Aussie Rules
 

Just how big a following does the AFL have ??

Re: Aussie Rules
 

Aussie Rules is the biggest sport in Victoria and South Australia. I think it would be the biggest in Western Australia (around Perth and the more southern areas) and the Northen Territory aswell, I don't think they're too big on rugby. Queensland and New South Wales seem interested when their teams are winning, and Canberra seems to follow the NSW trend. There is only occaisional games in Canberra, more of a showcase thing, as with Tasmania. It's absolutely massive in Victoria (the disputed home of Aussie Rules), and you get thousands of people turning up just to see their teams training sometimes, and people camping out for tickets when the finals are on. It's a multi-million dollar industry!!

Re: Aussie Rules
 

Judging by the website it looks on a par with the Premiership in the UK for it though it was hard to gauge from it how that support is spread geographically

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There's not as much money in the AFL industry as in the premiership over here, although they still are professional players. They get as much news coverage as the premiership does aswell. The most recent reason for the popularity spreading to Queensland and New South Wales is because their teams have been successful in the past several years, so AFL has been the flavour of the month. It used to just be popular in the southern part of the county. South Australia and Victoria used to have seperate leagues until the 90s (I think) until they decided it was a good business move to make it Australia wide. Then, gradually, some of the Victorian clubs either merged with or just turned into interstate clubs (eg Sydney used to be South Melbourne Swans). The popularity comes from a really good marketing push when the league went Australia wide. There's more politics to it, but that's the basics.

Stick with Collingwood!!

Re: Aussie Rules
 

Uh oh. People barrack for their team and anyone who plays Collingwood. Dont do it to yourself, choose another team.

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Definitely, there was a lot of sense being spoken, how easily that was all undone by mentioning the pies...;)

Go the Eagles!

To the OP, Rugby (proper Rugby, Union) is pretty big in WA now, The Western Force (Perth's Super 14 Team) has the largest membership base of any team in the competition.

To be honest pretty much all sports are we'll received and followed in Perth, most AFL's games sell out, Perth Glory are probably the only let down, but thats because the A-league really is pretty poor quality, I gave up watching a game the other week after about 15mins it was dire, I reckon my Sunday league standard 10 years ago would give them a good run about, I switched over and watched Luton v's someone, it was 10times the standard.

Re: Aussie Rules
 

[QUOTE

Stick with Collingwood!![/QUOTE]

http://bestsmileys.com/toliot/9.gif



Don't do it. Anyone but Collingwood. :D

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Can't stand the game

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Cool,
I love it. roll on end of Feb for NAB cup & 28th March for round 1 of new season. :D

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Have to confess I quite like from the few games I've seen of it.

Ain't going to nail my colours to the mast yet though. Will do that only if I end up down under

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Nothing wrong with that. I cant stand shopping either, so my wife shops while I watch the footy.

Re: Aussie Rules
 

whats wrong with collingwood ???


simon

Re: Aussie Rules
 

Its Collingwood.

Re: Aussie Rules
 

Bring it on. Though moving to Darwin means my Lions season ticket is a waste of good plastic :( Hope Foxtel stop being tight gits and stump up for the TV rights - they can afford it.

Re: Aussie Rules
 

why do collingwood get such a hard time ??


simon

Re: Aussie Rules
 

Everyone gives Collingwood a hard time because they're such a successful team, and I think they have the most members of all the teams (this used to be the case a few years back, dunno now).
Collingwood seems to have the most die-hard fans, who can get pretty comical!! Very otp!!

Nah, I think they just pick on their working class roots......

Re: Aussie Rules
 

They haven't been successful for a while and they certainly don't have the most members now.

Everyone has a go at them because their fans are a bunch of ferral, arrogant idiots.

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bit like magpies in real life then;)

Re: Aussie Rules
 

Collingwood = Eddie (everywhere) Maguire :( ...I worked for the S.A.N.F.L for 15 years and I love the game :D Western Australia also had...and still does..a state league ;) ...Carn the Crows!...oh, and then the Eagles :D

Re: Aussie Rules
 

Currently West Coast Eagles, with 44,000 members are the biggest football team of any code in Aussie, I think the next team in members is the Adelaide Crows, followed by Collingwood.

