Craig Foster, again....

[mustapha]

The only Soccer nation that averages more people a game than Australian Football is Germany by 4,000 people a game.

It also has 4 times as many people.

But we should feel so inferior to the power of soccer.

The people of Australia have spoken Foz.

What will happen to the afls average in 2012?

 

[le dominateur]

wow, the soccer nuffs nuffs are really getting owned by Sometimes & co in this thread. Their insecurities for poor crowds (lack of passion) are staggering.
Excuse no. 1 - but their are 80 divisions and a 1000 teams per country.
Plenty of lower level Australian Football teams as well.

Excuse no. 2 - Millions of poor people.
Plenty of poor people in Australia as well.

Excuse no. 3 - Australian Football plays at a big stadium (MCG - 100000).
West Coast could get plenty more to a game if they had a bigger stadium.
Adelaide had a waiting list for nearly 20 years.

 

[le dominateur]

Neither does AFL in Melbourne, Geelong, Perth and Adelaide, where most of the big crowds come from.

But you're forgetting we have the all conquering A-league to compete with

Yeah, right. How many games does the AFL sell out per season? 10 or so? The Bundesliga sells out dozens, maybe hundreds.

How many 3, 4, 8?
You do realise there is less than 400 games overall.

And anyway, by that token, how massive would Bundesliga crowds be if they sold tickets for $20 and had 100k stadia? They'd be getting 100k every game!

Where are this cheap tickets? I just paid $25 for a NAB cup game.

 

[Zim^zuM]

Karmichael took a few marks and had a couple of kicks in the NAB Cup.

That's a leading story on Fox Sports....home of the A League, and Karmichael's grabs were mentioned before Brisbane beating the Central Coast in the A League Finals.

Don't get me wrong, I love Soccer, but Fos needs to pull his head in a bit IMO.

I don't see the problem about us being proud of our own sport.

It seems supporting the team I love, and have grown up loving, makes me an uncultured pleb (despite my enjoyment of Soccer, behind Basketball and Australian Football).

To me both codes are awesome, but the A-League is shit. I played soccer for over 10 years, lived and breathed the NSL but in that time have also been a member at the Bulldogs. All this fighting and bagging the other code is a load of shit. Sports can exist together, enjoy both. If you dont then just follow what you like, big deal.

 

[mustapha]

wow, the soccer nuffs nuffs are really getting owned by Sometimes & co in this thread. Their insecurities for poor crowds (lack of passion) are staggering.
Excuse no. 1 - but their are 80 divisions and a 1000 teams per country.
Plenty of lower level Australian Football teams as well.

Excuse no. 2 - Millions of poor people.
Plenty of poor people in Australia as well.

Excuse no. 3 - Australian Football plays at a big stadium (MCG - 100000).
West Coast could get plenty more to a game if they had a bigger stadium.
Adelaide had a waiting list for nearly 20 years.

An inability or unwillingness to comprehend counter arguments does not equal "owning"

 

[J_Moore]

Jesus christ. Soccer is very well attended and supported worldwide. AFL is very well attended here. The A-League is struggling with crowds, for the most part.

These are all pretty uncontroversial statements. How has this thread gone on for 100 pages?

 

[Copernicus]

You also only have 17 clubs, 10 of whom are in Victoria. Germany has, what, 100+?

I dunno, what criteria are we using to determine how many 'teams' there are?

The AFL has 17, the Bundesliga has 20. I guess if you were counting top flight in terms of attendance, you would count Bundesliga-2, which is another twenty or so. After that point you're fiddling at the margins. SANFL and WAFL would be fairly equivalent with the lower leagues in Germany, not to mention the dozens of suburban and country leagues.

 

[legend166]

One of the best things about the AFL is that it is free from ethnic and religious tension. Oven class tension. Even the 'bogan' club like Collingwood has a lot of fans from different socioeconomic backgrounds. You might get a few nasty incidents now and again at an AFL game, but that's usually caused by drunk morons rather than an institutionalised hatred of the other team that extends far beyond the actual sport.

