RedV3x
It's about time some mods started being fair
Yes and we all remember how effective the NRL "simply the best" campaign was, so much so that the SANFL copied it.
USAFL and others
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Yes and we all remember how effective the NRL "simply the best" campaign was, so much so that the SANFL copied it.
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RedV3x
It's about time some mods started being fair
Someone once said "Slogans are for websites and letterheads."
The constant need for the USAFL to state "it's not rugby" simply underlines the need for a concise apt description
that doesn't refer to other sports (at least at the first level).
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RedV3x
It's about time some mods started being fair
As a person who had devoted many years to the development of Australian Football overseas, who has travelled extensively overseas, played Australian Football overseas, helped coach Australian Football overseas and followed the resultant devopment of Australian Football overseas I can say from extensive feedback that some things work and some things don't.
There is no magic formula. What works and what doesn't work can be radically different for different regions.
What does work is simply good old word of mouth as well as having a simple description as opposed to a cluttered description
that refers to other sports.
There is no magic formula. What works and what doesn't work can be radically different for different regions.
What does work is simply good old word of mouth as well as having a simple description as opposed to a cluttered description
that refers to other sports.
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Aucklander
The Ultimate Warrior
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I took my brother to watch my son play yesterday, his 1st game, I explained some of the rules so as not to overcomplicate it too much and he loved it. While driving home he couldn't stop talking about it and thought what a great game it was. His final words were that it was like watching soccer, rugby, and league, but it was better.
He was hoping to get to the G, but that wasn't possible with a 6-day holiday, but it was definitely on the agenda for next time, as was getting along to watch his nephew down at whichever local park he was playing at.
He was hoping to get to the G, but that wasn't possible with a 6-day holiday, but it was definitely on the agenda for next time, as was getting along to watch his nephew down at whichever local park he was playing at.
RedV3x
It's about time some mods started being fair
Which is understandable for a newbie describing the game in terms of their environment having watched a game
but it's not the best way to describe the game in terms of attracting someone to play the game.
Taking a friend to a game you have time to explain the particular similarities and nuances
but it's not the way to headline the game to a large audience.
If you analyse the similarities between Australian Football and American Football then Australian Football shares a lot of crossover to the passing game of American Football. There's the long pass, the receiver, the completion etc, The rules are even similar in many instances but to say Australian Football is like American Football is give the completely wrong impression and frankly scare off most people.
If you were to say that rugby league is akin to the running game of American Football then you have a reasonably accurate description IMO.
Rugby union may appear, visually closer with scrums being the origin of scrimmages but play is structured totally different with rucks etc.
Rugby union may appear visually closer to Australian Football scrums/bouncedowns, lineouts/throwins, tackling and positional kicking
but as you would know that playing the games they are totally different due to one thing called "offside" - it changes everything.
Aucklander
The Ultimate Warrior
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- #58
You didn't need to alter my post.
Loved the game and found it very much like the sports he'd been brought up on, so found it easy to enjoy after a bit of a short instruction on what the game's about.
Loved the game and found it very much like the sports he'd been brought up on, so found it easy to enjoy after a bit of a short instruction on what the game's about.
RedV3x
It's about time some mods started being fair
I didn't alter your post. just underlining the fact that the description came from someone watching the game for the first time.
"Which is understandable for a newbie describing the game in terms of their environment having watched a game".
My concern is for people associated with the game of Australian Football trying to attract novices to the game.
How did you describe the game to your brother before the game ?
Aucklander
The Ultimate Warrior
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- #60
I saw structured at the end and thought it was added in.
I think it just goes back to what they're used to. For him, it looked like a combination of a few different sports he likes.
I didn't really. Had a quick rundown of the rules and then went from there talking during the game and explaining some of the actions and decisions. I tried to get him to the two huddles and song at the end but no luck. He's not likely to watch the game back home, but he left with a greater understanding of the game and was impressed by what he saw.
BigBrainUSA
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It's an in-joke, mixed with a meme that was circulating twitter.
