Does your interest in the AFL wane when the WC is on?

[SBD Gonzalez]

How long will this drivel about the soccer tsunami go on? it's always somewhere in the not too distant future that this monster is going to grab our imagination and overwhelm the AFL. If anything the A League and soccer in this country has gone backwards.

“We’ve been told for years that soccer is the sleeping giant of Australian sport. All I can say is, it must be a very heavy sleeper” - Titus O’Reily

 

[Smartest Brain]

Belgium vs Tunisia - 489k
Saturday Night Footy - 366k

Australia vs Denmark (kickoff 10pm on a weeknight) - 1.66m

Interesting. Womens swimming relay got over 2.6 million METRO viewers. I guess womens swimming is more entertaining to australia than soccer and will overtake AFL soon too.

http://www.adnews.com.au/news/rio-olympics-success-helps-seven-score-ratings-pb

 

[PhatBoy]

The World Cup is just a means of exposing even more people to what a shit truck of a sport soccer is.

 

[Smartest Brain]

The World Cup is just a means of exposing even more people to what a shit truck of a sport soccer is.

What don't you like about it? The beta men who pretend the smallest touch is like getting hit by a car? The lack of scoring? How repetitive the gameplay is?

 

[Smartest Brain]

It's tough to rank them tbh. All very worthy reasons.

If I had to be definitive it would probably be the fact that next to nothing can happen for an hour and a half, a side can be thoroughly futtbucked everywhere but on the scoreboard, then some bitch rolls around like he's been hit in the face with a 15-inch black rubber ****, earns a penalty and drills a shot from two feet away to win the game.

Yeah that is one thing that always surprises me about soccer, the other day I watched Brazil play and they literally dominated the entire game but couldn't score for most of it until the last 5 mins. How can a team dominate the game all around the ground and just not score? Doesn't seem right. If the other side got a weird penalty and scored it wouldn't be representative of who was better at all.

I understand why most people in the world like soccer, it is a very simple game to understand and most people like simple things so it works for them. Everyone I've introduced to AFL can't watch soccer the same way again after, it is too dull for them.

 

[PhatBoy]

Yeah that is one thing that always surprises me about soccer, the other day I watched Brazil play and they literally dominated the entire game but couldn't score for most of it until the last 5 mins. How can a team dominate the game all around the ground and just not score? Doesn't seem right. If the other side got a weird penalty and scored it wouldn't be representative of who was better at all.

I understand why most people in the world like soccer, it is a very simple game to understand and most people like simple things so it works for them. Everyone I've introduced to AFL can't watch soccer the same way again after, it is too dull for them.

One other thing too is that more than any other sport in the world, having 1 gun and the rest of the team being composed of relatively shit c***s can be enough for success. Hell, Lebron might be the best basketballer of all time and in a game with only 5 guys on the court, when he can't just carry his team across the line. Chuck a great striker into a soccer team and maybe a half decent goalie and you can win. Of course it doesn't guarantee it but it's possible.

 

[Smartest Brain]

One other thing too is that more than any other sport in the world, having 1 gun and the rest of the team being composed of relatively shit c***s can be enough for success. Hell, Lebron might be the best basketballer of all time and in a game with only 5 guys on the court, when he can't just carry his team across the line. Chuck a great striker into a soccer team and maybe a half decent goalie and you can win. Of course it doesn't guarantee it but it's possible.

Didn't some amateur team once beat one of the worlds best in a "friendly" ? It goes to show how much "luck" plays a part in soccer rather than skill.

When a 1-0 score can make you win and you have one umpire and bs rules and bs actors pretending the slightest touch is a car accident. Well. The best strikers nearly always tend to be the best actors too, no surprise.

 

[dumb]

my interest in afl wanes when my own team is playing

 

[HawkMongrel]

lol @ the predictability of the responses in this thread.

 

[Rusty Brookes]

Well, it is technically the World Cup Finals at the moment. Italy, Netherlands, USA all competed in this World Cup, they just didn’t make it out of the qualifiers.

I understand that but it is set up so that the finals are representative rather than being based on merit. The qualifiers are based on geography not on the relative strengths of the teams. It would be like scheduling a game between Brisbane and Gold Coast with the winner making the finals just because there has to be a side from Queensland in the finals.

 

[HawkMongrel]

Didn't some amateur team once beat one of the worlds best in a "friendly" ? It goes to show how much "luck" plays a part in soccer rather than skill.

When a 1-0 score can make you win and you have one umpire and bs rules and bs actors pretending the slightest touch is a car accident. Well. The best strikers nearly always tend to be the best actors too, no surprise.

Your username is like when redheads get nicknamed “bluey”, or when tall people get nicknamed “shorty”, yeah?