The fact that fans of both teams at AFL games sit amongst each other is actually a pretty unique thing in world sport. Most soccer leagues around the world have to separate the fans so there are no clashes.

If that's the 'passion' Foster is talking about, the Europeans and South Americans can keep it.

 

[Zim^zuM]

One of the best things about the AFL is that it is free from ethnic and religious tension. Oven class tension. Even the 'bogan' club like Collingwood has a lot of fans from different socioeconomic backgrounds. You might get a few nasty incidents now and again at an AFL game, but that's usually caused by drunk morons rather than an institutionalised hatred of the other team that extends far beyond the actual sport.

The fact that fans of both teams at AFL games sit amongst each other is actually a pretty unique thing in world sport. Most soccer leagues around the world have to separate the fans so there are no clashes.

If that's the 'passion' Foster is talking about, the Europeans and South Americans can keep it.

So is the A-League :/ just on a smaller scale

 

[MightyIrons]

One other chracterristic of AFL. the number of females and children who attend. Fairly rare in ball sports.

Probably a reason why AFL crowds are apparently more 'docile'

Some of the hyperbole in this thread is incredible.

What I want to see is some facts and figures from VicPol on the number of arrests / kick outs at each codes games. Only then can we judge.

 

[Pessimistic]

Some of the hyperbole in this thread is incredible.

What I want to see is some facts and figures from VicPol on the number of arrests / kick outs at each codes games. Only then can we judge.

You misread my meaning. My statement is hardly controversial

Maybe women and children are not so keen on the 'passion' that Foster talks about.

Perhaps its young adult males that appreciate that passion most

 

[MightyIrons]

You misread my meaning. My statement is hardly controversial

Maybe women and children are not so keen on the 'passion' that Foster talks about.

Perhaps its young adult males that appreciate that passion most

Heh, based on personal experience, that isn't true, my wife is now a convert from ARF to Football due to said 'passion'.

Straw polls ftw. Been to a Melbourne Heart/Victory game out of interest? The number of young kids with their Dad+Mum running around is quite high tbh.

 

[mojito]

Heh, based on personal experience, that isn't true, my wife is now a convert from ARF to Football due to said 'passion'.

Straw polls ftw. Been to a Melbourne Heart/Victory game out of interest? The number of young kids with their Dad+Mum running around is quite high tbh.

You see the same down at Hindmarsh. Plenty of teenage girls and women standing/sitting in and around the Red Army.

 

[MightyIrons]

You see the same down at Hindmarsh. Plenty of teenage girls and women standing/sitting in and around the Red Army.

Indeed. But, but, the violence!

 

[mojito]

Indeed. But, but, the violence!

 

[smasha]

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/aleague-v-afl-challenge-accepted-20110219-1b084.html


CRAIG FOSTER

February 20, 2011


Then come internationals and of course the World Cup all of which would be a more accurate benchmark for Richard's holy grail of atmosphere, the AFL grand final, given that it doubles as the World Cup final, but to compare anything on a domestic level with world football, well, that would be sheer madness.

Shouldn't he have other things to worry about?

That is the whole problem with the A-League admins and media up there.

Trying to create a war between the AFL instead of embracing the AFL.

I reckon 50 if not more percent that go to Victory games are AFL supporters and to be pissing on AFL will piss off alot of supporters that love the A-League as well but up there ,they never learn lol.

Foster,AFL aint going anywhere so instead of creating wars embrace the game .

Rugby Union have.

Why do we have these code wars especially when the A-League is played in a different time slot?

If you're going to stab AFL in the back,then you are pointing the sword towards your own stomach.

Sorry.

Australian Rules has been entrenched here for as long or not longer than Association Football up there and if it had started in England,who knows,the whole world could've been playing it now.

I'm a Tiger and Victory member and I love both sports.

I admit I love Richmond more because I was born into it and my old man woulda thrown me out of the house had I not supported the mighty mighty Richmond but I've had an open mind with sports and love the A-League,WC.

