The most important factor of being a national competition is obviously having a team in the national capital.
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20th AFL Team
- Thread starter lionshine
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The most important factor of being a national competition is obviously having a team in the national capital.
Yeah, while I agree about the map ticking comments made in this thread, is there any national sport in the world that doesn't have a team based in the national capital, apart from the AFL?
I'd say, ironically, Canberra being in the AFL makes it more a truly national comp than the NT, even though I've lost count how many times people say the opposite, that NT completes the jigsaw puzzle.
Obviously this is influenced by how big the NT is... on the map. But that's all it is.
I think a stronger argument for an NT club is how much it's given to our game per capita. But even then, the AFL has made it clear they expect clubs to pay for themselves eventually... ahem... with the exception of a few Vic clubs it seems, but they get the privilege of being part of the comp foundation.
NT just isn't and probably is sadly never viable without fed money forever, like some ridiculous 100 year contract... which could still be torn up.
I also agree with QLD3 not being viable yet, not while the Lions and Suns can't pay for themselves yet. That'll change, but we're not there yet.
Perth 3 I still have my reservations about getting enough break off supporters, and South West WA is just too small and should stop being mentioned by the media.
Canberra it is.
Yes, because it's generally agreed that Australian Football is already the national and indigenous sport of Australia.
There are numerous examples like this where the national sport is not universally played across a country..
Then there are numerous examples where the national sport is not the most popular sport played eg kabaddi and hockey in India. Canada has two official national sports: ice hockey is the national winter sport, and lacrosse is the national summer sport.
If the AFL put a team in NT AND Canberra, does that make it more national?
What countries do to promote and be proud of their national sports
You missed the entire point, which is not whether afl is or isn’t a national sport, it’s that adding a team in NT doesn’t make it more inherently ‘national’ and the whole concept of placing dots on a map to make a ‘national sport’ is flawed.
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The Educator
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- Jan 23, 2023
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This debate is obviously on a spectrum and multifaceted
Not having coverage of every population centre of 100K or more does not mean a sport is not National.
In a federation of 6 states, having representation in every state now, and having multiple teams in each of the 5 metro areas means the AFL is absolutely a national competition now.
Other codes are objectively less national
Not having coverage of every population centre of 100K or more does not mean a sport is not National.
In a federation of 6 states, having representation in every state now, and having multiple teams in each of the 5 metro areas means the AFL is absolutely a national competition now.
Other codes are objectively less national
Having teams in all states is awesome.
ACT and NT would also be sweet, though. Especially, you know, our actual capital.
If the AFL wants cap the number of teams, I’d love if we could get ACT and then 40-50 years later NT and South West WA (or by that stage NQ if QLD becomes more of a footy state than WA which I doubt).
No i didn't
because obviously by all criteria Australian football is a national sport.
Yes and didn't i give examples of other countries with national sports that fall well short of being universally popular or universal coverage. Do you want other examples of countries with well recognised national sports that fall into this category?
Very flawed logic here. NFL has only 22 out of 50 states that have NFL teams, yet NFL is played across the whole country and can easily lay claim to being their biggest and national sport. AFL will have professional clubs soon in 6 out of 8 states/territories, but in 2 of the biggest it's still a minor sport overall. It'd be like if NFL was very popular in the mid west states but a niche sport in Texas and California.
AFL doesnt have a team in the nation's capital (double the population of Hobart). It's not the biggest sport in some of Australia's largest populated and largest growing centres. Putting a team in Hobart and saying '6 out of 6 states now covered' is such a flawed argument is this 'debate'.
The reality is there are three national sports in Australia at present: Cricket, Australian football, Rugby League. One-eyed AFL-only fans like to think aussie football is the national sport which is AFL hubris rather than reality. Who knows in future but certainly at present given the 25m population of Australia, if half of that AFL is a niche sport how can it possibly be the only national sport, no matter how many smaller regional towns get a professional club
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AFL is unarguably (at least in realistic terms) the most popular sport overall in Australia. It also has a far larger footprint in NSW and, even more-so now, in QLD, where it grown to be much more than just a "niche" sport, compared to what the NRL has outside these two states (from my very regular visits to Sydney, I've found some NRL fans (at least from those relatively few I've spoken to that actually care) don't realise just how niche (mostly confined to the NZ and Polynesian community) support for NRL is in Melbourne and Perth - and it's even more so in Adelaide.
Australian Football is also our only major indigenous game, another major reason as to why it's our true national sport.
I note the media narrative today is already shifting to the 20th team, now that Dillon has today all but stated it's inevitable and they will be looking at Tne options. Canberra is the early favourite.
I agree it might be the largest, arguably, but not by a big margin, and in 2 of the 3 biggest cities that make up most of Australia it’s still relatively small.
There’s no clear national sport among the football codes, cricket most certainly holds the title otherwise.
AFL is bigger than water polo and lacrosse in nsw obviously it’s not that niche, but it’s still nowhere near as popular as league and that includes qld too. Most Sydneysiders wouldn’t be able to recognise a single current Sydney swans player. Victorians overstate how popular the game is up here.
Lots of kids play auskick but that doesn’t translate to general support.
Could argue soccer is the most popular football code based on participation.
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