The first words that we get from most people when we say that we follow or play or are connected to Australian Rules Football is, "that's rugby, isn't it?" It's not just me, but from numerous other people involved in the league.
If I had a dollar for every time I heard that when describing the sport, I'd have enough to by fly over to Australia and spend a year watching matches.
Most people thought it was funny.
RedV3x
It's about time some mods started being fair
Well that seems to conflict with
Yes, I agree it does seem that there is widespread confusion in what Australian Football with people in the U.S.A.
That is one reason I suggest people have a good simple description of Australian Football handy to correct the situation.
The meme may be funny but the reality is different.
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- #63
USAFL Nationals have been running for 25 years and Aussie Rules clubs now exist all over America
The Austin Crows, featuring Mason Cox’s brother, reign supreme. A goalkicking buddhist minister stars in the women’s ranks. SHANNON GILL explores footy’s amazing community in America.
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The Atlanta Kookaburras, the Sacramento Suns, the Portland Steelheads and the Nashville Kangaroos, just to name a few.
Like minds in a foreign land all coming together to worship the Sherrin. There’s even a goalkicking, sake-making, buddhist minister.
It’s the USAFL’s showcase: the Nationals.
In 1997, the first USAFL Nationals were played and in 2022, the 25th anniversary edition was as strong as ever.
Once upon a time, it was Australian expats who made the event happen. Now, it’s locals.
Brian Barrish is the USAFL’s indefatigable media manager, a Philadelphia native who once played for the Philly Hawks. This is his part-time passion job, whether it’s commentating a game or promoting the league.
He’s exhausted but still elated in the aftermath of this year’s event, where 1000 players representing 41 different teams made it to Ontario in California.
“There was probably in the neighbourhood of 2000 people there when you factor in family and supporters,” Barrish tells CODE Sports.
“People schedule their holidays around this. They save money and bring their family for their annual vacation.”
Caitlyn Masher illustrates the diverse personalities that find footy in America.
“Caitlyn used to play gridiron football and lacrosse, and about five years ago she was a nationally ranked sumo wrestler. She and her wife make their own sake and beer and she is fluent in Japanese. She is also an ordained buddhist minister,” Barrish says.
Now footy is her sport.
“She missed the first game of the Nationals because she had to give the keynote address at a conference of American buddhist ministers, but then she was back to play full forward for the Denver Bulldogs on day two,” Barrish says.
As well as playing the game they love, the diehards had a couple of their own cult heroes to meet and mingle with.
America’s own AFL player, Collingwood’s Mason Cox, and veteran umpire ‘Razor Ray’ Chamberlain were in attendance, and mobbed wherever they went.
Cox watched his brothers play but was just as taken by the community ethos of the sport in his homeland.
“It’s a cool experience to meet all these people, it’s a family reunion every year,” Cox says.
“For people to be paying their way to be an umpire or to help organise the admin side of things, they’re really good people you want to see and enjoy being around.
“To see all these people in that country that all know what the AFL is, are invested in it and enjoy playing it, it’s like this weird oasis in the desert!”
Simon Highfield, the AFL’s international development manager, was also there and came away impressed.
“It’s an amazing event. To have five full-size fields going at the same time, grass like carpet and over 1000 players, it’s a really, really well run event,” he says.
“The AFL provides funding to the USAFL every year, but the event itself is purely run by the USAFL’s staff and volunteers.
“These people are lifelong Australian football fans.”
Perhaps the most amazing thing about these championships is the organic spread of Australian Rules football clubs across the country over the past 25 years.
All corners of the US are now covered, with 48 different clubs.
There’s the Fort Lauderdale Fighting Squids in South Florida, to the Seattle Grizzlies in the north. There’s even the Hawaii Eagles, while Georgia’s Grovetown Pirates are the newest club.
Barrish says the championships were conceived to bring the disparate footy community together at one time.
“We don’t have a traditional ladder and season because the teams are so spread out,” he says.
“Some teams may play a five-game season, some teams may play fifteen games.”
Clubs play their own seasons against other clubs within a reasonable travelling distance, which helps give them a national ranking; something that USAFL administrators agonise over.
