Attitudes of Aussie rules fans to other sports especially the football codes

[SouthBedfordshireFan]

From my knowledge Australia is split in terms of football codes: Much of NSW and Qld primarily play RL while the rest of the country plays primarily Aussie rules.

I have come across that AFL has been referred to as fumbleball from the RL side.

From that I guess there is some opposition to either code in some capacity depending whichever side of Barassi line one finds themselves.

Additionally I have encountered many soccer fans that deride all sports that is not soccer.

With that what attitudes do Aussie rules fans hold towards the other football codes such as RU, Gaelic, the gridirons, or any others?
Or even other sports as a whole?

 

[RonnieRaven]

From my knowledge Australia is split in terms of football codes: Much of NSW and Qld primarily play RL while the rest of the country plays primarily Aussie rules.

I have come across that AFL has been referred to as fumbleball from the RL side.

From that I guess there is some opposition to either code in some capacity depending whichever side of Barassi line one finds themselves.

Additionally I have encountered many soccer fans that deride all sports that is not soccer.

With that what attitudes do Aussie rules fans hold towards the other football codes such as RU, Gaelic, the gridirons, or any others?
Or even other sports as a whole?

Personally I appreciate all sports at the highest level.
Soccer NRL moto gp darts olympics etc
I can’t consume American sports because they don’t continually flow.
After time outs, between quarters and ad breaks a hour of play goes for 3hrs.
I actually envy English soccer
Premier league you play every one home and away
Finals are at a neutral venue
The top teams play a lot more games
(European comp)
Whilst the low teams get to focus solely on premier league which helps even up competition

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

I think the divide is less genuine vitriol than it once was between Australian Football and Rugby League fans. There's still a rivalry fought through the media and a certain portion of each that just detests the other's game.

Association Football fans do seem have a larger portion who genuinely despise all other sports. It is sort of understandable, the talent drain away from the sport that perhaps more than any other needs top talent to compete on the only true world stage is disappointing. Especially to Australian Football, which doesn't really need the top talent that could play other sports. No international competition, either nation vs nation or from other leagues of the sport.

Personally, I don't like Rugby League but have nothing against it. Tried a couple of times to get into it, it just doesn't interest me. Every now and then a close finish or consistent high intensity final or Origin game can hold interest, but not most club games.

A strong A-League would be great to see. Its never going to be a world leading league

And I despair of where cricket sits. Bastardising itself trying to get talent and eyeballs, and then teaching that talent bad habits anyway.

Generally speaking, imo, more choice is better for more people.

 

[JackFlash]

We are lucky we have Australian Rules Football to save us from the inferior codes. The NRL is just dullsville to me and while Soccer has its moments, only the English football leagues are watchable. The NFL or American football is as boring as watching concrete set and as it turns out at least half of the football isn't about football at all, it's about drama, they actually don't play very much so you might as well watch I married a teapot instead, but there's no denying that football has a power over America. And we know how much America likes pro longing combative events!

 

[The Terrible Thinker]

I don't mind football (soccer), especially during the 2010's where I thought the A-League was building up to something special, then it fell on its arse. Use to enjoy watching a random EPL game late Saturday night after a poker session on Foxtel before Optus took over.

Cant be farked with Butt Picking & Sniffing (Rugby League) and Scrum for The Sake of It, then Some Random Penalty is Called (Rugby Union).

Never really watched NFL but heard it can be tediously boring between plays. Curious about Aussie punters though.

 

[Sttew]

AFL is going through a rough patch IMO, probably because of poor leadership and poor decisions, but it still is superior to "Rugba" League in every metric except TV ratings (I am told).

I do not like one thing about NRL. The commentators all sound like over excited meatheads. The crowds are poor. The competition revolves around State of Origin (the concept of which the NRL borrowed from the AFL). I don't get the game. It's not really football as kicking the ball only happens once every six tackles and after a try. The players look like they're on steroids.

Soccer, on the other hand, I don't mind. Whether the game will ever be elevated in Australia is questionable. Any young gun worth his weight in gold will be lured to the UK or Europe. So, it will probably always be equivalent to a UK lower tier Championship competition on a good day.

