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"Can you smell the fear?", do the other football codes in Australia (AFL,NRL), genuinely fear football?

SR1968

SR1968

Youth Prospect
Joined
Oct 20, 2024
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30
Many of you may remember the Simon Hill article that he wrote back in 2005, regarding the constant hate football gets from its rival codes ie. Australian Rules and Rugby League, plus the mainstream media.

Football is often called the "sleeping giant" of Australian sport, and when football gets it right, the people will come in their thousands, and at the amateur participant level, football is the most popular sport in Australia. I'm from Sydney, and if you drive through most Sydney suburbs, you mostly find football fields (often shared with cricket ovals), not that many Rugby League fields, and very few AFL ovals.

Realistically, football will not become the biggest football code in Australia any time soon (at the spectator level), as it is up against the entrenched codes of Australian Rules and Rugby League, especially AFL.

Me personally, I don't think the AFL fears football, as they are the most cashed up and powerful sporting organisation in the country, with all its billions, the AFL has the government and media in their pockets. Look at how hard the AFL is pushing for a team in Tasmania, and how they are lobbying the government for funding (in spite of the fact that most Tasmanians want the money spent on more important things like hospitals, schools, roads etc), but you know what?, the AFL will get that funding (aka corporate welfare), because they can.

So what do you think gents?, do the other football codes (ALF and NRL), fear football?
 
Peter V'Landys disregards football as a threat as he has the mainstream media and politicians on side so his code dominates in NSW and Qld.AFL though appears to be worried that football is a threat.Therefore it wouldn't give up its stadiums when Lowy tried to get the WC finals.It also trumpets the female version of its game as if it was the foremost female sport in the country( TBF NRL also plays up the NRLW).Also any AFL players of African heritage are lauded as proof of the multiethnicity of their code though on the other hand it also claims to be the truly indigenous game and therefore any true blue Aussie should follow it.
 
HappyGuus said:
I can't speak for NRL. But AFL absolutely want us crushed. If they didn't fear us then they wouldn't shoot us down every chance they get. And it's so stupid fearing us, we can destroy ourselves without their help.
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That's true, football in Australia is often its own worst enemy, but it doesn't help when the mainstream pro AFL/NRL media is against us as well.
 
Never heard of a nrl fan fearing football

Heard people complain its not manly enough, similar to how they complain that afl isn't manly enough (it's called g*yfl north of the border)

Wayne bennet famously said that other codes aren't the enemy, childhood obesity is and I've heard plenty of nrl pundits make football references
 
grazorblade said:
Never heard of a nrl fan fearing football

Heard people complain its not manly enough, similar to how they complain that afl isn't manly enough (it's called g*yfl north of the border)

Wayne bennet famously said that other codes aren't the enemy, childhood obesity is and I've heard plenty of nrl pundits make football references
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And yet its rugby "manly men" that place their heads between each others thighs ... go figure... lol
 
They don't fear football as much as they fear having their cash cows taken away - gambling and government. Wilkie is working very hard on the gambling and the government will follow.
 
Hillbilly55 said:
They don't fear football as much as they fear having their cash cows taken away - gambling and government. Wilkie is working very hard on the gambling and the government will follow.
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funny thing is that the whole state of origin rivalry is partly extinct since wayne Gos legalized pokie machines in the early 90s, it now exists on the memory of that ideological split
if a league clubs had pokies they wouldn't need to develop players to make ends meet
 
At the end of the day I don't really see much opposition from the NRL - they use the same infrastructure at a different time of the year. If the 'sleeping giant' awakes they will get access to anything built and they are happy to play at suburban grounds like Leichhardt, Kogarah and Shark Park. The AFL wants a different infrastructure and is competing with the rectangular codes. The Hobart stadium is probably the last piece of infrastructure they need.

I find the rivalry between codes and states and even the 'State of Origin' concept as very confected. When I was living in Sydney I often heard from Victorians why Melbourne was better but I didn't care. I prefer football and others prefer NRL or AFL and pnce again I don't care.