“The idea is the Nationals are our national finals,” Barrish says.
“The seedings are done and the divisions are done with respect to how teams perform in the course of their local regular season.
“The trick, of course, is to make sure everything is competitive; you don’t want teams paying $1000 per person to show up and lose every game by 100 points.”
The Nationals in effect provide a champion for this national league.
This year, Cox’s brother Nolan and his Austin Crows triumphed over the Denver Bulldogs for the Division One men’s title, while the San Francisco Iron Maidens defeated the Minnesota Freeze in the women’s top division. Cox’s other brother plays for the Grizzlies.
“They’ve both now won grand finals and I unfortunately haven’t,” Cox laughs.
Back in 1997, the sport and the Nationals were dominated by Australian expats. No longer.
“Overall, just under 75 per cent of our players are American. In the women’s ranks, it’s probably 90 per cent American,” Barrish says.
Australians have to wear a piece of tape across their arm indicating their expat status. There are rules making sure at least half the players on the field at any one time must be locals.
“The old joke was that you didn’t need the armband, because you can clearly tell by the skills of who is American and who is Australian,” Barrish says.
“But that has changed over the years.
“The Americans that are coming along now to play are more natural athletes and they’re eager to pick up the new skills.”
Highfield says there are now 2500 registered participants in the USA. While the overall growth is steady rather than explosive, Barrish believes the composition of their playing and administrative ranks is setting up the USAFL for the future.
“We would love to have 7000 players playing the game across the USA, but my personal opinion is that now we’re looking at three-quarters of the league being Americans, it’s a point of pride,” Barrish says.
“It means we’re not relying on expat Aussies, the clubs are actually getting local people involved and its making the teams, the clubs and the competition more sustainable.”
Indeed, the USAFL board is now completely made up of Americans.
Cox is impressed with how the weekend warriors he’s become friends with at previous Nationals have developed their game.
“You start watching their games and you see how they develop over a year when you see them at the next nationals,” he says.
“They buy into it and become a better player, and enjoy the culture of the club and the game. They even dress up for Mad Mondays.”
*****
A welcome dinner with a distinctly grassroots feel set the scene for the event this year. Beer and meat pies were on the menu.
But there was also aspiration.
The event coincided with a live broadcast of Essendon and Sydney’s AFLW match, in which two players who have played at the USAFL Nationals took the field. Bombers Dani Marshall and Jess Wuetschner are both Nationals best and fairest winners.
Once USAFL players, Jessica Wuetschner and Dani Marshall are now playing AFLW.
Once USAFL players, Jessica Wuetschner and Dani Marshall are now playing AFLW.
Marshall in particular is an idol. A homegrown American, the former Arizona Hawk was the first AFL or AFLW player to be recruited from a footy club outside Australia.
It‘s a sign that America has become an unexpected pathway. The women’s section of the Nationals could even become a regular AFLW recruiting ground in future.
“The talent gap between international and domestic football is a lot smaller in the women’s game than with the men,” Highlfield says.
“Dani Marshall and the plethora of Irish girls playing AFLW at the moment is testament to that. If the AFLW clubs are interested, it’s something the USAFL could facilitate.”
*****
Barrish is a ball of energy who sees possibilities for footy abroad where others might be cynical.
He would love to see something in AFL and AFLW broadcasts that shouts out to potential American participants who stumble across the game.
“Some sort of advertisement that says, ‘Hey, are you enjoying what you’re watching? We have our own leagues, here’s how you can join a team or start your own team.”
The Covid lockdown experience, where AFL was suddenly and briefly the only live sport on American television, showed him what was possible.
“People found us,” he says. “It only lasted one week but there was all sorts of social media activity. I was inundated. For someone who has spent the better part of a decade shouting from the rooftops about this sport, it was a coup.”
And the effect was material.
“We have at least three or four clubs that were either saved or created because of that week’s exposure,” Barrish says.
Highfield says that there are many opinions on future strategy but the goal in the short-term is simply to provide more opportunities for people to play.
For now, they can reflect on a job well done with the USAFL Nationals and the bond it creates.
