Rename 'Australian Rules Football' please.

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bloodsbigot

bloodsbigot

Norm Smith Medallist
Veteran
Apr 17, 2007
5,190
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Sydney
I think Australian football should consider getting a new/alternative name to describe itself instead of 'Australian Rules Football.' I have thought this for years and I stand by my view.

I know this can probably go in the AFL section of bigfooty, but I thought since it's related to the expansion of footy internationally, I thought this would be the most appropriate place to post it. -Also due to the fact that the international bigfooty community could possibly be more open-minded than the local yahoos.

For example, Americans call their sport, 'football' and every American automatically knows what they're talking about. However, internationally, it's more well known as 'Gridiron.' 'Soccer' is known as football in Europe and other nations, but they invented the term 'soccer' to prevent confusion (Maybe). People in the Northern parts of Australia refer to rugby league as 'footy' etc etc etc.

I won't lie, I HATE the term 'Australian Rules Football' with a passion. I even prefer simply 'Australian Football' as an alternative because it's less of a tongue twister. But I can't stand the term 'Australian' in there.

By using the term 'Australian' you automatically alienate any potential supporters, players or funders from our game simply because they realise it's 'foreign' to them. 'Football'/soccer has succeeded because it doesn't attach itself to England as much and isn't seen as an 'English' sport. Why isn't it called 'England ball?' It's as much a part of Brazilian tradition/culture as it's part of England's.

Until the term 'Australian Rules Football' is changed or an alternative name is coined, Australian football will never truly expand internationally and will only attract a small following who are interested in Australia and its culture... a bit like sumo wrestling.

Rule number 1 of getting support and spreading nationalism, 'trick locals into thinking that it's part of THEIR culture and NOT foreign to them.'

Anyway, I know it's one thing to complain about the term Australian rules and come up with some ideas, so does anyone have any good alternative names? For example, Marn Grook? Eggball? :p Etc etc. Thoughts?
 

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cos789 said:
Funny , because that's it's real name .



Well that's the plus side of it being branded "play AFL"

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It's the real name Cos, but I don't see it contributing to the growth of 'Australian football' overseas. Why don't people take up Sumo wrestling in Australia? Why don't people take up American football in Australia? -Quite simply because those sports are ethnically seen as 'Japanese' and 'American' by most people. And they are only taken up by small sections of the community, some with a fascination in different sports and some with a fascination in the country/culture itself. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but if we want mainstream acception, I don't see any other alternative other than shedding the sport of its Australian centric image and rather going for a more adaptable name. A name with a more universal acceptance. Something distinctive but does not give away the fact that it's Australian.

Also, it's best to do the renaming now while 'Australian football' is unknown to the rest of the world so it's a gorilla campaign... rather than being perceived as an 'invasion' like the northern states of Australia. Look at Gridiron... people simply don't like it and playing numbers are down because it is perceived as 'uniquely American sport.' We need to do this before our sport gets mass exposure. Its too late for places like the USA where the sport is well known.. but in developing countries and places it's largely unknown, it's best to get rid of the emphasis on Australia and rather trick the locals into thinking it's a native traditional thing.

Fine, advertise it as a 'uniquely' Australian sport in places like NSW and Qld in order to promote the sport better... but to promote it as 'uniquely Australian' is a ridiculous strategy in places like South Africa. I think the advertisers got it right (A little bit) with the slogan, 'a new game for a new South Africa.' HOWEVER, I think a better approach is to fool the locals into believing it's a South African invented sport and that it no way relates to Australia.. etc. I know it's playing dirty... but I'm sure other codes such as soccer have done the same thing and I think there are subtle ways of doing this... like making statements such as, 'footy (Enter different name here) is 'played in the South African tradition.' Etc etc.


And yes... it's one positive thing that came from the 'AFL' taunts. I actually prefer the AFL from the NRL supporters to 'Australian rules.' However, I wish someone would come up with an alternative name for Australian football DELIBRATELY (For public relations purposes) rather than accident.


Call it footie.
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Yes... I've thought this too. But I think it's too easily confused with 'football.'

Also, a few English people I know call soccer 'footy' in England. How worldwide this trend is I'm not sure.