I used to work at Homebush where at the time there were tours of Stadium Australia A friend of mine I met was a tour guide. The thing he got asked about the most was 'Cathy's night' and the 'Uruguay game'. No one was interested in NRL - even Origin. I was recently in Melbourne taking a tour to the Phillip Island penguins. Before it left Melbourne it toured around Melbourne showing off the MCG (where they play AFL - no mention of cricket), Docklands where they play AFL and the National Tennis Centre. As we passed the MRS someone asked about it. The tour guide said they played a few offshoots of football there - but not the real football. i.e. He didn't even name the other codes that play there and claimed AFL as the real football.

TBH - I think the only thing that would change the position of football in Australia would be for Australia to win the Mens World Cup o runner-up - possibly to host the Mens World Cup and make the final eight. Since we are no change of hosting until at least 2042 I will probably need to see the miracle of being in a Mens World Cup Final fame.

On a political front I can see the current government engaging more Indonesia through football similar to the way they are using League in PMG and Union in Fiji. This may see us sharing the hosting of more confederation based major tournaments which may see some more acceptance - but a great World Cup or a successful joint hosting with Indonesia (catering for TV friendly viewing for almost half the population of the planet from Mumbai in the west to Sydney) is probably the only thing that would really move the needle.
 
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grazorblade said:
funny thing is that the whole state of origin rivalry is partly extinct since wayne Gos legalized pokie machines in the early 90s, it now exists on the memory of that ideological split
if a league clubs had pokies they wouldn't need to develop players to make ends meet
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A lot of AFL clubs have sold their pokies licences on moral grounds. Only a few of the smaller clubs like St Kilda still hold them I believe.
 
Quicky said:
A lot of AFL clubs have sold their pokies licences on moral grounds. Only a few of the smaller clubs like St Kilda still hold them I believe.
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if they really want the state of origin feel have a rep comp with clubs that are anti pokies vs those that still have them haha
 
grazorblade said:
in a funny way because you are touching each other so much in union/league it probably intensified the homophobia

The whole hopoate thing didn't help
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Funnily enough - this AFL tactic was immortalised in the David Williamson 'The Club' (well before Hopoate) where Jock Riley suggests to the new recruit Geoff Hayward that one way to unsettle an opponent during a game is to "jam your thumb up his bum" when he's going for a mark.
 
Quicky said:
A lot of AFL clubs have sold their pokies licences on moral grounds. Only a few of the smaller clubs like St Kilda still hold them I believe.
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Forgive my ignorance as I from Sydney, but don't the AFL social clubs have poker machine like the clubs and pubs do here in NSW?
 
Hard to believe that in year 2025 that this topic still has legs, to some.

FFS.
 
I've told this story many times but one more time won't hurt...

Back in 2011 when Oz was bidding for the 2022 World Cup (I know, I know...) my publisher was invited to a secret meeting.

He was one of 100 people who were regarded as AFL thought leaders - in his case, because he'd published a couple of AFL books as well as my Mr Cleansheets.

He wasn't an AFL man though. He'd been born in Sunderland and was football through and through. But he accepted the invitation to the Crown Casino where Eddie Maguire and Andrew Demetriou led the meeting. Their message was that if football won the World Cup, their game was dead.

Obviously, that is ridiculous but that's the length they went to. (Eddie exhorted them all to do all they possibly could to ensure Oz did not get the World Cup.) And the FIFA technical committee gave Oz a black mark on other code and stadia compliance given how the AFL played hard ball. They would have actually received the best benefit from stadia development if we had won the bid.

So yes, they fear us - probably because the world continues to shrink and football gets bigger and bigger while their boring game continues to thrive in one country only.
 
My two cents is that AFL fears the real football more because it truly is a national sport whereas NRL is at least decently participated in the UK and NZ.

We'll know we've really got under the AFL's skin for good when they start calling the premiership the 'World Championship' :LOL:
 
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