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I work as a sports journalist in Brisbane, but I was born in Melbourne and spent my formative years barracking for the Demons (during the times when we actually made the finals).
I played local footy and my weekends consisted of watching the AFL on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.
But for the past three and a half years I’ve been living in Queensland, on the Sunshine Coast and in Brisbane. While I don’t have Foxtel, I can still watch the footy on 7mate but I am burdened by choice.
If the Lions are playing at an appropriate time I will get them beamed to my television, sometimes the Suns and occasionally Sydney or Collingwood. But never my beloved Demons.
Even the guide is confusing. For example promising St Kilda versus West Coast, but showing the World’s Worst Skyscraper Demolitions instead (who watches this?).
While living in Queensland I’ve been to a few Broncos games, and watched the Titans and Cowboys on TV. I have passionately supported Queensland during the State of Origin as I generally want to be involved in the conversations at work. When Melbourne loses there is no banter around the water cooler.
But something shocks me. AFL is Australia’s number one sport. But it’s only Queensland’s third sport. First is NRL, for obvious reasons, but second is the Queensland Cup, or simply the QRL.
This is essentially the same as the VFL or SANFL in Australian Rules. The second tier rugby league competition brings in more viewers than the AFL.
More than 120,000 people tuned into watch Easts Tigers against Wynnum Manly, while only 62,000 watched North Melbourne versus Sydney. Just 88,000 saw the cracking Hawthorn thriller against Port Adelaide on Saturday afternoon.
While the AFL games were also shown live on Foxtel, which let’s face it, most interstate AFL fans enjoy, as I’ve already mentioned the free-to-air coverage is poor. The startling differences on “normal TV” is hard to fathom.
When I told my Brisbane workmates about this they weren’t surprised. They said the AFL was just full of southern teams and they’d rather watch locals play.
So until the Brisbane Lions fulfill their potential or the Gold Coast Suns make the eight, south east Queensland footy fans will watch the local QRL instead. And the rest of us will be forced to either download the app or convince the wife to let us get Foxtel.
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