PS: I am a supporter of rugby union and association football, league is tolerable, am a huge boxing fan too (a really brutal and scientific sport) but AFL (aside from it’s absolute lack of strategy or proper tackling for a supposed tough sport) is horrid and really does look like the closest thing to mass homo-erotica on grass (not that there is anything wrong with that, unless you’re a “real man” of course).

Prefer contact with other men eh? Perhaps dropped the soap in the shower too often?

Ummmm … there´s no contact … and the other 3 most popular winter sports in Australia are full contact.

Aussie men are real men .. we like tackling each other in the backyard after a few brewskies …
I cant stand watching soccer as there is no violence … a guy gets a little clip on the heals and he falls
over as if Jeff Fenech punched him in the head.

Its exactly the same in the US, Canada, Georgia, and Mongolia … countries with proud contact sport histories … it dosnt matter what soccer does … the majority of men will never revert to a girly non contact game whne they grow up belting each other.

Dream on soccer pansies.

it is what it is. What relevance that they were dead rubbers does it have? That’s your game, the nature of the beast.

the title of this blog is “What’s really holding “soccer” back?”.

well, what is it? What excuses do you have left? Why are those games not selling out?

The grand final is League’s pinnacle event each year, not test matches, not Origin. Last year’s game was contested by Melbourne, a most under-supported team in NRL terms compared to all others, and Manly whose main claim in regards to support is everyone has two sides they follow…..their own and whoever is playing Manly.

I know…..it all means nothing, because it is what it is…..it’s the nature of Rugby League that only two of their 16 supported teams can make the grand final. Just as it is the nature of soccer, that their showcase event may be hindered by it being a “dead rubber”. You should not be throwing it up as an excuse and saying “oh yeah, but if it was like Aus v Uruguay in 2005 it would have sold out”. Yeah, and if two teams full of origin stars played League against each other 24 games a season at ANZ Stadium, perhaps League’s average crowds would match the AFL’s.

Some would say the grand final is the biggest match in the Rugby League calendar but again it was keeper11 who brought it up.

last three Grand finals

80,388
81,392
79,609

2 of those matches were dead rubbers for Football in a Rugby League city where football is a fair way behind

For Rugby League, SOO is the biggest match in the Rugby League calender & in the heartland of Rugby league.

Yes they can

http://www.nswrl.com.au/news/article.php?id=690

They cant even fill the stadium for SOO.

76,924
67,620
78,751

last 3 socceroos attendances in sydney
:
v china 70,054
v Uzbekistan 57,292
v bahrain 39,540 WC

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25661918-5003460,00.html

http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/heres-a-serve–with-source/2009/06/19/1244918191683.html

thanks for the link. I fink Alan Jones spoke on behalf of everyone in that interview. Really worth a listen to anyone that hasnt heard it yet. Congrats again and Thanks to Alan Jones….quality.

To be honest – hurling is quite a specialist sport and is played best in the south and south-east parts of the country. Football is more widespread and is played throughout the island of Ireland – including Northern Ireland -the counties of Derry, Antrim and Fermanagh would have good successes in recent years.

Croke Park is on loan to both rugby and soccer only until Lansdowne is complete – after that it reverts back to GAA use – that’s what agreed by the GAA central council who jealously guard their game.

Some people have argued that big internationals (rugby/soccer) or big provincials (Leinster v Munster) should be held there but that won’t happen since the sponsors for the new Lansdowne Road are hardly going to pay out for naming rights (the Aviva Stadium – ugh) and then see the big games go elsewhere.

Croke Park got largely built by its supporters on the ground – with a small amount of govt funding. The GAA is one of the most successful community-based organisations in the world – their capacity to infiltrate every aspect of every community, and to raise support and millions of funds for an amateur game amongst 4 million people is astonishing. It is one of the best stadia in Europe, and no doubt will host other kind of events in years to come.

So hosting Heineken Cup finals will certainly be on the cards, as will Champions League, Europa Cup finals. It could be used as part of consortium for staging a RWC though I doubt it.

Lazza – you asked why do thousands take the ferry every week to watch Manchester and Liverpool. Because there’s a long tradition of Irish players and presence in both those teams over the last 4 or 5 decades.

There is fervent support of local teams like Shelbourne, Shamrock Rovers, etc, but the gate numbers are in 2-3,000 range.