However it's all about to change, within 3 years almost certainly Melbourne Victory will be the biggest football team of any code and will surpass that 44,000 member total of WestCoast as the sleeping giant of real football in this country has realised it's not based on Ethnic culture anymore.


and boy have I been waiting for a long time for this to happen. 26 years to be exact.... Mark my words it will happen.

Re: Aussie Rules
 

3 years may be optimistic but the Victory have certainly been getting some crowds in. I'm not sure how many of those are actually members though.

I thought Adelaide had passed a milestone 50,000 during last season actually :confused:

Re: Aussie Rules
 

Thought so.

http://www.funtrivia.com/en/Sports/A...rows-3815.html

Quote:

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What ranking were the Crows in club membership numbers at the conclusion of the 2006 season?

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Re: Aussie Rules
 

i love it. closest game to football (soccer) there is. i remember as a boy my footy coach screaming "TRIANGLES LADS, LOOK FOR THE TRIANGLES!" thats what the best afl teams do. quick passes and off the ball movement making triangles. my coach was a nutter but i suspect he was right. i scream the same at my thai kids now and we're doin alright. afl is a superb game. i was lucky enough to live in brissy when they were the top boys.
its a great game to watch. coorparoo training ground were clients of mine and i met akka a coupla times. he was a true gent despite what media types may say.
afl beats any of the rugby codes. knuckle draggers the lot of'em. cant wait to get back down under and the new season to start.

also, the rumbles that kick off are highly entertaining. i wish our national game was like it used to be. except the racism(banana throwing etc) and liverpool winning every year of course.
COME ON TOWN!

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50,000 at AC and I thought 44,000 at WCE was as good as it gets.

MV currently have 11,000 members, last year it was 6,000, next year 2007 should be circa 20,000, however thats when they enter into the Asian championship league. Which is when they should really grab the publics attention.

There is a strong possibilty now, that the A league GF will be switched to the MCG, with a projected crowd of 80,000 plus, should MV play Adelaide or Sydney.

Put another way, the push is now on, for real football to take on AFL in this country.

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AFL Friday night
Football Saturday afternoon

Oh how we suffer in Victoria;)

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The only reason West Coast have 44,000 is cos we dont have a ground big enough to take more. If we had a 80,000 stadium here in Perth there would be 60,000 members easy.

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Good God I hope not!! Soccer is the most BORING, overrated sport I have ever come across (along with baseball) Sleep inducing. Simplistic. Played by arrogant, over-payed simpletons. Aussie Rules is fast paced, vibrant, technical and the players are the fittest in the world. It rocks!!

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.... and that will be why its the largest sport in pretty much every country in the World apart from the US and Oz. :rolleyes:

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March 28th can't come quick enough for me Bill. I think I'm developing Footy Deprivation Syndrome...!!!

I've got high hopes for Freo this season.
Word is that they're very confident at Windy Hill as well, so you'll be happy about that.

Can't wait for it all to start again...:beer:

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It will eventually end up the biggest sport here as well, Trouble with that is, from a UK point of view, isthey will also possibly end up seeded/rated higher than England. Between 7 and 11 years I give it. Or two to three world cups. A good indicator of that is the age of the people going to the games, which I would rate at an average of between 18-24 Yolds

It's the Aussie way, they just focus on England, and dont stop till they dominate them.

Oh well if that drive means that Football continues to grow here the way it has for the last 18months or so, then I'm all for it ;)

Ah yes... Melboune Victory, the first club in the world to outgrow their new stadium, at olympic park, before it was even built lol

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I think we might be lucky to make the finals John but I live in hope.

My boss is a big Freo man & he reckons they will win a flag within next two years.

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It's a hyped up money making business. It's truly over rated in my opinon and I can't stand how in perth at least, if a player from one of the teams farts it makes headline news!

