Reading more than 400 comments on the article about Andrew Demetriou’s actions brings up the question. Why are there code wars? The love of sport in Australia is something that we brag about constantly to the world.
Ask any primary school age child, “What are Australian values?” and one of the first answers to come up is consistently, a professed love of sport.
It is something that we proudly display together as a nation in the countless global sporting events that we participate in.
This is displayed at the Olympics where we have a competitor in practically every event available.
At the Winter Olympics we have gold medal winners, a fine achievement considering the relative lack of snow in Australia compared to other countries.
This love of sport has earned Australia a reputation around the world as a sports mad country.
Now let’s imagine that there is no NRL, A-League, domestic cricket or (Australian) Super Rugby competitions.
The only major professional sporting competition running is the AFL. What a different country we would have.
The AFL would have large crowds, but nobody to boast to. They would have TV deals, but with no other competition from other sports. No other competitions to poach players from. It would be a lonely competition. Imagine the boredom suffered in the off season.
Now let’s imagine if the NRL was the only major professional competition running in Australia.
What would the people of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia do sports wise, who have little to no interest in the game of Rugby League.
They would lose the ability to measure the strengths and weaknesses of their game against those of Rugby Union. They would have nobody to share players with. Nobody to trade secrets of strength and conditioning with. Without soccer, they wouldn’t have a target of player participation to reach for.
Imagine likewise the A-League was the only competition in Australia.
Without the AFL, NRL and Super Rugby setting benchmarks for attendences the A-League would not attempt to expand their supporter bases, increase membership and ticket sales, or have any opposition in places where they attempt to expand the league.
The main strength of the A-League is having the ability to make a stand for Australia on the world stage, through the Asian Champions League.
The Socceroos would get a boost, having all with talent to perform on the highest global stage the World Cup.
However, the game would become stagnant without competition.
Every code in Australia needs the others for the good of their own game:
– The AFL is crucial to the Australian sporting landscape is it provides benchmark for administration, management and support at club level and media coverage. It also is a game proudly unique to Australia.
– The NRL is an essential Australian sport as it provides a fatastic state vs state rivalry though state of origin, and a truly competitive competition where any team can beat another on their given day. It too maintains a great supporter base.
Rugby League offers a chance for children with a range of skills to get active and involved in a team orientated environment.
– The A-League offers a significant amount of value to the Australian sporting landscape. It gives Australians a true feel of globalism when to witness a team from their region participating in a sport played in every corner of the globe by a staggering 750,000 professional players.
It’s skill and somewhat less physical nature offers a diverse sport to the three other codes in Australia.
It also offers a chance on the global stage that no other sport in Australia can. It is also the leading sport for maintaining health and physical activity in Australia.
– The participation in Super Rugby by Australian teams is also a magnificant aspect of the Australian sporting landscape. It offers the chance for Australians to view sporting sides from other countries week in week out. It is a truly unique sporting experience that has made the Super Rugby popular with Australian audiences.
It has also added more flavour to matches where Australian sides verse eachother. The Wallabies are a much loved national sporting team which provide a chance for success at a near global level at the Rugby World Cup. The passionate Bledisloe cup matches are a great exhibition on the Australian sporting calender.
There have practically zero instances of ping pong players slagging off at pole vaulters efforts or the strength of their sport in Australia, or vice versa.
Participants of Rugby codes have never got annoyed at golfers for the lack of comparative contact in their ball sport.
Athletics participants don’t pay out swimmers over the lack of speed in comparison the running events.
So why do participants and administrators from each code have such a disharmonous relationship?
All sports in Australia need eachother for the benefit of their own game, and all of these sports assist to provide Australia with the global image of a ‘sports mad’ nation.
Whether it’s badminton or volleyball, curling or synchronised swimming, we are all Aussies having fun doing what we love, let’s forget squabbling and just have fun!
db swannie
Guest
Why does AFL never make it to the cut off point in regional ratings in QLD & NSW yet RL does, Why do some.AFL fans resort to blatant lies to try to impress ?
Bondy
Guest
Kasey. I'll think you'll find the mentality in some will never change a quater of my ancestry came here chained just over 200 years ago.Ever since i can remember Football (soccer) has run through my family. I wouldn't think the blokes a racist their's a big wide world out there and by the way i wouldn't think Podsiadly or Koutoufidis come from a Welsh background some cant think outside the square.