Irish domestic football doesn’t have the money, the infrastructure, the talent (cos it goes overseas), nor the ability to develop itself further with such a big market sitting on its doorstep. There was a proposal at one stage to have Wimbledon relocate to Dublin and become the Dublin Dons – but that petered out.

International games to get big crowds – particularly against some of the bigger names. But it is linked to how well the Irish team is doing. Trappatoni has worked wonders with a team of youngsters and some journeymen from the second and third divisions of English league along with some Premiership players like Robbie Keane of Spurs and Shay Given of Manchester City. They might even qualify for the next World Cup which will be astonishing given the dearth of talent he had available.

I would have thought the whinging of a section of the fans was way down the list of things people don’t like about soccer, behind low-scoring, play-acting, lack of physical contact, etc.

In 2007 the daily telegraph had an issue with Cricket Australia tying to make them pay for photos. The daily telegraph said it was going to ignore cricket all summer. India came to Australia and cricket had its biggest summer ever and the telegraph couldn’t do anything about it. I didn’t see some SBS blogger complaining about any of that. Other sports get the same treatment but worse.

Maybe you could tell a Cronulla supporter about your complaints. This sort of whinging is what turns people off soccer.

jimbo wasn’t being serious. At least, he SHOULDN”T have been serious.

gee, how dare he………

…although, this article has ‘soccer’ quite explicitly in it’s title, and for Pothale to regail us on ‘football’ in Ireland, it was most approrpriate to use the local phrasing and terms.

Pothale -

how about Croke Park, hasn’t the GAA started permitted international soccer matches there? Is there any sense that Croke Park becoming more available might diminish the Lansdowne Rd value proposition – - at least for the time being???

btw -

one of the all time best weeks in Melbourne was in 2003,

From Friday to Tuesday we have the Int Rules Aust vs Ireland, the RUWC Aust vs Ireland and then the Melb Cup on Tuesday with a pretty good Irish flavour………..3 separate sporting events and a ripping time in town – no raining on parades, it all fed of each other so that the total was greater than the sum of the parts – - – - for me, I look at that and wonder what could be inserted around a FIFA world cup in a similar manner…….but, that’s for a different thread running at present.

Why do thousands of Irish take the ferry every week to watch Man Utd and Liverpool? Perhaps it’s just the local, amateur variety of Football they don’t care about.

The national team always seems to play in front of huge crowds?

To read the Irish situation, is almost like looking in a mirror for most Australians.

Just substitute hurling for rugby league and we’re there (and no disrespect intended to either, it’s more a reference to four big games found in each country – a very rare thing in this increasingly homogenous world we live in).

Also, I woudn’t dare wish to offend a hurling player, especially when the caman resembles a meat cleaver, and is often brandished like one.

There were various proposals to build a new stadium in the West of Dublin for the FAI, but it all came to nought after political shenanigans and fighting over funding. Eventually the IRFU and FAI agreed to jointly re-develop Lansdowne Road and got the Government to cough up a contribution. The IRFU put together a package for seating and sold out their stadium seats for their matches on a 10 year deal – they did this over a few months.

The FAI are still trying to sell their seats – two years later – and Lansdowne is nearly complete. Soccer is having a much harder time, and plays third fiddle when it comes to attracting crowds and big corporate money.

Rugby is and remains largely a middle-class sport – certainly from a money point of view. The success of the Irish team and of the provinces in the Heineken Cup has grown a substantial fan base – particularly amongst women – that didn’t exist previously, and has drawn supporters from every demographic.

Rugby was – in my youth – certainly seen as the English game, and would not be countenenanced in many religious and state-run schools. But that has changed in the last two decades, and the game is now a lot more catholic in its appeal. (I don’t mean the religion.)

True Tah – you said: “the internationals (soccer) are far bigger and get far more interest than the local comp.” in referring to US, AUs and Ireland. the point I was attempting to make is that is not true in Ireland.

Soccer definitely plays second football. A simple pointer to this is that ‘football’ means Gaelic football in Ireland. Soccer is that other sport where they fall over the ball all the time, and none of the players seem capable of picking it up and passing it.

My only comment on Wales is they would be regarded as one of the weak European teams & though they do produce good players, ie Ryan Giggs, they struggle to get teams into major int’l competitions, due to Europe having the strongest depth of teams. Where Australia, USA & Ireland, where the local competition is not the strongest sport in those countries, they have int’l teams that has got into major int’l competitions.
Plus the local competitions that Cardiff & Swansea are in aren’t Welsh, but English.