First up, apologies to any female readers, but this article is all about male perceptions, and their effect on what sports we associate with.
Like it or not, the best male athletes in the country are drawn to participate in the rugby and AFL codes, not football.
The “Australia’s Greatest Athlete” series, shown on commercial TV a few years ago, amply demonstrated that football players in Australia are some distance behind the overall athleticism of players from other sports.
While it is certainly true that the skills and attributes required for football are different, equally, I don’t think anyone can disagree that people like Billy Slater would be champions at football, if it was their chosen sport.
Why then are these men predominantly choosing other sports?
I believe it is because of the underlying, sub-conscious belief in the general community that physical strength equates to manliness, and that the other codes obviously fit this model better than football.
Football relies not only physical prowess but also on delicate skills and touch, plus a certain amount of agility, attributes that are not in line with Australia’s vision of the rugged pioneer or ANZAC warrior.
As the home of all codes of football, England, through whatever quirk of history, embraced football more than rugby. James Bond may be tough, but he is stylish while doing it. The same sort of ethos prevails through continental Europe and is well represented by football.
In South America, the rhythms of the samba and tango are things that also lend themselves to the natural skills of Football.
In Australia and the USA, both places were, until relatively recently, frontier communities separated by vast distances, that still required conquering, and needed tough, strong men who had little time for the finer things in life.
My family literally lived only a few miles from the property made famous in the “Dad and Dave” stories. In my childhood, I knew men who grew up at the time depicted by Steele Rudd, men who travelled by bullock dray and on Cobb and co coaches. It is not as far in our past as some might think.
These men were my father’s role models through youth. They influenced his view of manhood, and he, in turn, influenced mine.
Continuing the movie analogy, James Bond might be an English and European idea of manliness, but it was John Wayne and his numerous cowboy flicks, that struck a stronger chord in both the USA and Australia. I enjoy James Bond movies, but it has always been John Wayne that my idea of being a “real” man is modelled after.
It is why, for so long, many people in this country have written off football as a game for “fairies”. It doesn’t fit in with their sense of what being a man is all about. It is why immigrant communities embrace the sport more easily, but longer term Australians do not.
Times are changing though. “Man-scaping” (shudder) is one symptom of a change in perception. Australian men are developing more of an appreciation that manliness is not tied just to sheer physical prowess.
It may take a couple more generations, but I believe football will become more and more recognised as reflecting the traits of “manliness” and more accepted as a real part of the Australian sporting landscape. Once that happens, more of the better athletes will come to the sport.
Only then will football in Australia start to realise its true potential, both nationally and on the world stage.
Bondy
Guest
Some of them my come and watch the National Team this week ?.
Martyn50
Roar Rookie
At least RL doesn't have referees having bets on games, match fixing and name calling like soccer does
Evan Askew
Guest
Barnesy is acually a footbal fan.
Stavros
Guest
Good points there Martyn, and I'm sure the 82k+ at the MCG tonight would agree with you.
Martyn50
Roar Rookie
Because its what Australians are. Proper hard working people. Get a fair bump and get up. Not rolling around faking injuries or looking for the comb to put their back in place
Titus
Guest
Why is AFL popular then?
Martyn50
Roar Rookie
Go back and read the article. It says football codes not tennis or cricket. Australians prefer a mans game not some poncey push and shove the ball around .
Prosnecki
Guest
I was born in Australia but I believe Australia has the wrong values system. Look at the punch-up that happened the other night in Origin I: If Paul Gallen wasn't a professional athlete he'd have been arrested and most likely charged. He's only gotten a week's suspension for God's sake. When you compare this to the suspension Kevin Muscat got for what he did to Adrian Zahra it's blatantly obvious which sporting code (rugby league is not football!) is more civilised.
Towser
Guest
C'mon reality lad now I know you don't have a clue,have you seen the size of Vinnie Jones handbag?
Muz
Guest
Worst Roar article ever. Never ceases to amaze me the number of AFL stooges that write and comment about soccer here. I never visit the AFL or NRL pages on the Roar site because they don't interest me one dot but come into any article on soccer and here they all are bagging it out. Thou doth protest too much methinks. Talk about chip on the shoulder coupled with small man syndrome complex.
Reality
Guest
Titus It’s a historical fact that colonials were bigger than their old world equivalents, check.. http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/572/1/ http://www.myplace.edu.au/decades_timeline/1820/decade_landing_18.html?tabRank=3&subTabRank=2 "colonial children who lived through disease and malnutrition grew much taller and were healthier than their counterparts in Britain." "Currency lads and lasses were mostly the children of convicts or emancipists and the term suggested inferiority and a distinct identity. These currency lads and lasses were also referred to as 'cornstalks' as they were taller than their British counterparts and had a distinct way of talking." Nar then Towser, yer daft Yorkshire puddin’! I’m actually from Bury so I know a fair amount about sports in the North of England. I used my Grandad as an example to show that its your sustenance, not your genes that can affect your size. Bad example to prove my point, but have a look above and you will see that during the formation of the footy codes, (not when you were kickin’ a ball around, you daft ha’peth), colonials were indeed bigger than their kin, left in the shithole of the world that was the UK. You’re also kind of proving my point, major cities in the UK are all football mad, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, all these places were slum cities (again, during the formation of the codes and arguably still are :) ), the smaller cities and towns are either footy/RL/ or union, but all the old slum cities are footy. Also I think you footy lads have some kind of size issues going on, 6”3’ and 15 stone is around 95kg, you’ve got the height/weight ratio of a small back in RU or RL. Diddy Drogba is even smaller (1.89m and a skinny 91kg), Inglis would run over him at 6’5” and 106kg, how about Jonah Lomus 6”5’, 125kg (19.6 stone for your old world money) and 100m in 10,8 seconds. Always made me laugh to see Vinnie Jones get his handbag out, he would have been floored by most rugby players.