Bondy
Guest
Redb. Always reverse a situation what would you have thought if Borack Obama turned up at Parliament House with an American (Gridiron) Football. What the F*** is that for. Where at war in Afghanistan.
Bondy
Guest
Code wars so to speak are crucial for the media to boost thier own moral about their sport of choice being the best and stay away from the others because their bad and evil. Which for the journo highlights what great work their doing for their sport buy trying to disway the sporting public away from other sport's so they can then pick on crowd attendances and T.V ratings which can then have a flown on effect in relation to sponsors / sponsorship, it's quite sad the level of desperation some media journo's go too. Lets face it nobody gives a shit about the Australian Golf P.G.A. and who ever sponsors it, put an Ausie Rules club in the western suburs of Sydney you've then got a war on you're hands, the Melbourne press cry murder when the Melbourne Storm breached the salarie cap last year ( to be honest they've been doing it for years ) and the Melbourne media pounce on it have they ever really cared about the storm ?. Victorian Police believe it's unsafe to marshall at an A League game front page of the Herald Sun they screamed which is strange i watched a pensioner knitting on the halfway line at a Melbourne Victory game ( safe for a female pensioner and not for a burley cop). These code wars are about trying too protect you're own patch and make others the villians and more importantly get the kids playing their sport of choice ,where in which they invariably play junior Soccer / Football Australia wide.
betamax
Roar Guru
And rural NSW. The rural areas of NSW and QLD are where the majority of NRL talent come from.
The Bush
Guest
"The metro part"? If you're implying Rugby League is a city sport only you're having a laugh. Mate Leagues strength is the bush. Rural Queensland is League and then Daylight.
The Bush
Guest
Why do people on this site enjoying drawing parallels between world events, history and sport so much. Hopefully you were being witty... If not, and you're comparing the geopolitical climate in the Near East and Arabia in the Seventh Century as the Eastern Roman Empire crumbled, with the launch of the Gold Coast Suns and GWS, you're a little bit deluded. Developed sporting nations such as the US and Australia, who are already at saturation point sporting wise, will always remain tough markets to crack for "foreign" sports. Not impossible, but very, very difficult.
Sick n tired
Guest
Why do we have to get along? Why can't we just slug it out like back in the day?
Pffft
Guest
Islam managed to take over regions and nations that once favoured other religions. AFL is doing the same thing to NSW and QLD.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
I can see where you are coming from there, but its not how I read it. I read more as "also" allows some of those whose bodies don't match other sports or who aren't as skillful. I read it saying that there is a place in league for big clumsy (by elite sport standards) brutes, but also for thefleetfooted and skilled. Not being a league fan myself, I don't know how accurate that would be; but that was my interpretation of the statement.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
Typical AFL stance. Football is the most played sport in the country and still has the highest rating program on pay TV and FTA. Football was also the first code to introduce a national club competion - the NSL.
asanchez
Roar Guru
That move by the AFL certainly ruffled feathers up north didn't it? I guess in their terms, thats exactly what they wanted, job well done. They got everyone in NRL heartland talking about it. I'm still not convinced about the AFL expansion either, but the size of the AFL's bank account alone, will ensure that it happens well. They are very well run, I'll give them that. Other organizations like the FFA could learn a lot from them, on how to run a local competition better, handling media, etc. They should have learnt with Ben Buckley being their CEO, but it doesn't look like he's the right man for the job. I will give him more time though, let's see what he does with their upcoming TV rights before I pass my judgement.