 

[Ron The Bear]

What don't you like about it? The beta men who pretend the smallest touch is like getting hit by a car? The lack of scoring? How repetitive the gameplay is?

That gif is like watching Carlton.

 

[ROORAGE]

my interest in afl wanes when my own team is playing

My interest in afl wanes when you’re team is playing too.

Absolute joke they are even televising them. Only so many times I can take the Cripps and Curnow glass half full commentary. It’s sickening.

 

[Mr--ShinBoner--#11]

Didn't some amateur team once beat one of the worlds best in a "friendly" ? It goes to show how much "luck" plays a part in soccer rather than skill.

When a 1-0 score can make you win and you have one umpire and bs rules and bs actors pretending the slightest touch is a car accident. Well. The best strikers nearly always tend to be the best actors too, no surprise.

Ironically there was more contact on Ronaldo in that GIF than there was on Alex Rance 2 weeks ago.

 

[Hawthorn United]

One other thing too is that more than any other sport in the world, having 1 gun and the rest of the team being composed of relatively shit c***s can be enough for success. Hell, Lebron might be the best basketballer of all time and in a game with only 5 guys on the court, when he can't just carry his team across the line. Chuck a great striker into a soccer team and maybe a half decent goalie and you can win. Of course it doesn't guarantee it but it's possible.

Lol this is rubbish.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Mr--ShinBoner--#11]

lol @ the predictability of the responses in this thread.

Quite funny, eh?

I remember meeting a couple of Danish blokes at a pub a number of years back. I asked them if they'd seen any Australian football. They said "the A-League?", and I said "no, AFL, Australian Rules Football", and proceeded to show them some clips on youtube. You should have seen the looks on their faces. I then had to try and explain the rules to them... imagine how that went...

Now, I've grown up loving North Melbourne since I was 6, and will always love them and be a fan of the game. But after growing up and being increasingly exposed to both AFL and soccer, it's very easy to see why one game is played and watched by billions upon billions all around the globe, while the other can barely crack the northern states in its own native country.

Cue "Smartest Brain" and the like piling in for having this view. But you know what? At end of the day, people like myself and HawkMongrel get to enjoy more sport than you.

 

[Marcus DuQuesne]

Feel free to continue to call it “soccer”.

“Football” in Australian English has a long and rich history with multiple meanings other than just the round ball game, in fact it predates the codification of soccer anywhere in the world.

And its continued usage acknowledges our uniqueness in the world, in offering four major codes of professional football. No other country boasts that.

As to your point about spectacle, well, that’s entirely subjective. I’ve been frequently switching across to the soccer whilst watching the footy and I’m seeing nothing to get my pulse racing. One man’s meat is another’s poison, I believe.

Personally I would not boast re 4 codes. Cross country bum sniffing is terrible....Union game is a shambles...and" football" aka Soccer can still become our most important code. AFL is in the doldrums toòo many teams means a diluted comp and a tinker fiddle manipulate the game that does it no favors. WC has 1 referee in the middle and works fine and yet we are going to 4...give us a break.

 

[NoobPie]

Quite funny, eh?

I remember meeting a couple of Danish blokes at a pub a number of years back. I asked them if they'd seen any Australian football. They said "the A-League?", and I said "no, AFL, Australian Rules Football", and proceeded to show them some clips on youtube. You should have seen the looks on their faces. I then had to try and explain the rules to them... imagine how that went...

Now, I've grown up loving North Melbourne since I was 6, and will always love them and be a fan of the game. But after growing up and being increasingly exposed to both AFL and soccer, it's very easy to see why one game is played and watched by billions upon billions all around the globe, while the other can barely crack the northern states in its own native country.

Cue "Smartest Brain" and the like piling in for having this view. But you know what? At end of the day, people like myself and HawkMongrel get to enjoy more sport than you.

You also get to enjoy more sport than the vast majority of soccer fans in the sporting mono-cultures where the game is played...as do the vast majority of Australian football fans I know who follow multiple sports

Apparently about half a billion people watched the last world cup final so I'm not sure about the "played and watched by billions upon billions" but the two main reasons it is the biggest sport on the planet is because 1) it is a very simple game and 2) it was the first code introduced to much of the world.

You prefer soccer over football, good for you, each to their own etc. ...But your macdonalds-fallacy arguments in favour of soccer are less valid than the fact the many many people in countries that benefited from having more dynamic codes establish ahead of soccer (despite being exposed at roughly the same time) find soccer boring.

 

[PhatBoy]

Lol this is rubbish.

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Quality counter-argument.


Shit sport. Shit spectacle. Shit c***s who play it.

