I’m a Queensland boy, born in Brisbane but raised a couple of hours drive away in the country.
In my younger days, Brisbane was not a place I liked very much. If I had to move to a major city, Brisbane would have been pretty much at the bottom of my list.
Prior to the 80s there was a real sense of inferiority about the place, a sense that everywhere else was bigger and better.
But the attitude of Brisbane was changing. It is no coincidence that a new feeling of confidence and belief in the state as a whole was reflected by the birth of State of Origin, which was very much a Queensland idea, and the hosting of the 1982 Commonwealth Games.
After the 1988 World Expo, Brisbane, and Queensland, came of age and would never be the same again.
Brisbane may not always be the biggest and best at everything, but that is no longer anything we are ashamed of. We are proud of what we do have and the things we have achieved.
Why relate this story?
Well I get a real sense that football is the same.
For years we have had an inferiority complex. As the poor second cousin to the other football codes, we have always had to find excuses.
Poor media coverage, poor crowds, and poor public perception were always some one else’s fault.
Well that is all changing.
The birth of the A-League gave the sport the thing it needed most, a professional competition and administration.
Initial good crowds, combined with the Socceroos reaching the 2006 World Cup put the sport at the forefront of public perception.
Despite a number of setbacks along the way, the past ten years has seen the sport steadily grow and become stronger year by year.
Gone are the days when a negative press article can threaten the very progress of the sport. The general public is now informed enough to make up their own mind, and to see that type of journalism for what it really is.
We are responsible for how our game is viewed. Our actions as supporters, players and administrators of this great sport control the future of our game.
Media coverage is improving and increasing, not because we have clamoured for it for years, but because we deserve it, and have grown too big to ignore.
It is time for us to stand up and be proud of our competition and our achievements, and stop comparing ourselves to the other ‘more established’ codes.
The AFL, NRL and Rugby have a hundred years of records and traditions behind them. Good for them. We are making our own traditions and records.
Those sports have bigger crowds and more money. Who cares? We have our own, growing supporter base, and will continue to grow with or without more money.
What do we have? We have the Socceroos, Australia’s only truly national football team.
We have a flourishing national football competition, and growing international recognition, as amply demonstrated by the arrival of del Piero, Hesky, and Ono.
On the whole then, I am sick of hearing about what we don’t have compared with the other codes. I respect what they have and what they have achieved, but I no longer feel inferior about my chosen sport.
We are football, and I am proud of it!
Mr. Sharkman
Roar Rookie
Honestly guys, As a fan of all these sports mentioned, why not just appreciate them all. Cricket is my favourite sport but I am still passionate about league, football, AFL you name it. I don't get all these mine is bigger than yours juvenile arguments on this page, it's really time to get over it. I personally hate this attitude that you follow one sport then you have to bag out others, it's a load of bollocks really. As far as I am concerned, if there is sport on tv, I will watch it.
bryan
Guest
Bondy says:- "if thats the case shouldnt freemantle vs gold coast get more than 15,000″, I didn't know that the Southampton suburb had an AFL team! :) Of course,perhaps you are referring to the FREMANTLE Dockers! Maybe the crowds in the Gold Coast are around that size,but Freo could play the local dogcatchers social team & still pull in crowds of around 35,000 in Perth! Earlier,Sharminator wrote the following nonsense :- " It has always been a joke amongst Australians when they put a Soceroo game on television there is a high number of Socceroos with Yugoslavian or Croatian names that are impossible to pronounce in Englsh. " Names from the former Yugoslavia have been mainstream in Australia for around 70 years,so the average Aussie (Who may well have a Croatian or Serbian name himself),should be able to give it a pretty good try! :) Reading some of the nonsense which appears on the "Football" part of this website,an observer could be forgiven in believing that society in Oz had not evolved since 1912!
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
I feel sad for people, like Bob Anderson. Really, truly ... I do. Global barriers to trade have fallen & products that relied on insular protectionist policies to survive are following the growth trajectory of dinosaurs or, to be more topical, following the growth pattern of VCR machines, Walkmans & print media. Not to fear Bob - go down to the local supply store & grab your camouflage overalls, tinned food, batteries & water & run for the hills! But, alas, you might find the supply stores have totally sold out of flares ;-)
c
Guest
Bob Anderson clearly you are right it is a boring, monolithic kick-ball game just that billions of others have it wrong
Bondy.
Guest
Bob, It's an open market place if your sport is good enough to entertain the masses then they'll facilitate it,I was reading a report from an American numbers cruncher where he suggested that football globally will be four times bigger than what it is now in 30 years time,where theres light. You've got to stop treating this sport as some foreign raider its entertained and educated 100's and thousands of kids throughout australia who are now grandparents or parents ,where other sports in some regions who have the supposed more traditional tag or right are no bigger than model aeroplane clubs.You have a distorted and perverted way of looking at sports in this country. Its great to see Warne taking the padde pop punch seriously he flew back to england for new years,one word professionalism. 'We Are Football".