No idea about NFL. Does not interest me

 

[Pistol Night]

Why do the bum sniffers call their game "footy"?

 

[Orfullrules]

Why do the bum sniffers call their game "footy"?

Rightio aerial ping pong mexicans

 

[PhatBoy]

AFL is going through a rough patch IMO, probably because of poor leadership and poor decisions, but it still is superior to "Rugba" League in every metric except TV ratings (I am told).

I do not like one thing about NRL. The commentators all sound like over excited meatheads. The crowds are poor. The competition revolves around State of Origin (the concept of which the NRL borrowed from the AFL). I don't get the game. It's not really football as kicking the ball only happens once every six tackles and after a try. The players look like they're on steroids.

Soccer, on the other hand, I don't mind. Whether the game will ever be elevated in Australia is questionable. Any young gun worth his weight in gold will be lured to the UK or Europe. So, it will probably always be equivalent to a UK lower tier Championship competition on a good day.

No idea about NFL. Does not interest me

Not really sure what NRL crowds have to do with how good the game is or why it should impact on how you feel about it. All home games for NZ, the Warriors, the Sharks, Canberra, Penrith when they have their stadium (they’re temporarily playing at BankWest while it gets redeveloped), the Cowboys, Manly, and all Leichhardt games for the Tigers are played in front of full stadiums, more or less. So are the Broncos who pull the biggest home crowds of all.

The teams that play primarily at the biggest stadiums so don’t sell them out - the Roosters (26,000), Souths (21,500), Storm (22,000) Bulldogs (30,000) and Eels (16,000 in a year they competed for the wooden spoon) would all fill most of the suburban grounds or close to it in the eels case each week.

The Dolphins are somewhere in between because they play a few games at Suncorp and a few at Kayo, but their average crowd of 22,500 is good. The Titans are the exception to it all as their stadium isn’t huge (it’s big enough) but even their crowds aren’t woeful at 17,000 and would again go close to filling a lot of the Sydney grounds.

That’s the way the crowds have always been in it and they are getting bigger. It will never ever rival the huge sports of the world. Every league fan knows that. But watching my side play the team we hate more than any other and have done for 118 years the other night, in front of 41,500 people in a round 2 game that turned into a thriller? I don’t really see what is bad or inferior about that. Hearing the crowd go nuts for Tallis Duncan absolutely levelling one of our players - even that got the adrenaline flowing.

It’s a suburban, working class game and it’s still 18th for average crowds around the world.

And just a disclaimer before I get shot down because there is a particular thread in one board on this forum where I get accused of being a troll if I dare say anything in support of rugby league:

I follow both codes equally. The only real difference is I’ve actually played league. I could never muster the fitness with my body type to play AFL.

 

[two blue tiger]

Major football codes ratings.

1. Aussie Rules - as a Victorian I guess it's an obvious choice that I rate Aussie Rules at the top - lots of skill and excitement from mega fit and tough players - just please leave the rules alone
2. Association Football - the world game is a fabulous spectacle when played at the highest level - incredible skill. At lower level - well....
3. American Football - the ultimate chess game - once understood it's good to watch.
4. Rugby Union - strength and tactics, but is overly officiated and sometimes hard to understand if you're not born into the game
5. Gaelic Football - like Aussie Rules, it's a pity that this game is not more well known worldwide (the alternate version - curling - is the better game of the two Irish codes)
6. Rugby League - just can't get this game - run at each other five times, then kick it into the air as high as you can and hope your opponent drops it - rinse and repeat. Have this rated at 6, but is more like 100 to me......

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Rugby is devoid of skill and boring. I've tried watching it at different points over the years but I just don't get the attraction.

Soccer is soft and often boring but can be very entertaining and skillful too.

American football is unbelievable and the only code that matches Aussie Rules. I can understand being bored between plays but it really is akin to chess on grass and is a great mix of strategy, skill and toughness. Probably doesn't help if people watch one game a year which is often one-sided and overshadowed by the halftime entertainment.

