Aussie sports and me

Where was this whole thing supposed to be heading? One minute the writer claims to have never lived in Australia & hence, understandably, has no real real grasp of the football culture here, but then goes on to lecture everyone about how it all developed & it’s current & impending shortcomings. To top it all off, he seems to be using Rugby Union as some kind of yardstick! Blimey!

Lots of Victorians, Sth Australians & Tasmanians going to Qld and, to a lessor extent, NSW. Victoria has turned it around but only very recently. There was sustained losses for a lot of the time period from the 70s to the turn of the century. Much of it going to Queensland.

The census report, 2018, on the 2016 census showed that NSW lost c50000 people, and that Vic and Qu were the big winners. However, within the states it was noted that the 'flight to the suburbs' was continuing in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. See https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0~2016~Main%20Features~Population%20Shift:%20Understanding%20Internal%20Migration%20in%20Australia~69

How does internal migration affect, with reference to other factors – climate --- Broadly speaking the AF states lose ppl to the RL states bringing their love of AF with them.

Thanks for the response. William Sheridan Wall was born in Ireland in 1815, then moved to Australia in 1840. Most early explorers of what we term Australia were born outside Australia then emigrated, or were sentenced to Australia. In the US it is interesting to ask students who discovered America, or explored it. Mainstream history has Columbus, Vespucci, Lewis and Clark, but students begin to realise there were people already present, and that these people had discovered lands, mountains, rivers etc before the Europeans 'discovered' and 'named' them. One could say the first 'Australian' born explorers were Woollarawarre Bennelong and Bungaree. The question of sports penetration in different Aussie states is interesting, as this brings in grass roots participation, from which a sport can use to support the professional game. How does internal migration affect, with reference to other factors - climate, topography etc - the sports that become predominant in a region. Due to the 10 week hiatus, which may be lengthened, it will be interesting to how The Roar and its contributors fill in the space.

I actually meant to write 350m. My bad. So you can see how very well AFL actually does. In a small population with a very fragmented football market. In the US, NFL is really the only football, same with the Bundesliga auf der Vaterland and the UK where Association Football is clearly in front of Union. —- Comparing footballs to other disciplines, like golf/basketball/tennis, is spurious. —- They were replaced by the Germans because they couldn’t find a Stewart who fitted their particular religious criteria and persuasion. Fun fact: King George I & II could only speak German. KG III spoke both but he was nutz —— The AFL can support the Syd n Bris teams because they can. The NRL can’t support any teams in Perth or Adelaide or a 2nd Melbourne team because they can’t. Rather elementary I would’ve thought. —- And you’d agree the Little Upstart, Hughes gained PNG as part of the carve up of Germany’s then overseas possessions in recognition of Australia’s sacrifice in the FWW. Sanctioned by the League of Nations. He sat the English and French back on their ask your mother for sixpence. —- Those explorers were British.(Stuart Scottish, Flinders English, Wall dunno) —- I’ll do the Periodic Table tomorrow :laughing: :laughing:

Dear people, thanks for the responses. I could argue that why you make others than the English pragmatists is to avoid getting into how Australia 'ruled' PNG until 1975. It was under a UN mandate, and Australia was part of the British Empire etc. When Britain was created, or the king wanted to name it so, the year was 1603. The new monarch was James, who was from Scotland. The Stewarts were replaced by some Germans, who during the FWW changed their surname to Windsor. The belief that the 'white man' was superior than others was part of the mindset of the British, wherever from Britain you came. As to explorers, this would mean getting into deciding if the development of Australia itself was done by the British or by/with Australians - were Stuart, Wall or Flinders Australian or British? What nationality are they in textbooks in Australia? As to the AFL - my point was that there is no pro-team in Tasmania or NT. That in other states the AFL subsidises teams by a large amount - Gold Coast Suns. If you look for the 'heartland' of a sport, you tend to look with aussie footy at Vic/SA and WA. With rugby league it is NSW and Q. In British terms note Wales where Rugby union is more South Wales than north wales. In Scotland soccer dominates its centre - Glasgow/Edinburgh, but in the borders [with England] rugby union is the 'heartland' sport. As to 'most watched football' sport, cunning way to get it so high, as this avoids basketball, golf, tennis, field hockey, baseball etc. On the US TV may have US football as the dominant football code, but in junior/high school soccer has the most participants, especially when it comes to women. In recent years there has been a fall in the number of children taking up 'Pop Warner' US football as parents, especially mothers, do not want their sons to develop CTE. Lastly US sports are having to come to terms with cable cutting - where more people are not using cable as the means to watch TV, which impacts on sports rights. As to the US population it is not 250m it is c320m, it was 250m in 1990. Thanks for the comments

The use of the term "British" was just English propaganda. Very successful too as many English still call themselves Brits without a second thought. England, was the power base of the British Empire. That the Welsh and Scots contributed to England's "British Empire" was more to do with pragmatism than Empire building.

WA would grind to a halt if interstate travel were banned. And if WA closes...well the whole country is in deep trouble.

Dear Kick n Clap, unfortunately rugby's development in GB was more to union than league. Possibly this was due to GB being more class riddled than Australia, or that in its early stages it never had an icon who moved from one code to the other. Even within GB rugby league was very Lancashire/YorkshireCumbria it never developed in Ireland or Scotland, so do not just blame Cymru. As to league in Australia, where is the Tasmania team, or a South Australian team in the professional league? As to problems, all the 'football' codes have their problems, be it within Australia, or worldwide. You may lament some of your codes leaders, but would you swap for Blatter, or Carlos Cordeiro? I think not.

