The Barrassi Line

[The_Wookie]

Where is the Barassi Line and how has it changed?​

Australian rules authorities have actively attempted to shift the Barassi Line.

As early as 1903, Australian rules administrators began investing in game development, spending more than £10,000 on footballs, jumpers, and school coaches to promote the code in Sydney.

In the past decade, the AFL has distributed A$220 million in additional funding to its four northern expansion clubs (the Sydney Swans, GWS Giants, Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast Suns).

Yet despite ever-increasing media coverage and professionalisation, it is remarkable how intact the line remains.

Come 2019, AFL free-to-air telecasts averaged 261,000 Melbourne viewers, compared with 21,000 and 23,000 in Sydney and Brisbane, respectively (when not featuring a local team).

Similarly, NRL matches held an average rating in Sydney of about 197,000, compared with ratings typically between 5,000 and 20,000 across southern markets.

 

[Canberra Pear]

Canberra's looking a bit like an AFL island.

 

[Walshawk]

The line hasn’t moved and will never move, but the blue part is not as strong as the red part.

 

[The_Wookie]

I mean it should hardly be surprising though, in 2018 the registered CLUB participants in victoria were 172,000 at 1,223 clubs (outdoor affiliated soccer in Victoria reported 76,000 players in 2019 from 358 clubs). Total NRL NSW participation across the NSWRL and CRL in 2018 was reported at 100,000 - including I believe coaches and volunteers. The QRL reported 61,000 registered players in the same period.

Compress 172.000 players into an area 1/3rd the size of the other 2 eastern statesn states...and yeah

 

[kranger]

Canberra's looking a bit like an AFL island.

View attachment 1447471

So I realise that the red is Aussie Rules territory, and the blue is rugby league territory.

But what is determining the size of the areas?

And where does that come from?

Edit: I see there is an article from the Conversation linked into the Wookiee’s twitter post: The Barassi Line: a globally unique divider splitting Australia's footy fans

 

[Canberra Pear]

So I realise that the red is Aussie Rules territory, and the blue is rugby league territory.

But what is determining the size of the areas?

And where does that come from?

I believe that the dots represent local clubs and that there line is supposed to be drawn halfway between the closest dots. So in rural territory, you'll get more space between them, and in cities, you'll just get more dots.

The data's not complete, it looks like Eastlake and Tuggeranong were missing from the AF side, so I'm sure there were RL teams missing, too.

 

[Cmarsh]

And where does rugby union fit into this?

 

[The_Wookie]

And where does rugby union fit into this?

Its irrelevant.

 

[Cmarsh]

Its irrelevant.

Why? The barrassi line concept seems to portray its all rugby league one side of the line which is not true.

 

[The_Wookie]

Why? The barrassi line concept seems to portray its all rugby league one side of the line which is not true.

The Barrassi Line is every specifically about Australian Football and Rugby league. Union/Soccer/etc are irrelevant to its discussion

 

[Tasmanian saint]

The Barrassi Line is every specifically about Australian Football and Rugby league. Union/Soccer/etc are irrelevant to its discussion

According to your self it’s irrelevant I love how you like to speak on behalf of other people in areas were you have spent little time in telling locals what’s right and wrong

 

[Cmarsh]

The Barrassi Line is every specifically about Australian Football and Rugby league. Union/Soccer/etc are irrelevant to its discussion

Which then makes the barrassi line concept rather inadequate as it doesn't account for factors such as other codes popularity and loyalty to.

 

[Canberra Pear]

And where does rugby union fit into this?

It's just the map the author used for the purposes of his RL v AF story.

In Canberra, AF dominates RL in the number of clubs, but AF is actually quite similar to RU. It would have made it a more contest map around some parts.

 

[madmug]

And where does rugby union fit into this?

Private schools & Insurance broker offices.

 

[gullie man]

Not sure about the accuracy of this study, 3 clubs in wagga alone not listed, East Wagga Kooringal, Rivcoll and Wagga Tigers

 

[Canberra Pear]

It's definitely incomplete.

It also says the ACT has more RL clubs (12-10), but it ignores the depth of these clubs.

At the senior men's level, there are 22 AF teams and 13 RL teams in the ACT.

 

[RedV3x]

The line hasn’t moved and will never move, but the blue part is not as strong as the red part.

The line was always conceptual and never precisely physical.
The blue part is getting more red blotches all the time.

 

[TWLS]

Have extracted this para from the Conversation article above.
This has been done for the footy fans who have never lived in Sydney like I have and have experienced of the set up football code wise.

"In a similar Sydney sport pub, 73% would support a rugby code. Notably, however, support for the rugby codes varies significantly across Sydney’s geographic subregions. For example, rugby league interest is nearly half as prevalent in North Sydney (28%) as compared to Sutherland (52%)."

 

[Gigantor]

It's definitely incomplete.

It also says the ACT has more RL clubs (12-10), but it ignores the depth of these clubs.

At the senior men's level, there are 22 AF teams and 13 RL teams in the ACT.