Aussie Rules used to be better but is still far superior to the other codes played in Australia and equal with American Football. Again, a perfect mix of skill, flair and toughness although the toughness is being taken out of the game and there is probably too much strategy which stifles the games natural flair.

 

[Teal Leviathan]

There are other football codes?

 

[CURVE]

I love all the football codes and support at least one team in each of them. I think AFL is the best code, but it's closely followed by League and Soccer.

If there is one footy code that I'm falling out of love with, it would be Union, the way it is officiated makes my blood boil.

 

[PhatBoy]

Major football codes ratings.

1. Aussie Rules - as a Victorian I guess it's an obvious choice that I rate Aussie Rules at the top - lots of skill and excitement from mega fit and tough players - just please leave the rules alone
2. Association Football - the world game is a fabulous spectacle when played at the highest level - incredible skill. At lower level - well....
3. American Football - the ultimate chess game - once understood it's good to watch.
4. Rugby Union - strength and tactics, but is overly officiated and sometimes hard to understand if you're not born into the game
5. Gaelic Football - like Aussie Rules, it's a pity that this game is not more well known worldwide (the alternate version - curling - is the better game of the two Irish codes)
6. Rugby League - just can't get this game - run at each other five times, then kick it into the air as high as you can and hope your opponent drops it - rinse and repeat. Have this rated at 6, but is more like 100 to me......

I absolutely get why people would find league boring if it’s not their thing - not denying anyone’s right to feel that way for a second because I can see why it would be taken that way.

But that’s not what they’re doing in terms of game play. The field is a literal game board - not unlike NFL - and it’s a matter of territory. You’re trying to work the ball to a part of the field, whether you have it or not, where you want it. It might not be for another 3 sets of 6 tackles before you can get it there - you start out with a set where you’re under pressure on your own tryline and you’re kicking from 25m out. The opposition receives the kick 35m from their own line. Defend well, next set you start from 15m out from your line and you turn it over to them 25m out from their line. Same thing happens again, and soon enough they are the team under pressure and you have the ball in their half of the field and can start to attack their try line. If they drop a kick, or you can score from one, it’s a bonus.

 

[PrancingPony]

I never understood the code wars in the first place because I don't consider myself an "AFL fan" or an "NRL fan", I'm just a sports fan. I like sports.

 

[Gough]

I absolutely get why people would find league boring if it’s not their thing - not denying anyone’s right to feel that way for a second because I can see why it would be taken that way.

But that’s not what they’re doing in terms of game play. The field is a literal game board - not unlike NFL - and it’s a matter of territory. You’re trying to work the ball to a part of the field, whether you have it or not, where you want it. It might not be for another 3 sets of 6 tackles before you can get it there - you start out with a set where you’re under pressure on your own tryline and you’re kicking from 25m out. The opposition receives the kick 35m from their own line. Defend well, next set you start from 15m out from your line and you turn it over to them 25m out from their line. Same thing happens again, and soon enough they are the team under pressure and you have the ball in their half of the field and can start to attack their try line. If they drop a kick, or you can score from one, it’s a bonus.

The problem with League imo is it stops when it starts to get interesting, scrummaging gives rugger that extra dimension.

 

[Cmarsh]

I think the divide is less genuine vitriol than it once was between Australian Football and Rugby League fans. There's still a rivalry fought through the media and a certain portion of each that just detests the other's game.

Association Football fans do seem have a larger portion who genuinely despise all other sports. It is sort of understandable, the talent drain away from the sport that perhaps more than any other needs top talent to compete on the only true world stage is disappointing. Especially to Australian Football, which doesn't really need the top talent that could play other sports. No international competition, either nation vs nation or from other leagues of the sport.

Personally, I don't like Rugby League but have nothing against it. Tried a couple of times to get into it, it just doesn't interest me. Every now and then a close finish or consistent high intensity final or Origin game can hold interest, but not most club games.

A strong A-League would be great to see. Its never going to be a world leading league

And I despair of where cricket sits. Bastardising itself trying to get talent and eyeballs, and then teaching that talent bad habits anyway.