Footy at this stage is the best alternative/internationally official name I can think of. But I would prefer something more delibrate as I stated above. Perhaps a different name for different languages??? To get it truly accepted?
 
clarkey said:
AFL? No, no, no.
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Agreed. AFL should be seen as a league. Nothing more, nothing less.

However, it's not a bad idea. Perhaps we could give it a name with an acronym? ARF? AR football? Etc?

-I actually think I'm onto something with the different languages thing though...

As far I know... they call soccer 'Futball' in places like Italy. Perhaps we can steal the name by calling it piediball? Or something like that?

What's 'football' in Afrikani (Or whatever the South Africans language is other than English)?

We could truly be adaptive and name the game different names for each language. This is something soccer does not do.
 
As its pointed out above, the name isnt Australian Rules Football, but Australian Football...so as u mentioned yourself, its not that bad a name.

BTW, American Football is not called Gridiron (Apart from Australia). Its simply American Football.
 
Unfortunately the horse has already bolted and the game is known as AFL - and it is being called that by many fans, enemies, players, coaches and administators across the country and beyond. Not in the majority yet but almost enough to call it commonplace. Don't know that we can ever manage to undo that?
 
*Crash* said:
Unfortunately the horse has already bolted and the game is known as AFL - and it is being called that by many fans, enemies, players, coaches and administators across the country and beyond. Not in the majority yet but almost enough to call it commonplace. Don't know that we can ever manage to undo that?
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The governing body did it. It has only taken half a decade in a few key markets to rub off. THey could undo it if they really wanted to.

personally, I think it is time for an independent governing body. I'd like to see them change the official name to Footy and call it the Australian Footy League (US Footy and Footy Wild have been pretty successful brands overseas). I mean if Soccer Australia can change their official name to Football Federation Australia, then our league should be able to use Footy.
 
There is no doubt an independent governing body will emerge, although not in Australia. And it won't happen any time soon either. The catalyst will be money, and the AFL can't compete in a global marketplace. It's great to be the big fish in the small pond, but there's a whole ocean out there.
 
clarkey said:
There is no doubt an independent governing body will emerge, although not in Australia. And it won't happen any time soon either. The catalyst will be money, and the AFL can't compete in a global marketplace. It's great to be the big fish in the small pond, but there's a whole ocean out there.
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why not?

we've made great inroads over the past 10 years, especially in places like south africa and nz
 

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The major difference Aussie Rules has from the other football codes (bar gaelic) is the lack of an offside rule.

"Onside football" anyone?

It describes the game and it may help get some of the people put off by the game's Australian origins well... errm onside.
 
Subprime said:
The major difference Aussie Rules has from the other football codes (bar gaelic) is the lack of an offside rule.
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What's the biggest difference - size . So simply "Big Football" .

Come and play Big Football coming to a big stadium somewhere near you .

Ok so there's a lot of 9-a-side . "Best Football" anyone ?
 
*Crash* said:
Unfortunately the horse has already bolted and the game is known as AFL - and it is being called that by many fans, enemies, players, coaches and administators across the country and beyond. Not in the majority yet but almost enough to call it commonplace. Don't know that we can ever manage to undo that?
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Of course it can be undone... it would just take a decision by the AFL to do it... that is the unfortunate thing about language usage when w@nkers control the media.

Football is football... not soccer. I am Australian and when I say football I mean football. I also refer to it as footy... that is inherent in the language and culture that has been passed down through the generations for almost 150 years. (maybe marn grook has been passed down for 60,000 years - but I am talking about football in this case).

Did anybody use the word "rhetoric" prior to the Iraq war ???

And what about the word "detainee", in my parents day, they were called Prisoners of War... but unfortunately you are not allowed to torture POWs nor to hold them without reason... so detainee fits nicely... and don't the media love to line up and coin exactly the same phrases and words.


Just because Soccer Australia has decided it wants a different name - it doesn't change the last 150 years of culture and language... however, some bonehead in the media has decided that it is official.


Go to Sydney Morning Herald and click on football... you get soccer

Go to The Age and click on football... you are going to get football (thank god).

these papers are the same paper, rebranded for different cities and carry all the same stories !!!
 

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Rename 'Australian Rules Football' please.

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