Punter
Guest
I think you would find that Northern England & Ireland has always had very strong ties with football, as a matter of fact some of the world's most famous teams like Manchester United, Liverpool & Newcastle. Ireland has also produced some world class players over the years like Liam Brady. It's ok you don't like football, it's also ok for me to be an Australian & find the local sporting content as being boring & lacking in real skill.
Bob Anderson
Guest
People carry on about "multiculture" and "diversity" and how great that all is, yet we have one sport that is increasingly taking over the whole world (soccer) which is the antithesis of real sporting and cultural diversity. I find it really sad as there are so many other sports that are just as good or better than soccer. Local diversity is being swept under in the sporting world in its last few holdouts (northern England, Australia, Ireland, to some extent even in the US) by this boring, monolithic kick-ball game.
Tommy
Guest
+7Billion
MV Dave
Guest
Rey Could you post the positive Football posts in CAPITALS so we known its a positive! Don't recall seeing anything positive from you on Football here... BTW because l am positive and bullish about the game, after 35 years of frustration and disappointment, doesn't mean l'm following anybody...if that's the best you can come up with don't bother in future. You are obviously new to the game here and have not lived through its history otherwise there wouldn't be the constant negatives.
Reynoldsinski
Guest
I'm definitely not with you Punter, or MV Dave. You just seem to wait and see what Pussball writes and then follow him. I've got my own opinions, some positive, some negative.
gumpy
Guest
Ah, the Oz mainstream-media apparatchik... Their day is coming though stu, lest they bite the bullet and stop pretending it's still the '70s.
gumpy
Guest
To Sherminator: That will change over time though as more Anglo-Australians and Indigenous Australians take up the game in addition to ethnic minorities who previously were uninterested in or felt excluded from the game, like African/Indian Subcontinental/Oriental Australians and so on. But as for your claim that 5 of the current Socceroos squad are foreign-born, the only foreign-born Socceroo ATM is Archie Thompson, and he was born in NZ!
c
Guest
The AUS AFL team … ??? Well, even AFL fans have ZERO interest in them. - oh fuss i luv u :) happy new year
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@Rough Conduct When discussing any issue - sport, politics, music, science - it is often necessary to provide context & examples for validation, rebuttal or simply for comparative purposes. I do NOT interrupt RL, RU, AFL or Cricket discussion - in fact, I have bookmarked The Roar/Football page, so I couldn't care less about issues being discussed on other sports pages.
AVictory
Guest
Peter Wilson, from a Victorian perspective the majority of people couldn't care less about the Wallabies or the Kangaroos. Let alone name a player. It's not our sport. The Socceroos are far more popular in Melbourne than the Wallabies. Most people don't even know which code of football the wallabies play.
Rough Conduct
Guest
Oh Fuss, how I wish I could believe you. If it was the case, we wouldn’t have claims of the Socceroos being “our only truly national football team”. You are the first person on football threads to draw comparisons to the ‘other codes’, you deliberately provoke fans of other codes with your ridiculous comparisons, then complain when they comment on the football threads. If you really don’t care about those other national teams/sports – stop referring to them! You somehow cannot care about them yet cannot stop talking about them?
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Bondy & Punter According to a Goldman Sachs report, the USA paid $425 million for the TV rights to 2010 & 2014 FIFA WC tournaments (in Sth Africa & Brasil respectively); 2nd only to ITA, who paid $444 million for the rights. This represented a 113% increase in the amount paid by USA broadcasters for 2002 & 2006 FIFA WCs. The TV rights to WC2018 & 2022 have been finalised and, a few days ago, a US football journalist mentioned that the nation that paid the HIGHEST price to acquire TV broadcast rights for the FIFA WC finals tournament is NOT any of the big Euro football nations but ... the USA! Not bad for a sport that ALLEGEDLY has ZERO traction in the USA and only liked by kids ... and, of course, SWPs!!
Punter
Guest
Bondy, the Euros, the European football championship is bigger, by a long way, than either the RU World cup or the womens FIFA World cup, but yes I think the latter 2 are on a par.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@Rough Conduct "Enjoy your Socceroos mate" And, there's the rub. All that I want, as an AUS football fan, is to be able to enjoy my football without ignorant people, who don't like the sport, piping in with their nonsensical comments. I have ZERO interest in, and will never waste my time watching or commenting about, the AUS Rugby Team, the AUS RL team or the AUS Cricket Team. The AUS AFL team ... ??? Well, even AFL fans have ZERO interest in them. I enjoy the AUS Basketball team (both genders) & the AUS Field Hockey Teams, however, since I'm totally ignorant about these sports, I will sit back and try to learn and absorb information from those, who understand & appreciate these sports.
Rough Conduct
Guest
Such wisdom Bondy. Sounds like you are a disciple of the Fos – I am sure I have heard him trot out that same banal line many times before. Enjoy your Socceroos mate, I am sure they make enlightened Australians such as yourself very proud.