Generally speaking, imo, more choice is better for more people.

Can't other sports say that soccer drains talent away from them as well?

 

[PhatBoy]

The problem with League imo is it stops when it starts to get interesting, scrummaging gives rugger that extra dimension.

Yeah I can understand that, I think with league the scrums just got to the point where they were such a pointless exercise because front rowers were being bred to run more in general play and that might have been where they started to lose some traction as it were - they were less skillful so all scrums were for the next little while were hookers playing a bit of a part and that soon degenerated to them not even contesting the ball themselves. As someone who liked as a player and spectator the collision, I loved a good breather just so it maintained that element of copping a break to make sure the high pace could start again.

 

[voorhees]

got absolutely no time for soccer or rugby. never have and never will, both just bore me to no end.
Baseball holds me and I can easily sit and watch a game no problem.
NFL is very watchable, not like AFL but does a great job of entertaining.
At the end of the day...nothing stands up to footy.

 

[bzparkes]

Tried getting into other sports but none of them do it for me like Aussie rules does.

Dunno if that's because I don't follow a team in any of them, because in international games when I was young(soccer/rugby world cups) I used to get right into supporting Australia but I used to do that with all Olympic sports also.

Now I don't give 2 shits about international sports and don't even know it's on half the time. Just watch AF(most games over the weekend) and that's it. No interest in any other sports anymore. They just don't excite me like footy does.

Don't hate them either, just don't care.

 

[Truckosaurus]

I nothing them. Not interested by any of them so I don't pay attention.

I do find the obsession some association fans have with Aussie rules being bigger than soccer here to be odd. We live in a world where you can watch top flight soccer whenever you want, and even if soccer were bigger in Australia we'd never have the money to make the A-League a better standard, so why does it matter? I have had, on multiple occasions, had soccer fans abruptly interject or change the topic of an AFL discussion to complaining about how Australians should be more interested in soccer and how it's the obviously superior game because the players are so highly paid and it's played around the world and it's not fair, etc. It might be a big game but you're a small-minded fan if the popularity of a local code in its home country bothers you that much.

 

[Big Blood]

Up until the 80s – roughly when league and AFL started going national – the divides between the football codes were enormous but fans have become much more ecumenical since then.

For me living in Sydney back in the day I enjoyed league as a hugely entertaining circus. It had the most outrageous scandals and storylines that reflected the sketchy character of the city. In contrast the culture surrounding AFL was quite suburban and earnest. That gap is narrowing too; these days both sports are driven mostly by money.

 

[kid_a]

I very much enjoy soccer at all levels, I often attend local NPL-WA matches and having lived in Europe for a few years I still follow a couple of clubs pretty closely (Hammarby IF & Ajax Amsterdam)

I follow and enjoy international rugby union a lot, the six nations that just wrapped up was awesome for example and I've attended quite a few international matchesover the years......couldn't really give af about club rugby comps like super Rugby though

I like American football playoffs, but don't really care all that much about regular season games.

I like state of origin in rugby league (who doesn't I guess), but overall I find most games in the NRL quite boring and repetitive

I respect athletes in all codes though, they all have their own skill sets and all are played at an incredible intensity at their highest levels.

But yeah I certainly enjoy watching Aussie rules the most by fair margin, every weekend I'll go to a local suburban or state league match and watch at least 3-4 AFL games

 

[Pistol Night]

Rightio aerial ping pong mexicans

That doesn’t answer the question

 

[Pistol Night]

Tried getting into other sports but none of them do it for me like Aussie rules does.

Dunno if that's because I don't follow a team in any of them, because in international games when I was young(soccer/rugby world cups) I used to get right into supporting Australia but I used to do that with all Olympic sports also.

Now I don't give 2 shits about international sports and don't even know it's on half the time. Just watch AF(most games over the weekend) and that's it. No interest in any other sports anymore. They just don't excite me like footy does.

Don't hate them either, just don't care.

Pretty much. I’ve tried getting into league especially around Origin time but ****ed if I can enjoy watching campaigners just run at each other and celebrate falling over to score