 

[Coaster2012]

Honestly, people who say soccer is boring, soccer is just people diving all the time, I kinda hate those people. Just open yourself and let yourself enjoy the spectacle. The atmospheres are the best in the world, a game can change at any moment, if you have seen a sealer in the 93rd minute, there is nothing like it in sport. You can go from hope and despair to adulation in moments. That's why soccer is great to watch, its constant tension for 90 minutes where at any moment the game can be over...or is it? You just never know. 1-0 could be an insurmountable lead or it could be easily outdone. I feel sorry for people who don't understand that cause they are missing out. And since the talent pool is so big, when you are watching the top flights, you are literally watching the top 1% on the planet from a pool of millions.

Just stop being arrogant Aussie bogans for 1 moment and try to enjoy it.

 

[Coaster2012]

One other thing too is that more than any other sport in the world, having 1 gun and the rest of the team being composed of relatively shit c***s can be enough for success. Hell, Lebron might be the best basketballer of all time and in a game with only 5 guys on the court, when he can't just carry his team across the line. Chuck a great striker into a soccer team and maybe a half decent goalie and you can win. Of course it doesn't guarantee it but it's possible.

No it can't. Argentina have done terrible and have the 2nd best player in the world (imo), Portugal besides the euro championship a few years ago, have been terrible for a decade or more with the best player in the world. England have been shocking for 2 decades with some of the best players on the planet in their team. Liverpool in the epl had the best striker in the world currently on form and finished 4th. Basketball definitely can, Lebron took a team that without him wouldn't even make finals to a championship series, but soccer? no way.

In fact, there are so many arguments against this that it's invalid.

 

[Mr--ShinBoner--#11]

You also get to enjoy more sport than the vast majority of soccer fans in the sporting mono-cultures where the game is played...as do the vast majority of Australian football fans I know who follow multiple sports

Apparently about half a billion people watched the last world cup final so I'm not sure about the "played and watched by billions upon billions" but the two main reasons it is the biggest sport on the planet is because 1) it is a very simple game and 2) it was the first code introduced to much of the world.

You prefer soccer over football, good for you, each to their own etc. ...But your macdonalds-fallacy arguments in favour of soccer are less valid than the fact the many many people in countries that benefited from having more dynamic codes establish ahead of soccer (despite being exposed at roughly the same time) find soccer boring.

It's a very simple game in the sense that the rules are simple, something AFL could certainly learn from. Tactically it's anything but simple. Not sure your point about countries exposed to "more dynamic codes" really rings true TBH. Rugby Union is prominant in the UK, Argentina, Uruguay, France etc, but still plays second fiddle to the round ball by some margin. Kinda sounds like you're just describing USA and Australia.

 

[Mr--ShinBoner--#11]

Honestly, people who say soccer is boring, soccer is just people diving all the time, I kinda hate those people. Just open yourself and let yourself enjoy the spectacle. The atmospheres are the best in the world, a game can change at any moment, if you have seen a sealer in the 93rd minute, there is nothing like it in sport. You can go from hope and despair to adulation in moments. That's why soccer is great to watch, its constant tension for 90 minutes where at any moment the game can be over...or is it? You just never know. 1-0 could be an insurmountable lead or it could be easily outdone. I feel sorry for people who don't understand that cause they are missing out. And since the talent pool is so big, when you are watching the top flights, you are literally watching the top 1% on the planet from a pool of millions.

Just stop being arrogant Aussie bogans for 1 moment and try to enjoy it.

I find the shitcanning of soccer for being low scoring quite funny. Can someone explain how volume of scoring in sport correlates to excitement? When you're watching 5 days of test cricket, do you get more of a kick out of the several hundred runs that are scored, or the 10 wickets?

 

[Coaster2012]

I find the shitcanning of soccer for being low scoring quite funny. Can someone explain how volume of scoring in sport correlates to excitement? When you're watching 5 days of test cricket, do you get more of a kick out of the several hundred runs that are scored, or the 10 wickets?

It's high stakes all the time. Every time the ball goes forward, it could potentially go in, and if it does, it could very well be game over. Just one goal is so important, and at any moment, that goal can happen. That's why I don't understand people that say ohhhh 1-0, whats so exciting about that? But that's the very reason why it is exciting. Think a game of footy where its 99-97 with 2 minutes to go. The game can change at any moment, well in soccer, the game is on a knifes edge for a full 90 minutes.

 

[Hawthorn United]

Quality counter-argument.


Shit sport. Shit spectacle. Shit c***s who play it.

The level of ignorance in your post didn't deserve a count-argument.

If you think a single superstar can carry a team over the line in any team sport, then you're delusional.