In NSW and QSLD at least you have Rugby League (a proper game) and the league clubs you can join for a few dollars and have a nice night out. They do cheap meals, entertainment and have bar service and troublemakers get the arse :D

Re: Aussie Rules
 

Re: Aussie Rules
 

It does crack me up how if you don't appreciate a particular code, it becomes 'bullshit, bollocks' and not 'a proper game' I'm sure 130+ years of history would disagree. I'm watching Watford v Liverpool on the TV and the round ball game has always been my first love but I have an open mind and appreciate all sports without trying to denigrate those I don't take to my heart, as it were.

I can't wait for the AFL season to come around, despite the fact I'm in a town that doesn't host too many top level games - I just bought tickets to the Indigenous All-Stars v Essendon which I'm looking forward to immensely. When buying the tickets, the woman asked me 'All-stars or Essendon?'. No competition there - come on you All-stars!! :D Apparently they've got segregation here, which is a first for me in any Aussie sport.

To those who would knock AFL, bear in mind that it has been the biggest football code here for a long time and probably will be for a long time to come. If you haven't grown up with Sky Sports coverage of soccer, there's no reason why you can't enjoy AFL. It's a very entertaining game and I urge anybody and everybody to give it a go.

Re: Aussie Rules
 

I agree with 90pct of your post, in fact probably more than that. What I would like to add is AFL is not for everyone, I've been to at least 6 games over my time here, and been "unlucky" apparently either seeing whitewashes, or very dire rainy muddy games, amongst 30,000 very quiet people at the MCG.

I think additionaly the reason it leaves me cold, is the fact that I used to be a regular Away supporter for my team back in the UK, having travelled to at least 60 grounds around the country. The buzz one gets from being an away supporter is drug like, and AFL even at it's best just doesnt have it.

MV and other teams around the country do, particuarly Central Coast.

WM... You just dont get the following buzz at any other sport, I cannot beleive that it's here, and I dont mind admitting that more than 50pct of my enjoyment of the game comes from being amongst atmosphere like the following..... And it's going to get better.


http://www.melbournevictory.net/foru...ad.php?t=24350

Re: Aussie Rules
 

I agree with 90pct of your post, in fact probably more than that. What I would like to add is AFL is not for everyone, I've been to at least 6 games over my time here, and been "unlucky" apparently either seeing whitewashes, or very dire rainy muddy games, amongst 30,000 very quiet people at the MCG.

I think additionaly the reason it leaves me cold, is the fact that I used to be a regular Away supporter for my team back in the UK, having travelled to at least 60 grounds around the country. The buzz one gets from being an away supporter is drug like, and AFL even at it's best just doesnt have it.

MV and other teams around the country do, particuarly Central Coast.

WM... You just dont get the following buzz at any other sport, I cannot beleive that it's here, and I dont mind admitting that more than 50pct of my enjoyment of the game comes from being amongst atmosphere like the following..... And it's going to get better.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSOGzxMUiAc&eurl=


(whoops wrong link before).....

Re: Aussie Rules
 

And then we have days like this......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNYDJUXqiik

One of the many times Freo beat The Eagles last year.
Just a pity we had an ordinary game in Sydney which meant we missed out on the chance to flog them again in The Grand Final. :D

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Much as I love the game of AFL, you're right in saying that the atmosphere doesn't cut it compared to football. I've racked up about 50 away grounds in England too over the years and being in that little pocket of away fans in the corner of a packed home ground can be awesome (expecially if you're winning :D). I've found the atmosphere at AFL games to be fairly tame - there's noise but not like you would expect at a decent footy game.

I have noticed that the atmosphere has gone up a notch in the A-League this year too. I went to a couple of Roar games in the inaugural season and the cheer squad gave it a go but the rest of the punters didn't seem to get it. From watching a few games on Fox this season, it seems that now the fans are really making some noise - and even getting in some of the cracks that I didn't think Aussie fans capable of :D

PS the only away game I've been to in the AFL was Melbourne v Brisbane ...... at the Gabba :confused:

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That's the stuff :)

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A fine example of why I try not to "rubbish" AFL as a spectacle, I freely admit it does have its merits. I've missed out by not being able to follow AFL wholeheartedly.