“There is a very big social element,” Barrish says.
“All of the people who have found this unique and bizarre sport are connected through this. Some have only been playing the game for three months, but came to California for the Nationals and they’ve already said they’re coming back next year.”
That’s what warms Barrish’s heart the most: new people finding the sport that he has an unlikely love for, and developing friendships around it.
“It’s one of the reasons I keep coming back every year.”
RedV3x
It's about time some mods started being fair
Undoubtedly The USAFL Nationals is a big event but I would like to see a national competition even in parallel.
It would be unlike the AFL where teams fly all over the country but more like the NFL
and only the small number of regional premiers would compete.
This would require only modest funding but the benefits in having a national competition in selling "AFL"
and attracting sponsorship and interest would be considerable IMO.
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- #69
Re: This Year's Nationals, at this stage, due to be held in Florida.
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RedV3x
It's about time some mods started being fair
The USAFL Nationals are a huge event. The numbers are impressive.
Canadian teams have an increasing presence.
Shouldn't the USAFL Nationals reflect this with "international" in there somewhere.
Would that lift it's profile ?
Would the AFL be more inclined to get involved especially with the I.C. canned ?
Canadian teams have an increasing presence.
Shouldn't the USAFL Nationals reflect this with "international" in there somewhere.
Would that lift it's profile ?
Would the AFL be more inclined to get involved especially with the I.C. canned ?
I wouldn't say Canadians are having an "increasing presence". More just returning to normal after Covid.
There were three Canadian teams this year (two men's, one women's). Pre-Covid, there was anywhere between two and five.
Most Canadian men's teams that can field an 18-a-side team already play a full season and their respective grand finals are already the pinnacle for them.
Which is probably why the two Canadian constants at Nationals are Quebec and Calgary (which just have metro leagues).
For the women, the AFL Canada Cup is the focus for clubs. Quebec is the only club that participated in both the AFLC Cup and Nationals.
The AFL's main focus for involvement in North America will be the Trans-Atlantic Cup.
RedV3x
It's about time some mods started being fair
So you apparently don't think it's a good idea to increase the scope of the USAFL Nationals.
I believe it might improve the sale ability of the event by making it international.
Likewise I believe by having a few playoffs only you could create a Canadian National League
and an American National League which must be a more attractive sell to sponsors.
The increase could underwrite the added cost but obviosly you'd need the seed money.
And yes, the does AFL seem more interested in a costly and pointless national reserves competition
than spending anything overseas for local competitions.
I didn't say that. The more footy, the more scope, the better.
I think Nova Scotia is a chance to debut a team in the next few years.
I just think an expanded Nationals will never be able to escape its US-centric roots.
It will be USAFL-plus. Similar how to the AFL still struggles with being VFL-plus.
If the AFL commits to funding a Canadian tournament as well as the Nationals, I'd have no qualms with that.
I also think that the Nationals growing in scope would still have to be limited geographically. My understanding is that they try to pick a convenient host city for as many people as possible to get to. If it went truly international, you'd have to have Canadian hosting cities, too, which might make it harder for US teams to get to.
I think this would be pretty cool.
AFL Europe has been hosting a champions' league for a few years now. Not sure how it would work, but a North American champions' league would be pretty cool, and something you could easily sell to sponsors and stream.
RedV3x
It's about time some mods started being fair
That "parallel" hadn't escaped me, but you are skirting around the event's problems.
The USAFL nationals is big money, so much so they can "tender" it out to get the best deal.
The event is already a compromise on time and place.
More Canadian teams wouldn't change things as they try to choose a place like Denver.
You cannot wait for that.
Canadian teams attend now - because they can.
My vision would be for the premiers of the regional leagues to play off in a super bowl.
So, for four teams you are looking at three games and thus three airfares/travel only.
Now, this isn't perfect, as there are leagues, metro leagues and add-hoc games but
a conference system could work with wild-cards etc.
P.S. I think this would be a good addition to the Nationals rather than a replacement.
In fact, teams not suited to the national league would still have the nationals as their main event to look forward too.
