]

I disagree i think soccer is intending to disrespect the other codes of football in this country.... as has already been said but maybe you did not read..soccer is only called football in the UK and not even all of that as parts of northern ireland football is Gaelic footy, most English speaking countries call soccer soccer.....OZ, NZ, Canada, USA, SA. Non english speaking countries call it fusbul or cheeseball or gayball or flareball or whatever.

In my view there is nothing inherently wrong with saying "soccer", but I agree with the need for "soccer" in Australia to overcome the negative stereotypes associated with "soccer" by rebadging itself as "football"... at the end of the day there are 4 "football" codes: AussieRules RugbyLeague RugbyUnion Soccer... and none will ever become the one true meaning of "football" nationally.

This is a ploy by Sydney centric soccer fundamentalists to enforce their BS on everyone..... remember if you dont live in Sydney you are only camping out......

I think the #1 reason is that which I said above.

as you might be aware LD Sydney thinks itself better than the rest of OZ.

well aware!