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

[raskolnikov]

There's animosity between AFL and rugby league fans, but I feels it's much more one-sided.

Speaking in generalisations, but AFL fans feel more ambivalence towards rugby league. That's not so the other way.

Rugby league fans tend to have a chip on their shoulder.

Just look at the NRL threads here. They just talk about NRL games and teams. Then check out leagueunlimited. There's hundreds of pages dedicated to punching down on AFL.

I think geography also plays a part. Canberra's pretty much of the Barassi Line. It's common to follow both codes here and I rarely here animosity from league fans.

Having lived in Qld, NSW and Vic I've found it the complete opposite.

 

[raskolnikov]

Nrl fans have view that afl look down on them as there sport is beneath the afl while nrl fans call it Gayfl or mexican ping pong. Fewwz things I envy about the states but one thing is how they follow all teams from their city in all sports . Funny thing is diehard afl fan will probably be nrl fan if they were born raised in Sydney and vice versa

I grew up in Syd (Blue Mountains). I've always found AFL more appealing. I followed NRL growing up, supporting North Sydney. But for me it was more about the team. As soon as the Bears were evicted I lost interest in the sport. If Essendon were evicted I'd still follow AFL. I'd probably jump on one of the Qld teams.

 

[PhatBoy]

Six again was brought in to make RL more entertaining. MAae it faster, less stoppages. You would have to say it has worked with RL as tsrong as ever with TV ratings and crowds.

The problem with it it makes it way easier for refs to influence outcomes. Sometimes they love calling them for the smallest of infringements , some u dont even know what for giving the attacking team huge momentum and killing momentum for defense. Just depends on the day and the ref. makes sense for wrestling defence and defence not getting back etc . But sometimes feels like 50m in AFL, way too harsh and frustrating. Very subjective.

But if you go with data probably good rule.

Totally agree with this and the post you responded to. I’m not a fan of the 6 again rule and while I don’t like the level of wrestling that Melbourne in particular have brought to the game, one of the skills of the game is winning the ruck battle and if you’re good enough to defensively slow a team down you should be rewarded for that and be able to slow it down. For a while we had the dominant tackle interpretation where referees would adjudicate accordingly - now you basically have to be driving a player back 5 metres to get that sort of interpretation from a referee otherwise he will force you to get off the ball carrier immediately which gives no reward whatsoever for good defence.

AFL - while I and I’m sure most people - can appreciate the value and skill of great defenders - is a game that at its best is played well by attackers. It looks its best when attack is the focal point. Rugby league is great to watch when attack is good but as long as it’s not error and penalty riddled, a 12-10 game can be as compelling as a 34-32 game any day of the week and the people setting the agenda sometimes need to remember that.

 

[LightTower4]

1. Aussie Rules. Whether AFL or suburban leagues love to watch.
2. Gaelic footy. A bit like our game and highly enjoyable to watch.
3. Hurling. Watched a Grand Final in a pub in Ireland a few years back and the underdog beat the equivalent of Collingwood and the pub went nuts!

Flemington Straight

4. Rugby Union. Don't mind this at high levels. International or major leagues in the UK and Ireland that sometimes get played in the early hours.
5. Soccer but mainly EPL and sometimes World Cup but I find WC games too defensive compared to EPL. Also lost me a bit when we played Italy a few years back near the pointy end and typically an Italian took a dive and got a penalty.
6. Ice Hockey. Don't know much about it but I like it.
7. Cheese rolling just to emphasise where the next sport fits!
8. Rugby League but mostly State of Origin with a passing interest in Storm but fed up with them losing Grand Finals and getting shafted by the administrators over salary cap issues. Don't believe same treatment would have been dished out for a NSW side.

This is about football codes only? I'd probably put motor sports after Aussie Rules especially Supercars and other tourers overseas. Liked F1 previously but this season has been an total abortion with the 50% hybrid changes. MotoGP and Superbikes provide good racing.

 

[Pistol Night]

Any movement on the league supporters calling their game “footy”? Shouldn’t it be “ruggy”?

 

[norway blue]

Any movement on the league supporters calling their game “footy”? Shouldn’t it be “ruggy”?

I call it league like most .

 

[randyzany]

Footy
Soccer
Basketball
Tennis

That's pretty much it. I enjoy watching free flowing games and those sports cover all the combinations (hand/feet) needed to play sports.

