Why do code wars exist in Australia?

you can never go wrong with the "fillip" line!!

Tea time Pippinu Just like to say before i go, I'm back to the UK as soon as possible. This is a big opportunity to make a quid. Towsers Korfball megamarts springing up everywhere. Just have to persuade the Royals to put up the start up cash. I'll use the fillip line that should work.

Towser I had to make a big decision before writing up the above threads: to keep the game a secret, or to let everyone in on it (and thus risk commercial exploitation). In the end, in the interests of openness and transparency, and sticking true to my journo's creed - I decided to expose the game to the world. It also occurred to me that in these dire economic climes, the Brits needed a fillip, and what better way than to remind them of their recent (largely unheralded) successes in korfball (well, relative success) (I'm not really a journo, but you get my drift...)

Pippinu Surely all Brits if they knew this fact would be converted to Korfball. Just dont let the Queen tell them at her Xmas speech. "I'd like you all to play Korfball becaws were so succesful." In Sheffield there'd be a rush on doctors for a medical check up.

This is the wikipedia article on the Korfball World championships: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korfball_World_Championship Unsurprisingly, Holland has won them all, and Belgium has come 2nd, except for on year in which Belgium hosted the event, and sent shock waves through the world wide korfball community when they actually defeated Holland - that was in 1991. However, the natural order was restored soon after, and Holland has dominated proceedings ever since. Another little known fact is that Great Britain is a bit of a force in korfball, and has come 3rd on two occasions - making the British korfball team the most successful British sporting team of any description since the 1966 world cup. The last time Great Britain came 3rd was in 1999, when Australia hosted it. Yes, it's true, Australia has actually hosted this illustrious event (I didn't know that either until I read it). In fact the Australian Korfball Association is hosting a 10 year anniversary dinner this Friday night. Seeing that it's a game that appeals to both men and women, the organisers have done their best to hire hosts for the night who might be capable of hosting such an audience, and they've taken a punt on Sammy Newman and Matty Johns.

Towser you've already ruined my argument in which Korfball was my example! (actually I've been dying for someone to ask me what Korfball is - for the uninitiated, it's the Dutch version of netball in which the teams are mixed - the only other thing I know about it, from a photo, is that the ring literally looks like a cane basket - make of that what you will)

Pippinu what is Korfball? Is it related to a furball. Perhaps then it is a posh way of saying coughball. What ! its a form of Football. You mean cats play it when they cough up furballs & try to kick the furballs between 2 tins of whiskers. I hate it already.

Fragglerocker - what's a tad odd in Australia is that we don't just have 'one major franchise' cities like the US model. The AFL DOES have that for now in Syd and Bris and NRL in Melb, but, the AFL is seeking the 'twin' franchise model of Perth and Adelaide. The HAL went down the one city/one team model initially, but, is watering down the Bris/QLD & Melb/Vic very shortly. In the US, the vast majority of these cities are single franchise per 'code/competition'. Everybody goes out as a united army to support the 'home' team. Here - we seem to love the 'derbies' etc. So - for a while, Brisbane has been relatively cleanly shared in the US style. But, with the Gold Coast variants the whole Brisbane / Gold Coast golden miles will become rather more cluttered. Even so, it'll be clean compared to the ability for anyone to co-ordinate within Melb or Syd to NOT have some overlap (intended or otherwise). Given in Melb and Syd, that the 'local' code has say 8-10 clubs within the city/state - it doesn't give a lot of room for 'new comers' and will always imply a nibbling at the edges at very least level of imposition. Where Pittsburgh to be the national centre of the NHL, and have 6 teams - 10 teams that comprise over half of the national league - - then, any NEW code seeking to establish a foothold will be regarded as a threat. Alas - for Australia - you don't have another 30, 40 odd big cities to help spread the code/competition around. If we did, no doubt the NRL and AFL both would have 'relocated' a few more licences and we'd have far less of a 'code wars' concern.

Fraggle Your US experience is an interesting one - but it's only of marginal relevance (I don't say that to be rude by the way). Why? Because the other big sports are hockey, basketball and baseball, i.e. they are not codes of football. Here on the Roar, no one is jumping on the basketball thread to get stuck into the game of basketball (basically becomes no one cares enough), and the same goes for cricket, or motor racing, or korfball. But mention a code of football - and a large segment of the population goes ballistic!! Someone might harmlessly mention that there's a new aussie rules league started up in Canada, for most, it's nothing more than a little quirky sporting fact - for others, it becomes the entree to display their absolute hatred of aussie rules. Now if I were to mention that I had just started a new korfball comp in Andorra, I imagine no one would say boo.

