Footy Colloquialisms and Regionalisms

[Illinois Nazi]

Thread needs more kickitupthegutsferchrissakes.

 

[Sloth]

Same in Sydney. If someone says they play AFL that does not mean they play in the AFL. It means they play Australian Rules Football.

It's worse when the media do it...for example they'll run a headline saying something like "AFL star killed in boating accident" when what they mean is he played local footy

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Kicked a screwie growing up in SA in the 70's and 80's/

 

[ComicSansHumour]

It's common in Brisbane for the term AFL to refer to both the sport of Australian football in addition to the Australian Football League.

Whenever I go back to my home town (in SE Queensland) I usually bring a footy to kick around with my younger brothers. I went back last week and my little brother asked me whether we should go kick the AFL around.

 

[Feerits Elf]

Thanks Ross Oakley

Fixed

 

[Augustine]

Another one is the resurgence of "North." Four years ago they were 'North Melbourne' or "Kangaroos/Kangas/Roos." What it's reminded me of is, did people ever call South Melbourne "Souths" or was it just South? Ala North? East Fremantle were once basically officially called Old Easts. Much like Wests/Souths/Easts in the rugby up in Sydney. Do WA say "Norths" for North Adelaide or what?

I love being 'North' rather than 'Norths'. It's just a really strange idiosyncracy that makes us unique seemingly compared to every other sporting club in the country (if this is wrong I'd love to be corrected). And yes, South Melbourne were referred to as 'South' not Souths.

 

[Rusty Brookes]

Time and place but when I entered the school playground for the first time, a big mark was a Jezza.

Am I right that in SA, a feral crowd is noted as going bunta?

 

[Jim Dixon]

Time and place but when I entered the school playground for the first time, a big mark was a Jezza.

Am I right that in SA, a feral crowd is noted as going bunta?

Yes.

Not sure if the word is still used but was widespread in the 90's.

 

[TheKITC]

When I was a kid I distinctly remember supporters of East Freo and Swan Districts cheer their teams on the basis of jumper colours- "Carn the blue and whites!", or "Come on the black and whites!" I can't recall supporters of other clubs doing this, but it may have occurred. I have no idea if this practice ever occurred outside WA.

I'm in Victoria and my old club went back to their 'heritage' colours of purple and gold a couple of years ago - many supporters and players starting referring to us as the violet crumbles, which was apparently common place back in the day.

My other old club of Eaglehawk, whose colours are light and navy blue, referred to ourselves and even in the theme song as the two blues. Very common nickname that supporters and players use.

 

[Matchu]

Same in Sydney. If someone says they play AFL that does not mean they play in the AFL. It means they play Australian Rules Football.

One could say "I'm watching AFL" or "I'm playing AFL" and both would be perfectly acceptable sentences in south east Queensland or Sydney. When someone says they are watching AFL it doesn't necessarily mean they are watching Australian Football League matches either.

Another is that footy fans in Queensland rarely wear beanies and scarves are much less common. Probably got a lot to do with the climate.

 

[radiojake]

And how do you feel about displaying a major sign of aspergers by not being able to identify sarcasm?

While there is truth to it in regards to how people judge others based on language use, a sensible person would have come to the conclusion that my post was largely written in a satirical tone and shouldn't be taken too seriously in a football context, and, with that in mind, you would realise that you didn't have to insult me on a personal level.

An intrinsic aspect to detecting sarcasm includes both tonality of voice, pitch and body language. All of which is missing in a text based forum.

I've made the mistake plenty of times by posting sarcastic posts online that didn't come across...

and when conversing with someone who've you had little to none posting history with, it's even more difficult to detect online sarcasm...

I wouldn't be too harsh on someone for taking your words at face value...

 

[SJ]

One could say "I'm watching AFL" or "I'm playing AFL" and both would be perfectly acceptable sentences in south east Queensland or Sydney. When someone says they are watching AFL it doesn't necessarily mean they are watching Australian Football League matches either.

Another is that footy fans in Queensland rarely wear beanies and scarves are much less common. Probably got a lot to do with the climate.

Acceptable perhaps, but makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[yodellinhank]

Wearing a footy jumper to the game as an adult seems more common in Victoria than over here, IMO.

I've never heard anyone call a drop punt any other name, but the same person could use torpedo, barrel and spiral interchangeably.

I think that wormburner needs to be brought back, though.

One of the australian punters was kicking them in a NFL game and the commentators were calling it an "end over end kick"

 

[jmadrox]

Country WA boys might know what I'm talking about, but even at country week they call the Aussie Rules competition 'AFL.' They still refer to 'soccer' as 'soccer' too. I hate it. Nothing wrong with saying "watching the AFL?" but "little Nathan and Jaxon are great AFL players in the under 8s" is just lame.

Really? Did not ever hear that. It was always "Footy" at country week for me. Are you talking schools CW or District / Town?

 

[Syrah]

Cazaly, Ablett, Modra, Russell (Robertson), then "in the back"

Anyone growing up in the 70s knows that the correct term is actually a "Jezza".

 

[zachary]

I remember back in the '40s whenever a man tucked the ball between his legs as he handballed a goal, the whole opposition cheer squad would get on all fours while standing up and yell out obscenities such as "Goose Murder!" or "Duck Graves!". Now this was in the days before sneakers, so in order to avoid trench foot, a lot of the VFL players (particularly the older players who were more adept at medical knowledge) at the time would grind excess pepper on their steak - it would make them sneeze, you see. Reminds me of the old Fitzlong pocket rover, Elmer "Canoodler" Jameson, a tall bloke who could compete very well with the even smaller back wings at the time, and, as a consequence, got trench foot. That's where the term 'footy' comes from. A gentleman who played bad football was said to be playing 'footy', a reference to his trench feet, and that's why we call it 'footy' today - because it's just not the same as the old days.

It was a time to be alive, that's for sure.

Thanks, Grandpa Simpson

 

[Footy 1st]

Anyone growing up in the 70s knows that the correct term is actually a "Jezza".

80's for me & Jezza got the odd mention...

 

[Doc Hattori]

If you went to Adelaide to watch the SANFL, and you said 'this is a great game of AFL', what would the SA fans say to that?

The N in SANFL is a bit of an oxy moron don't you think

 

[Doc Hattori]

I remember back in my days, we used to jive: "where's Robbo? Robbo's still in the change-rooms having a cone, getting wacked."

In southern NSW we got changed in the SHEDS. (No cones in those days though).

 

[The_Reaper]

The N in SANFL is a bit of an oxy moron don't you think

Nah. The National Football Council decided to get the various leagues to add the N in their leagues - so we had the SANFL, the WANFL and TNFL.

The VFL resisted.

 

[Roddy]

The N in SANFL is a bit of an oxy moron don't you think

Yes I've always found that rather odd...

 

[finn]

Yes I've always found that rather odd...

Not when you consider the push for Australian Rules to be the national football game.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Blind turn v pirouette

 

[TooFar]

Yes.

Not sure if the word is still used but was widespread in the 90's.

I think it is time it was brought back. Great word bunta.

 

[giblj]

I'm in Victoria and my old club went back to their 'heritage' colours of purple and gold a couple of years ago - many supporters and players starting referring to us as the violet crumbles, which was apparently common place back in the day.

My other old club of Eaglehawk, whose colours are light and navy blue, referred to ourselves and even in the theme song as the two blues. Very common nickname that supporters and players use.

The Penguin Football Club here in Tassie are also called the Two Blues.