Both rugbies are too much stop start for me and lose interest at the repetitiveness of it all. Don't get off at the hardness of the hits like some do, I watch sport for skill not thuggery.


Gridiron is an inferior bastardised version of the rugbies, with a handful of seconds of action and then ads that last longer than the actual game. All this nonsense about being chess on a field when many of these same nuffies wouldn't be caught dead playing actual chess. lol Players are one dimensional (fans call them specialists, talk about flipping the script lol). Not enough improvisation, thinking on their feet for the players. They either just run super fast or act like human walls due to their humungous size and weight, and that's it. They're just mere pawns for a coach on a headset that has way too much time to make re-adjustments again and again due to how much downtime there is in the game. Would be a dream to coach but as a spectator the sport sucks, no room for artistic freedom/expression that soccer/basketball/footy players are allowed to have. It's all very restrictive and plays dictated by some guy on a headset, along with its lack of spontaneity and free flowing action, it's a big no from me

Cricket/baseball/soft ball: Yawn, excellent cures for insomnia. So much downtime where nothing of note happens and hitting a ball with a bat doesn't really entertain me in any way. Cricket is a game for nerds from what I've said observed, painfully dull and it is inevitable that it will cease to have fans in the future.

Why I dislike the rugbies? Cos they're stealing potential young talent from picking up footy and soccer (superior sports) and denying these games potential super stars. Those codes are also taking too much tv rights money that should be going to soccer and footy.

And for those that claim soccer fans hate footy. I really haven't come across to many soccer fans in Melbourne that don't follow footy as well. You must be living in Sydney cos where the likes of Craig Foster utter insecure drivel about footy and it's understandable since they live in a city where footy isn't the number 1 sport and refuse to appreciate it out of ignorance and insecurity. Interesting that those dolts rarely have anything critical and negative to say about the rugbies but they feel more comfortable disparaging a sport that has a smaller fan base where they live. Cowardly behaviour isn't surprising from those fools.

 

[PhatBoy]

1. Aussie Rules. Whether AFL or suburban leagues love to watch.
2. Gaelic footy. A bit like our game and highly enjoyable to watch.
3. Hurling. Watched a Grand Final in a pub in Ireland a few years back and the underdog beat the equivalent of Collingwood and the pub went nuts!

Flemington Straight

4. Rugby Union. Don't mind this at high levels. International or major leagues in the UK and Ireland that sometimes get played in the early hours.
5. Soccer but mainly EPL and sometimes World Cup but I find WC games too defensive compared to EPL. Also lost me a bit when we played Italy a few years back near the pointy end and typically an Italian took a dive and got a penalty.
6. Ice Hockey. Don't know much about it but I like it.
7. Cheese rolling just to emphasise where the next sport fits!
8. Rugby League but mostly State of Origin with a passing interest in Storm but fed up with them losing Grand Finals and getting shafted by the administrators over salary cap issues. Don't believe same treatment would have been dished out for a NSW side.

This is about football codes only? I'd probably put motor sports after Aussie Rules especially Supercars and other tourers overseas. Liked F1 previously but this season has been an total abortion with the 50% hybrid changes. MotoGP and Superbikes provide good racing.

The Storm are a strange case. I can understand their fans having an us against the world mentality, especially as the only club who have been stripped of titles for salary cap breaches in a country where teams have been found to have breached the cap but only had ‘later on’ sanctions imposed. But their breaches were huge so it was a bit of a landmark scenario so it was a damned if you do damned if you don’t situation.
The Storm have been the source of a LOT of the issues that have been a blight on the game. Wrestling was more or less introduced by them primarily. Things like chicken wing, crusher tackles. Traced back to their efforts to slow the game down. Fundamentally I have no problem with any team trying to make the game slower as I’ve said earlier but any rule that can be exploited, the Storm have always been the first side to push it to its absolute limit. I don’t think they’ve ever really been targeted in any meaningful way by the league because the league has nothing to gain from it: they need Melbourne to be at least moderately successful.
I don’t like the Storm but I have a hell of a lot of respect for their ability to continually compete. I just wish they wouldn’t push things to the nth degree the way they do

Nice nod to cheese rolling by the way. Incredible sport