Kasey
Roar Pro
And that would be a great thing....I really hope Tassie can get its bid together for a HAL team down the track, I'd love the away trip to Taswegia to support United:)
Kasey
Guest
Now, if you'd(CCR) said what you might have been trying to say in a more reasonable manner such as: Using crowd figures as a gauge, we see that of the major sports in Australia, Soccer is not as popular as the more established football codes of Australian Rules(AFL) Rugby League(NRL) and Rugby Union(SupeRugby) but no, you had to peddle old racist stereotypes. Considering football has only really been run to a proper professional standard(and Some within the game would even argue that point) I think the strides made since 2005 are phenomenal. Will they continue on a linear path? No of course not. Nothing could expect to grow exponentially in that manner(well except maybe the egos of a certain AFL adnministrator;) and a Mr Joseph S. Blatter;) )
Kasey
Guest
CC Represent said "Soccer doesnt enjoy much support, only throughout ethnic backgrounds." WHAT GARBAGE: FACTS: Are the 1.4 million fans who attended A-League games in 2010/2011 ALL immigrants or wogs? In the 18 Home internationals since 2005, the Socceroos have pulled an average of 50,170 through the gate. ALL ethnic types? I don't think so. your racist overtones are the types of comments that cause football fans to get all defensive about their/our game. Implying that only people from ethnic back grounds follow football is about 1950's mentality. Wake up and check the scenery buddy.
Kasey
Guest
CC Represent said "and Soccer doesnt enjoy much support, only throughout ethnic backgrounds. " see this is exactly the type of crap that riles me off as a Football fan in this country. My interpretation of your cxomment is that you are perpetuating the stereotypes that hold that 'realAussies follow ARF or RL or RU. you give the impression of trying to pass off football as a game for those who aren't really Australian....Well I was born here, served our country in uniform for 15 years now, I think I'm about as Aussie as it gets and I love my world Football and Adelaide United FC. What gives you the right to make an ill-informed comment like that that implies that only immigrants and foreigners like Sokkah?? Time for facts: So the 1.4 million fans that attended the A-League in Season 2010/2011 were all immigrants were they? Care to tell us your views on Muslims too? I guess seeing as Australia purchased the fourth most tickets to the FIFA World Cup in 2010 means that "soccer doesn't enjoy much support" or you just only pay attention to your own little world. In the 18 Home internationals played by the Socceroos since 2005 the average attendance is 50,170 CCR, your comment and its baseless offhand manner are the true reason there are code wars on sites such as this. Not some Media conspiracy. Get your head out of your butt and do some research before you commit your 'thoughts' to the www.
betamax
Roar Guru
Your right asanchez, the papers have a lot to answer for. Rubbish rags like the Terrorgraph bottomfeed on code war articles. I wouldn't call it a "code war" but a "code administration war". I really object to the way the AFL go about their business, particularly their marketing. For me personally, day one of the code war was when I woke up one morning and saw Karmicheal Hunt was poached by the GC Suns. It was intensified by the Folau signing. These stunts were designed to incite and divide,or "get people talking about the code", as I'm sure the AFL admin would word it. There was absolutely no need for this, as I'm sure the game in the GC and GWS would have got plenty of attention regardless of these players crossing over. The farcical situation of them not having played made it look even more desperate. Theres been countless incidents since then, but these two were the catalyst for my dislike of the AFL(administration). Nothing against AFL supporters. A couple of my best mates are AFL fans. Amazingly I'm still friends with them!
punter
Guest
I am sure that he was saying that RL shouldn't have a WC, but you have to admit that the RL WC is not the pinnacle in RL (both the GF & SOS are bigger) & it doesn't quite capture the attention of non RL supporters, it is really not a major event. This is not saying they shouldn't have a WC. While I'm football fan, I have followed both RL & RU most of my life, massive St George fan, but the RL WC does little for me, I know some enjoy it. But the RU world cup is far bigger, now this is the pinnacle in this sport IMO.
NF
Guest
“Rugby League offers a chance for some of the less athletic and skillfull children to get active and involved and a team orientated environment. ”. LOL to think that someone of Billy Slater's calibre is less athletic and skillful than other codes is laughable. Code war material in a article questioning why there shouldn't be code wars yet take a shot at rugby league hypocritical.
Australian Football: Central Coast Represent
Guest
there are code wars because australians are a very passionate nation in reguards to our sport, could be the most passionate nation. The metro part of NSW and Queensland prefer Rugby (League), whereas The rest of Australia prefer Australian Football. Rugby (Union) enjoys a brief support base and Soccer doesnt enjoy much support, only throughout ethnic backgrounds. As well as hundreds of other sports. In Summer Australians minds are dominated by Cricket. Code wars are only throughout the winter. but i believe thats why there is code wars.