Here it is, the inaugural Australian Sports Rankings for 2019.
While it’s never been attempted before (from what I can see), I’ll give it my best shot at picking and analysing each sport’s spot in the list as well as perhaps continuing it on for future years.
I will take the top 20 major sports in the country, ranking the top fifteen, leaving the remaining five unranked.
After naming these five (in alphabetical order), I will count down to the best ranked sport. This list is judged by the sport’s success and support in Australia only – for instance football’s support isn’t judged upon the Premier League’s viewership in the country as the league isn’t based in Australia.
Here are my picks.
Unranked
Athletics
Hockey (ice and field)
Ironman (triathlon)
Sailing
Volleyball
Top 15
15) Baseball
The ABL is quickly growing in quality, crowd numbers and support however not enough to place it higher up the list.
14) Cycling
Cycling is well attended for tours around the country and is a very common recreational sport.
13) Boxing
Whenever there’s a fight on, there’s a good chance lots will know about it.
12) Motorsport
Very popular and has a good, long history in the country.
Craig Lowndes finished on a high. (AAP Image/Mark Horsburgh)
11) Golf
Similarly, to cycling, fairly well attended and also a popular recreational sport.
10) Netball
I believe there will be a stage where netball becomes more popular than rugby union in Australia. However, I don’t believe that’s happened just yet.
9) Basketball
Youth development and support thriving and so is the sport.
8) Rugby union
You might be shocked at this ranking but I believe rugby is on the way out in Australia. Popularity, crowd numbers and support are down. Hardly anyone cares about the Super Rugby competition.
7) Swimming
Youth development, support, popularity – all is going well for swimming.
6) Horse-racing
Always been a popular sport here, strengthened by the fact that meetings occur every week.
Horses pass the post during the Melbourne Cup at Flemington. (AAP Image/James Ross)
Top five
5) Tennis
Tennis competitions are well followed and attended. Very popular for recreation as well as among all children.
4) Football
The most popular sport for children by along way and the A-League and W-League are growing faster than ever before.
3) Rugby league
Strong youth development with touch, Oz Tag, and rugby league available to both girls and boys. The NRL has great support especially around NSW and QLD, however crowd numbers need an increase.
2) Australian rules football
Generally popular around the whole of Australia among most age groups.
1) Cricket
Even after the ball-tampering saga, I still believe cricket deserves its spot at #1 on this list. Reasons why?
In the summer, everyone knows, plays, follows and goes to the cricket. They play it on the beach, in the driveway, wherever!
What do you think Roarers? Would you have ranked them differently? Do you agree with my rankings?
Jordan Chilcott
Guest
Basketball is way too low
shihab
Guest
No,football is number one
SR1
Roar Pro
yep
Onside
Guest
Hey Isaac , read your responses. No need to justify or over complicate your thoughts mate. Keep it simple and fun. This subject can either be a PHD or a discussion over a beer. Your shout.
J.T. Delacroix
Guest
Rowing is an important sport?! You’re obviously taking the Mickey. It’s hard to tell sometimes with you though.
SR1
Roar Pro
hadn't seen this list 'til now, thanks ar
SR1
Roar Pro
(starting from next year, which is still a while away)
SR1
Roar Pro
Thanks to everybody for all the feedback and support! I will attempt to use your advice for future editions.
SR1
Roar Pro
Agree with this, though I stand by my point that cricket has an overwhelming amount of support in the summer time.
SR1
Roar Pro
I think the AFL wins as they have more at-ground support. TV ratings are always good to have but you always like to have a packed stadium.
SR1
Roar Pro
It was considered - I just don't think it's belongs in the list just yet.
SR1
Roar Pro
(top level sports)
SR1
Roar Pro
Yeah maybe horse racing does need to be a little lower..
SR1
Roar Pro
The NRL claims those two as youth development games.
SR1
Roar Pro
I appreciate your comment - I will try to give more reasoning behind rankings as well as use criteria in the future.
SR1
Roar Pro
Thanks for the comment. I'll take it into account for the future.
Carl
Guest
Complaining is the number 1 pastime. Walking is the number 1 sporting activity.
AR
Guest
If comparing which competition ‘holds sway’ in tv ratings, the below list is fairly indicative... Largest aggregate TV ratings for H&A season: 2011 - AFL 2012 - AFL 2013 - AFL 2014 - AFL 2015 - AFL 2016 - AFL 2017 - AFL 2018 - NRL
Maximum Insight
Guest
Well I think the fact that the AFL crowds and memberships dwarf rugby league's whereas the NRL ratings only exceed the AFL's if you ignore the fact AFL games go for 50% longer (and ultimately the AFL always gets more TV monies), suggests that it doesn't really matter how much you weight towards TV viewers over match day attendees. Ultimately though I'd expect you'd factor both in The NRL is clearly ahead of cricket when it comes to both aggregate attendances and TV ratings (and monies)
Maximus Insight
Guest
I think next time you could consider establishing some criteria along the lines of: 1) professional/elite competition engagement (attendance/TV etc) / revenue 2) participation 3) cultural relevance (arguably a lot of overlap between this and the first two) The first two of these have quantifiable measures though the relative weighting you put on each is very subjective As Peeko suggests I think you probably have netball very low. On the above criteria 1) Super Netball is probably the second most elite women's domestic competition in the world after the WNBA. It gets ratings better than the A League and Super Rugby and solid attendances 2) Netball is the third highest club based team sport after soccer and Australian football despite being heavily gendered https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/research/smi/ausplay/results/sport 3) netball is culturally very important, in Victoria most country football clubs are also netball clubs which sit at the centre of community life. It is hard to see how union is ahead of it under any criteria You've taken an "intuitive" approach which is a good conversation starter but perhaps establishing criteria and looking for supporting data would elevate it even higher. You'll probably find the results would be pretty close to what you have got here anyway! For what it's worth I think Australian football would be number one......unless under a "cultural" criteria, it is discounted substantially due to its imbalanced geographic spread