Very true.
Many probably don't realise that 4 of 9 Canberra Rugby League clubs are actually from outside the ACT.
Since inception, it has been regional NSW sustaining the rugby league comp in the ACT.
Incredibly, a tiny town like Yass, maybe a population of 5,000 can sustain a rugby league team in the top division of the Canberra Rugby League, while traditionally, aussie rules teams from Cooma, Goulburn and Yass have had to make do in the 4th tier of Canberra aussie rules.

 

[Canberra Pear]

Very true.
Many probably don't realise that 4 of 9 Canberra Rugby League clubs are actually from outside the ACT.
Since inception, it has been regional NSW sustaining the rugby league comp in the ACT.
Incredibly, a tiny town like Yass, maybe a population of 5,000 can sustain a rugby league team in the top division of the Canberra Rugby League, while traditionally, aussie rules teams from Cooma, Goulburn and Yass have had to make do in the 4th tier of Canberra aussie rules.

That's a good point

2020 really showed the lack of depth of rugby league clubs. Obviously pandemic-affected, but the top division consisted of only four teams, and one of them was a Raiders' reserves team to fill out numbers.

NSW towns closest to Canberra (pretty much in the metro area) also compete well against rugby league. Both AF and RL have four men's teams in Queanbeyan (including Googong). Murrumbateman only has an AF team. It's not until you get out to Yass and Goulburn where RL has more depth than AF.

 

[Big Blood]

Not enough plaudits for Ian Turner, the history lecturer at Melbourne University who coined the term. Every grand final week he'd do a lecture wearing his Carlton scarf, holding a beer and holding forth on some footy-related topic. Presumably the audience was equally primed. Unimaginable today.


This isn't as useful a stat as the author thinks: audience:
Come 2019, AFL free-to-air telecasts averaged 261,000 Melbourne viewers, compared with 21,000 and 23,000 in Sydney and Brisbane, respectively (when not featuring a local team).

When you have two local teams then aren't they going to draw the bulk of the viewing audience?


The other point that jumps out is the lack of historical data. If I were going to argue that something today hasn't changed from 20 or 30 years ago I'd grab the historical data and plot that out along with the contemporary data. He hasn't done that. All the anecdotal evidence - eg, comments from NSW-based AFL players, the emergence of the women's teams - is AFL participation rates in Sydney are well up over the past 20 years. That may not be the case in the rest of the state but certainly seems germane.

 

[RedV3x]

If I were going to argue that something today hasn't changed from 20 or 30 years ago I'd grab the..

the fact that with the Giants in Canberra and the Swans at Marvel there wasn't one article on either of these two teams.

 

[harmesy 37]

A silly article. Australian football is “advancing in the Riverina”.
My guess is that this writer has never been to the Riverina.
Coolamon is a football club that has been in existence since the 1800s, Wagga Tigers, Ganmain etc.. they’ve been around for over 100 years.
Aust. Football has been the primary sport in the Riverina for ever.
How do they “advance”?
Not sure what the context is.

 

[harmesy 37]

The wiki article also stated, "There were 129 locations where there was an equal number of Aussie rules of Rugby league clubs, many around the NSW-Victorian border".

Again, this guy has never been to the Murray or Riverina region. There is a small league competition based around Wodonga but how that "equals" the number of football clubs is mind boggling unless he can't add up.

The Murray Cup in rugby league features Benalla, Wangaratta and Wodonga. In Australian football there are at least triple the number of teams in the same area:
Wangaratta Magpies
Wangaratta Rovers
Wodonga Raiders
Wodonga Bulldogs
Benalla AllBlacks
North Wangaratta
Rutherglen Cats
Corowa Rutherglen Kangaroos
Beechworth Bushrangers
etc etc etc....

Even if this writer had never bothered to get to the Riverina or the Murray region in his life he could look up this website and get some grounding of information.

Country Footy Scores - Ovens & King Football League

The Ovens & King Football League includes the following clubs: Benalla All Blacks FC, Bright FC, Glenrowan FC, Greta FC, King Valley FC, Milawa FC, Moyhu FC, North Wangaratta FC, Tarrawingee FC, Whorouly FC

www.countryfootyscores.com

 

[HairyO]

The wiki article also stated, "There were 129 locations where there was an equal number of Aussie rules of Rugby league clubs, many around the NSW-Victorian border".

Again, this guy has never been to the Murray or Riverina region. There is a small league competition based around Wodonga but how that "equals" the number of football clubs is mind boggling unless he can't add up.

The Murray Cup in rugby league features Benalla, Wangaratta and Wodonga. In Australian football there are at least triple the number of teams in the same area:
Wangaratta Magpies
Wangaratta Rovers
Wodonga Raiders
Wodonga Bulldogs
Benalla AllBlacks
North Wangaratta
Rutherglen Cats
Corowa Rutherglen Kangaroos
Beechworth Bushrangers
etc etc etc....

Even if this writer had never bothered to get to the Riverina or the Murray region in his life he could look up this website and get some grounding of information.

Country Footy Scores - Ovens & King Football League

The Ovens & King Football League includes the following clubs: Benalla All Blacks FC, Bright FC, Glenrowan FC, Greta FC, King Valley FC, Milawa FC, Moyhu FC, North Wangaratta FC, Tarrawingee FC, Whorouly FC

www.countryfootyscores.com

You would assume football clubs have more players too, given its 13 vs 18 on field.

Without going through the reports was this factored in ?