Towser
Guest
reality Just to blow your theory out the window my grandfather was born in a workhouse in Sheffield & was around the same size as your grandfather. I was born & raised in post second World War in Sheffield amid muck/grime from the steelworks ,in a slum ,food wasn't that flash on post war rations either. Yet I grew up to be 6ft 3inches & 15 stone(Translate to kg). We played football only & believe me the lads I played against in the local leagues were either built like tanks & many as tall as me,I have the bone breaks to prove it. Physical strength yer avin a laf,,many were miners & Steelworkers with arms like Popeye whose jobs required stamina ,physical strength & courage. Working underground or pulling red hot steel from a furnace is no place for those without it. What your mistakenly doing is reading too many articles that say exactly what you said about the Impoverished British & their "Colonial " line. Once again As I said to Dinoweb earlier ,making assumptions as an outsider is "fraught with danger". Just to emphasise how ludicrous a generalisation this is ,you mention the RL belt in Northern England. Funny thing is that that Northern belt is interspersed throughout Lancashire & Yorkshire,the same places where Sheffield,Manchester,Liverpool,Bolton,Burnley,Blackburn,Barnsley & dozens more are football towns only whilst in juxtaposition St Helens,Warrington,Dewsbury & dozens more are RL only towns & Wigan was until recent years. Some like Bradford & Leeds cater for both. Following your theory of "Impoverished Football players" vs "Full er 2Kg steak Rugby Players" then nobody in Northern England would be playing RL as the social conditions in most towns ,particularly amongst the working class in both Football & RL towns were the same. Unless of course The RL League towns ate more Yorkshire pudding & Lancashire hotpot than their footballing neighbours in their respective counties. That is definitely ludicrous.
Bondy
Guest
That sounds like aussie rules and tanking, uno the thing that doesn't exist, clubs get fined for tanking but they didn't tank. This would have to be the worst year for aussie rules since becoming a profession 'cough", more people turned up for C Palmers Gold Coast than GWS.
Chairman Kaga
Guest
Soccer needs to lose the diving and cheating to appeal to the Anglos. They can sell the sport as a world game and a skillful game, but the underhand stuff, that is just low and goes against the principles of our society. I like the sport and I understand the latino attitude to life, but it is not going to wash. FIFA needs to introduce trial by video for the diving. Problem is FIFA is latino.
Bobbo7
Guest
I've gotten into soccer recently but must say the diving and penalties that decide outcomes frustrate me. I find the EPL is good to watch. But that A League final where Perth got penalised in the last minute or so really disappointed me as it did not appear fair and seems a terrible way to decide a final. Not sure why penalties in the box are not referred to a video review to ensure the right decision is made.
Cugel
Roar Rookie
Headline of the Year
Titus
Guest
Maybe it is more to do with concepts of civilisation? In many cultures skill and intelligence are valued far more than being big and tough or at least there is meant to be a balance between skill, strength and intelligence. I highly doubt that people in Australia and America were bigger and stronger than anywhere else. Put Greg Inglis next to Didier Drogba and I think your concepts of Football players being small might go out the window.
reality
Guest
I think the obvious has been missed here . At the time of organised sports taking hold, I.e early 20th c. America was the land of the brave and free , the old world was the land of the subjugated and malnourished. In the usa and the British colonies the citizens were much larger and fitter than their old world cousins. As such the sports grew as a product of their environment. As an example my grandfather, born and raised in borderline poverty in Lancashire was 5'2" and 100 pounds and in B1 condition. His grandson (me)is now 6'2 and 100kg. He was partial to a bit of footy before the Bosch blew him up, I've only ever played rugby. IMO this is why soccer is the world game, it was simple, you didn't need the same physical strength and it could be played any where, ideally suited to Victorian or modern Brazilian slums. Obviously things have now changed but I think this can be traced back to the origins of sports popularity. There are exceptions, rugby league belt in the north of england, RU in the welsh valleys, Gloucester, Cornwall, but I suspect these areas had the highest standards of living for the working classes, as opposed to the heavily urbanised/squalid cities. All my opinion of course, not based on any evidence but seems right to me !!
Gezza
Guest
Well, if football is culturally unsuited to Australia because we apparently prefer highly physical sports, then there should be no place for tennis and cricket. I can't think of a sport with a higher ratio of prima donnas than tennis, yet it's traditionally one of the most popular sports in the country. By your logic, this should be the most un-Australian of sports, but methinks you're just doing a bit of fishing.
Stavros
Guest
I've always thought that you know nothing about football and now I am convinced. To say that Greg Williams could hardly kick the ball is one of the dumbest things I've read. I guarantee that you will not find one legitimate AFL fan that will back you up. Your stats show that you can use anything to backup your argument as only kicks and handballs are used as disposals. Suppose we can say that every soccer player uses their hands, as all players throw the ball in.