I think putting down the AFL is more an envy thing from the north than anything else.

 

[smasha]

German football has very little else to compete with...

If Australia had 81 million population and a non competiton set up like germany has it would piss all over the German crowd figures.

Australia has to be number one in the world for the crowds per population it gets in the AFL.

An incredible feat really.

 

[Barkly St End]

Heh, based on personal experience, that isn't true, my wife is now a convert from ARF to Football due to said 'passion'.

Straw polls ftw. Been to a Melbourne Heart/Victory game out of interest? The number of young kids with their Dad+Mum running around is quite high tbh.

Yeh, soccer people will say: plenty of families, plenty of females, etc, etc

But the raw numbers tell a different story.

Just check out the latest ABS stats on the subject.

Soccer is predominantly the preserve of the young male - hardly a controversial statement, as someone noted above.

 

[smasha]

You also only have 17 clubs, 10 of whom are in Victoria. Germany has, what, 100+?

Have you forgotten the Diamond Valley League,EDFL,**** tons more in the country all over VIC,SA,WA,TAS,QLD,country NSW,even ACT?

Euroflogs elite arrogant attitudes.

If the country embraced A-League,then you'd still be telling us from your 200 ft shoe crate,how much better it is back home.

Aussie Rules has been around just as long anyway and it would've been "the world game" had it been invented in an area of great population and growth.

 

[ndot]

i've been to top level soccer games in europe and, whilst undoubtedly having incredible atmosphere, they don't hold a candle to the MCG on grand final day.

people like craig foster need to keep in mind that a lot of australian soccer fans are also AFL fans. we're not against him and his football code. in fact, we want both sports to flourish.

with the state cricket is in, the domestic sports scene in the AFL off-season would be a wasteland without the A-League.

 

[smasha]

The one thing that makes Association football great?

The fans singing and chanting.

THat's what I love about it.
Take that away and I'd probably be bored shitless.

I can go to a grassroots game of Aussie Rules and still watch "the actual game" and enjoy it.

Association Football has amazing skill but I just get pent up with anxiety waiting for a goal or something to get the blood flowing again.

10 mins of awesomeness surrounded by 80 mins of nothing.

That's the average.

AFL has more bang for buck.

People haven't got time to sing because there aren't many nothing bits.

That's why I get shitfaced at A-League games to ease the anxiety levels.

I will still get a Victory membership but AFL is the better game that was invented in a country far away from the rest of the world with a miniscule population so the "world game" arguments are mute to me.

 

[smasha]

I will finish hehe saying,
If soccer was on the level of the Premier League,then more Australians would embrace it.

I know the people who truly love it here are Aussies with pommy parents or parents that were brought up overseas and bring their kids up to h8 AFL.

Robbie Slater has pommy parents.
Musky is a pom.

 

[mustapha]

Have you forgotten the Diamond Valley League,EDFL,**** tons more in the country all over VIC,SA,WA,TAS,QLD,country NSW,even ACT?

QUOTE]

The difference is that at top EDFL team has no chance of playing in the AFL. Collingwood has no chance of getting relegated to the EDFL. Fans of EDFL teams also support AFL teams.

In England if your team gets relegated, you follow it in the lower division. You don't immediately jump on to the team thats been promoted to the Premier League.

England has a higher population but it also has more professional teams. Comparing "passion" for a sport is therefore very difficult using average attendances. You can't compare a competition that has promotion and relegation within multiple divisions to a competion that only has one division.

 

[mojito]

If soccer was on the level of the Premier League,then more Australians would embrace it.

Eh? Do you mean if the A-League was as good as the EPL, more people would watch it?

 

[smasha]

Do you realize all you tools slagging off soccer make yourselves look even more insecure and ignorant than Foster does. Atleast he tries to make a reasoned argument.

I love both footy and football, but ultimately billions of people love football and a few million love footy. Normally the people who constantly announce that the rest of the world are idiots are generally the biggest idiots of all.

Hmm.

Spanish parents mate?

That gave it away.