I have never understood the largely Australian phenomenon of arguing about which footy code is the best of the lot.
It makes no sense, serves no purpose, and gives non-sports fans the perception that the world of sport spectatorship is a rude and unwelcoming one.
I know that most fans do not look at it from this perspective, but I implore you to have a good think about what you are doing the next time you want to scream at your AFL, rugby league, union or football-loving friend that their sport is not as exciting, tough, skilful, or worth their time as is your favourite sport.
While passion and loyalty are part of the joy of sports fandom, sometimes this can cause friction among friends, colleagues, and even strangers in the street.
Sport is a business, and it is completely necessary for leagues and executives to be fighting for the hearts and minds of spectators, juniors, and sponsors.
With so much sport on offer, successful self-promotion is one of the key factors in determining the success of a league, organisation, or sport as a whole.
But as fans, what does it bring to your favourite sport when you openly criticise or outright mock another sport? If I, an avid rugby league man, were to tell an AFL fan that having such a large field is ludicrous and that the lack of knock-ons means there is no skill in their game, do you think they would stop and say ‘you are right, I will stop watching AFL and will switch to rugby league immediately’?
Of course not! They would come back with a similarly aggressive argument about rugby league, perhaps claiming that passing the ball backwards in order to go forwards makes no sense, or that rugby league players are all unintelligent meatheads.
You have probably heard at least two of those four arguments many times over, as the same arguments seem to go back and forth between footy fans.
Criticising another person’s favourite sport is not going to help improve your sport or the quality of its fan-base. It is only going to make the people forced to listen to your argument dislike you and your sport. But most importantly, it is incredibly annoying!
If you consider yourself to be a sports fan, keep your mouth shut about sports you don’t follow and instead enjoy your favourite sports. Discuss them with others, and when talking to fans of other codes try to explain why you enjoy your code, rather than criticising other codes or sports.
If your goal is to convert casual sports fan to your favourite code then you would be best served pointing out the best parts of your game and letting them make their own decisions.
Don’t put down other codes! It is just annoying, and accomplishes nothing.
I learned long ago that despite my lack of interest in AFL, nothing I say will convince an AFL fan that they should stop watching, playing or attending games. And nor should it! People should enjoy the code of their choice passionately, or even multiple footy codes if that is their thing, and let others enjoy their favourites in peace.
We are all footy fans. We are all sports fans. Let’s start acting like it.
Casper
Guest
So we're multicultural in sport too?
Casper
Guest
Easy to manipulate stats when you talk about crowds at 1 game a week in Sydney (football & AFL) compared to multiple NRL clubs with district histories. Television free to air numbers put them in the shade compared to NRL. Grand final ratings indicated NRL our did AFL despite the latter's 'dominance' nationally. Just watch/attend what you enjoy & ignore the rest. Get a bit sick of the kiwi's & saffa's living here but constantly bagging the country. Don't expect change of allegiance but at least accept you moved here for a better life.
E-Meter
Guest
Yeeeeeehah code wars (cracks whip). Cricket is the only truly national Australian sport.
Renegade
Roar Guru
You clearly don't live in Sydney otherwise you'd know League owns this city..... check the aggregate attendance of games in Sydney if you want to know who pulls the crowds. If there were only 2 RL teams in Sydney like the other codes.... ANZ and Allianz stadium wouldn't be big enough for the respective sides. Check Oz-Tag and Touch for your participation figures as well.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
I thought he was a Cyclone.?
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Super rugby will be fascinating this year - well worth a look.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
Ah clipper, so the Storm is the least attended team in Melbourne? If we're talking about NRL teams you are correct but if we are tallking about all professional teams then the Storm are ahead of the Melbourne City & Rebels. Then there are TV ratings which the Storm is again ahead of those teams and goodness what other factors-merchandise, sponsorship, social media etc??. Nice try but no cigar again.
kevin dustby
Guest
i doubt that stat
Mister Football
Roar Guru
For completeness, worth mentioning that in this morning's Age you will find an article on the Barassi Line: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/where-do-rugby-codes-end-and-rules-begin-at-the-barassi-line-of-course-20160225-gn3lbe.html
Marc
Guest
Congratulations on destroying your argument before it even started. This logic is just delicious: "Participation has nothing to do with the actual popularity of a sport."
Memphis
Guest
The Age has taken a dead set dislike to AFL (perhaps based upon Nines link with Fairfax) but The Hun is more reverential. Brownless and Lyon is a good story - imagine if the equivalent happened in Sydney. Beau Ryan copped it a bit but if the same occurred it would get good coverage though Hadley/Parish received some but not significant coverage.
Greg trilby
Guest
Don't know how relevant running costs are - most EPL clubs would struggle as well, but when attendances keep going down then your observation that Sydney has too many nrl teams is probably correct
Birdy
Guest
Allblackfan, Your odviously not very old. RL , starting with Jack Gibson in the 70's have been learning from other sports around the globe not just in training techniques but administration, player welfare rehab etc etc. RU reluctantly started only after they turned pro and their first port of call was for defensive coaches from RL . As a compliment to RU though , watching a bit of S15 and some matches from the last RWC they seem to have made a lot of progress. Not trying to start a code war.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
That's correct Dean and one of the problems with D Gallop.He was rarely on the front foot spruiking his code.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
BB I note with caution Ferraris are exclusive and few are seen around the Burbs.A couple of late ,involved incidents one catching fire ,one involved in a high speed incident. Practicality in the cities and Oz roads very negligible.But showy indeed . Impractical for the family.Just saying.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
The figures above don't include touch for RL. If they did it would rival soccer's figures
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
No.As touch football according to the 2015 NRL report, has 670,000 participants Oz wide,the 339,000 could not include Touch.Unless of course rl has negative 331,000 players?
clipper
Guest
Pepper Jack - comparing the Swans to the Storm is laughable. The Storm compare to GWS - which is the least attended team in Sydney, like the Storm is the least attended team in Melbourne. Of course the Storm always make the finals and GWS have never made the finals. The Swans have been the most attended team in Sydney for years now, can't see them dipping down to the least supported team if they have a couple of losing seasons. Punter - I work and live in Sydney as well, has changed a lot in the last couple of decades, but you are entitled to your view, but 'far and away' the dominant code is way off the mark - especially, as I said, in the east, inner city and north.
Dmak
Guest
Participation has nothing to do with the actual popularity of a sport. In the same report they found that the top activities also included (000's) Swimming 3147 Cycling 2343 Soccer 1790 Dancing 1303 Basketball 1088 There are some sporting activities that are fun to play and others are that are fun to watch . None of these sports actually rate all that high apart from special events (Olympics ,Word Cups ,International visits). There is a lot of evidence which has shown that the reasons for such high participation rates in these activities is due to mothers wanting their children playing contact sports. Evidenced by the fact that 1.1 million of the soccer participants are between 6 and 13 years of age.
Marco
Guest
I follow league and AFL. This year union joins the list with a little persuasion from my kiwi workmates. Nothing wrong with that.