Dear Micko, I did lecture the 'yanks' on football. My biggest gripes with them was CTE, the abuse of players in the college system, and the demeaning of female athletes. All US states have to publish who in the state, employed at state facilities etc. was paid the most, and in all states the highest paid official was either the college/uni football or basketball coach; the players were paid $0 [supposedly]. [I taught at an IB school so students were not just from the US we had French, Spanish, Indian, South Sudanese etc.] I also criticised the manner in which billionaires abused cities and states to have them build stadiums and facilities for professional sports teams - football and basketball particularly - in a way that left profits with the owners and rising expenditure with the city/state. How owners of a team - a franchise - could move to a new location if it was willing to pay for a stadium etc. As to my 'problem' here it is to remind people that any sport - AFL, cricket, soccer etc - is bigger than the professional league, and that possibly COVID-19 may remind us of that fact, and make us reassess our attitude to the relationship of the professional game to the sport in general.

English is right? Did the Scottish, Welsh or Irish invade other countries and set up governments? —- Europe did take on soccer you are right there. —– As for your assertion about AFL not being all around Australia look at TV contracts, crowd aggregates, player registrations and aggregated player contract worth. Australian Football wins on all counts. Except NRL wins on SOO popularity and Soccer on Under 18 and under registrations. Every other metric Australian Football reigns supreme. —- And it can’t conquer the world as Australia was not an invading type country in the colonial era. You may have noticed that small anomaly in your argument. —– l was answering Kick n Catch the Clap

Rowdy, the empire was not English it was British, and aussie rules was based on aboriginal as well as british influences. Many countries that were not invaded by the British have developed soccer, and made the British an afterthought in who wins the trophies, and even where a British teams wins you will note that few of the players are British. In part this shows that 'ball games' were played by many cultures, and probably in a manner that made the transition to 'British' rules easy. As to the AFL, well one could say it has not yet even 'conquered' Australia, so how can it conquer the world? What my thoughts were trying to do was to note, just as in Britain, that COVID-19 was an existential threat to professional teams etc. than the code itself. That the game would exist even if the AFL in its present form fell.

And btw, AFL is the 4th most watched football competition in the world. Not bad when you consider England is 70m, Germany 80m & USA 250m. And their football markets are not as fragmented as ours. —- Is Rugby League in the Top 40? In the interest of fairness.

The sports that are played all-around the world mostly have one thing in common. They were gazetted in England. You know the country that invaded everywhere else. —— So Australian Football remained mostly in Australia. Interestingly the only countries to have gained independence from Australia, PNG & Nauru, have an AF presence. —- So it’s not the virtues and positives of a game that makes it accepted internationally but rather who invaded who and where n when these settlements took place. —- So the following statement is now thrown into it’s rightful context: “AFL can “pump the tyres up “ in Australia , all its wants ,about how good their game is? “Proof’s in the pudding ” How many other countries are interested in playing and promoting AFL? Answer’s on a “postage stamp”!!” —- Oh, that’s right, Rugby League came from England. And was formulated in response to the unfairness of England’s Class (Caste?) System.

Who cares? The NFL only exists in the US but do you lecture yanks about it? People like what they like. What's your actual problem here?

Hey Pete, Great Analogy and thought process. As Rugby Follower, you might be better suited to help unravelled why “Rugby Yawion “ is on its “Death Bed” in Oz? As well traveled person you should also know & reflect on why the “ Baddies at WRU headquarters ”will stop at nothing to prevent the “Greatest Contact Sport” bar none expanding? Why has ”Rugby Yawion ” gone out of its way and placed a Covenant on international sport funding to prevent Rugby League gaining World funding to promote it’s code of sport World Wide? I will tell you why ? FEAR! Why has the WRU persuaded & influenced the UEA to ban Rugby League & make it illegal?? Fear my friend? Be also careful of domestic “Vacuum Comps” AFL can “pump the tyres up “ in Australia , all its wants ,about how good their game is? “Proof’s in the pudding ” How many other countries are interested in playing and promoting AFL? Answer’s on a “postage stamp”!! NRL & Rugby League gots its problems, but a least they’re always trying. ”Code of Honour & never say die”.

At the press conference on Friday Morrison spoke to the press, this is how abc australia summed it up Aussie sports and me Mr Morrison said National Cabinet, which includes the Prime Minister, premiers and chief ministers, would also force indoor venues to limit crowds to one person per 4 square metres to reduce the spread of the virus. In a wide-ranging press conference, he announced: Schools will remain open, following health officials' advice A second stimulus package will be directed towards small and medium-sized business Australians should reconsider the need for unnecessary travel Travel to Indigenous communities will be restricted Aged-care facilities will receive an extra $444 million Commercial and residential tenants will receive financial relief All aged-care workers to undergo testing for coronavirus As you note, the government position is changing every day, it seems that the only position it holds consistently is that it will change its position asap

Government have denied any thought of banning interstate travel according to Morrison yesterday. However, the way things are going, that could all change tomorrow. And it would affect a number of sports, yeah