A crap sport called Australian Rules Football. Or it used to be the most popular. REAL football has made quite an impression lately
Otherwise known as GayFL. I might be wrong but in terms of participation, the real football is still the number 1 sport is it not?
Correct, GayFL has higher viewing numbers but football has a greater particpation rate amongst youngsters (and the older generation as well )
As far as interest (media and otherwise) in the doemstic league Aussie Rules is by an far away the biggest sport in australia. As for participation, with the young (4 - 15) soccer is by far the most popular and older than that it remains the most popular but AFL comes pretty close and the other football codes get a big boost as well.
GayFL ?? what the... Aussie Rules Appeals more to Aussie's Because A) it is a hard game..no-one Backs off B) Home Grown Talent instead of Imports (we Still have them but only a handful) C) Its Unaustralian Not to That is why it is the N.1 Sport in Australia.. I've Shown This Before..but this is a Showcase of AFL http://youtube.com/watch?v=GClrwzgGxAM&search=AFL
Its actually quite amazing with Australia's small population... 20 million we still can be so good at sport. Well done Australia.
I had never seen this sport before. Looks very tough. I especially like the play where the guy jumps really high, catches the ball and smashes it down onto his feet for the volley
Try telling that to Queensland and New South Wales. As far as we are concerned AFL could fall off of the face of the planet and we would not miss it. Rugby league is king here and that isn't going to change in the near future, at least not as far as AFL is concerned. Soccer may have a chance though if the A-league continues to grow in popularity. This world cup campaign seems to have given the A-league a big boost with clubs reporting that season ticket sales have doubled from this time last year. And just for the record. Australian population: 20 452 300 New South Wales: 6 803 000 Queensland: 4 001 000 Over half the population of Australia just there...
Speak for your own state buddy. The Lions are the most popular club in QLD esp. in SE Queensland. Broncos are not as supported as they once were. You're kidding yourself if you think no one likes it here. Most people i know dont even like rugby. dont blame them, its a pathetic, boring, skill-less (for most player positions) sport.
Lets just say Australian sport is very complicated. There are 5 sports to acknowledge; Aussie Rule(AFL), Soccer, Rugby League(NRL), Rugby Union and Cricket. *Soccer is popular as a participation sport (less likely to get hurt when playing during a lunch break) - not professionally. Gaining popularity helped by not having the ALeague season conflicting with the other codes. However it does occur during cricket (very popular - google Ahes ticket) season. Probably won't overtake the Rugby League or AFL since their League system is so entrenched an are considered the primary winter sports - TV revenue, gambling enterprises (club facilities), historic etc. Soccer will compliment the existing codes; people will follow the other codes during winter and swap to cricket and soccer during summer. No it isn't. Totally different sport. Imagine a cross between basketball and soccer on a very big scale (field is 2 times as large and wide as soccer/rugby). Then add body checks and some grappling.
Check out the AFL sister site www.bigfooty.com Also for AFL and NRL "culture" check out The Footy Show. AFL - http://sports.ninemsn.com.au/afl/video_vault.aspx NRL - http://sports.ninemsn.com.au/nrl/video_vault.aspx
Im from NSW. AFL is the biggest sport in Australia by a fair way, but both the major states NSW and QLD prefer the NRL (rugby league). As you can see theres a major distribution of sports around OZ, and there isnt a real official national sport (besides Cricket). Hopefully soccer will pick up nationwide. AFL is a faster game, it is pretty rough, but it is fairies dancing compared to the NRL, which is slower, but a lot more rough. NRL still is a fast sport, its just that AFL is very fast. Rugby league would have to be one of the toughest games in the world, and we laugh at gridiron with those roided poofs wearing full padding. NRL is no padding, and next to no stoppages. Dislocations, broken bones, concussion are a regular occurance on the field. http://youtube.com/watch?v=s9vTHXT8FwI&search=rugby league Thats how rough it can get.
And This is an Example Of AFL..which is rough as well http://youtube.com/watch?v=vQzgwfFRbqs&mode=suggested&search=AFL Both can Be Very Very Rough Sports
Have to say as much as I love watching Aussie Rules along with all the other sports like league, union and soccer. The AFL has really ruined it for me personally this season with the new rule changes. At first last year I wasn't to impressed by the way the swans among others were playing but I grew to like it as it made for much more closely fought games and tense situations. But this year... more tactics have come into the game, well thats what I thought anyway, sorta similar to soccer in the slow build up, but the fact that with a mark you can take your time to choose your target really takes a lot of the speed out of it. And i'm hoping the horror run with injures this season are just that and not caused by the new rules. The AFL made the current rule changes to keep the ball inplay longer but does it really? Anyone got any stats on this? Seems to me that the ball spends more time in possesion of a marker or a free kick taker than anything else these days. The AFL should sack the whole entire admin and change the rules back to what they were about 3 years ago, hell even just last year would be fine and then leave the freakin game alone! Oh and Broncos >popular> lions in queensland, hell even cowboys atm, you'd be fooling yourself if you thought otherwise, even when the broncos are going crap I think they're still the best supported club in australia, and dont forget what the lions were like before the 3-peat.
League is crap anyway...no scrums or rucking from what i can see...tried to watch the State of Origin and turned it off after 5 min because I was so put off by it.
Something bothers me about these kinds of plays, as well as the ones in the NRL video above, and also similar plays that occur in the NFL. I think it is a total cheap shot to lay a player out like that, especially when the player just received the ball. I don't think it makes you tough to hit a guy like that. I think it makes you cold-blooded. But I understand it is the nature of the game. The other players have to avoid that kind of thing in order to make plays and score. - Paul
Mate i love soccer, but dont bag AFL just because your some nerd who spends all his time on a computer, I bet u have never even played a sport...