I'd have to say one place where code wars don't really exist is the US. I've spent quite a bit of time over there in Pittsburgh, which is NFL mad even by US standards, yet everyone in the city was also supporter of most of the cities other codes. Penguins in the Hockey, Panthers in College sports, Pirates in Baseball, etc. They even had an unexpected large rugby following. Personally I think there's room for all the main codes in Australia. They just have to borrow something from the US - Their codes don't really compete against each other. They coordinate amongst themselves so in a particular city, you won't really have to choose between watching one code or another. For example, The Pittsburgh Penguins rarely, if ever, play at the same time as the Steelers. On top of that, the seasons are staggered.

I think the code wars do exist beyond the internet. One example, a few years back when a sydney paper added a "football focus" section once a week to its papers i never heard the end of it from many friends who are NRL fans. They couldnt comprehend that anyone would want to read 5 pages of news on soccer. Its only a small example, but things like this add up. Alot of people have a code they dont particulary like, mine is AFL, and i guess the code wars are a way of venting a dislike of one code or another. As for the future of each code .... my predictions, which obviously mean nothing! Rugby : Well i cant see Rugby Union gaining too much more popularity, every world cup it seems to pick up a little, but not by too much. In the past 10 years the only time i ever saw it pick up real interest was when the world cup was in Australia. NRL: The NRL has a tough time ahead, too many teams in Sydney, and many of them struggling, take Cronulla for example. They will try and expand, possibly Adelaide, where a decient crowd turned up to a sharks "home" game. International competition is dead. Origin is the big draw card and will always be. AFL : Victoria will always be AFL heartland, there kids/schools programs are realy going to rival soccer in all states. They will expand and with some success. Soccer : Carefully crafted expansion plans should slowly work over time, dont expect huge crowds in a second melb or sydney team tho. At youth level soccer will always have high participation levels, and internationaly there realy isnt any comparison with the other codes above ... Maybe the cricket is the rival there. So whos the winner or looser ? NRL and AFL will always be the top two codes for years to come. But ask the same question in 20 years time and who knows!

Xcoder - I agree with your last post on the potential for Rugby League growth, but I don't think its future is one of significant 'real' growth as I have defined it (i.e in participation rates and net-inflation 'balance sheet' terms). Those 'slots' you rightly identify on the map would more likely be filled through a shake out in the current capitalisation of the NRL over time, because existing high market-penetration can be a barrier to growth in certain contexts (I am suggesting here the NRL is up against massive demographic forces - that while not 'rugby friendly' - fortunately move quite slowly). Essentially I am arguing that there are a few more 'gears in the NRL gearbox' (for expansion) - but not too many more 'revs' in the NRL engine (it is in the 'redline' already). The next challenge for Rugby League IMO will be to complete any expansion it plans, stabilize, and 'dig a trench' (financially speaking) to 'future-proof' itself - in the way the AFL has done in recent years. As to you Keith - all I can say is oh dear....

MichaelC - I was referring (not very clearly it would appear) to the capitalisation and professionalisation of football - indeed in my earlier post I spoke about Australian football being at least 129 years old and older in a non organized sense. I would equate footballs development in this sense at about the beginning of the post-Crawford era in AFL 20 years ago. Does that help you understand things better?

MichaelC In a nutshell pro development stages. To spell it out to you(and me not being a soccer fan BTW).The A League is in its infancy and one does not have to be Luigi the unbelievable to see, it is already doing a damn sidebetter than when it was tied down to ethnic groups.THe Victory in Melbourne is a classic example. The area in which i live there are 15,000 soccer players and 3,000 rl players.It is getting reasonable ratings on Pay Tv,which medium it didn't have before.So saying it is doing well as a pro tournament in its infancy is hardly telling a fibbie. I still don't fear soccer,because many soccer followers attend rl matches and soccer kids still switch over to rl at about 14.It is also played in summer in the main.I am envious of its international appeal ,the money available that is all .

The Link 'Its no fabrication to say...' Now there you go again! - and Pip . . don't tell him the secret weapon !

I remember way back in the late 60's there was some guy called Gorton who was running Soccer in Aus - no I'm not thinking of the former PM - I can't recall his first name but I think he was a 'Sir' ! He was quoted along the lines ' ... Aussie rules feared soccer...' I don't think he got into smells though..

Xcoder & Mahony --- hmmm, how is 'soccer' in this country in it's early stages??? It's been here for 120 odd years. 'early stages'........that's just an excuse for blind optimism.

Re the AFL deal ,wasn''t it Packer or some honcho in his organisaion that said"the other stations had to pay overs,if we couldn't get them".The Tv ratings in NSW and QLD cap cities and regionals seem to back that argument up. Anycase KP is no longer with us,so the shove will be more of a nudge next time.