*Official* First Test at Trent Bridge

[social]

In terms of popularity, crowds and money.

AFL

daylight

League
Cricket
Soccer
Union


In that order imo. Close between cricket and soccer.

The Big Bash is getting bigger, and bringing coin into CA coffers, but so is the continual world cup qualifications of the socceroo's. They'll close the gap on the AFL in the next 20 years, never get there though.

The AFL is the 3rd highest attended sport in the world for a reason.

The AFL to Australia is pretty much what the Premier League is to England.

Pretty sure that League and AFL are neck and neck when tv ratings are factored into the equation as Origin and finals series get a massive number of viewers

At the junior level, swimming has by far the highest participation rate of any organized sport followed by soccer, aussie rules and netball

FYI, cricket is played by significantly more kids than most sports and the participation rates are pretty healthy

As a parent, the only way I can analyse the above is as follows.

1. Learning how to swim is essential (virtually every parent I know gets their kids formal training and they really seem to love it)

2. Aussie Rules is an incredibly well administered/marketed sport in this country with Auskick programs everywhere plus it is easy for kids to understand

3. Soccer is marketed brilliantly everywhere and is popular with parents as the chances of little Johnny getting beaten up are less than with union or league

4. Netball is the girls' national sport

5. Cricket is played in summer

 

[howardj]

Day 1, session 1, of the 1st Ashes Test in England

Does it get any more pure, more beautiful

It's so sacred, and special, that 1st session

 

[Burgey]

Plan on watching it on my way back from the beach or the shops tbh.

 

[Spikey]

jobe watson is more beautiful

 

[Goughy]

Well first up Backlash I'd like to congratulate you on your first post in 60 that is not a boring whinge about Cricket Australia..........well done. Unfortunately it is still a rank effort.

I wasn't placing Rugby Union in any sort of ranking order, I was merely replying to Burgmeisters comment.....



Apart from being a predictable and rather weak response from someone from the losing side, it is also bollocks. You might only rank Union 4th or 5th in the pecking order here and that may be the case, but to say no one in Australia cares about the sport is just rubbish. These 3 Lions games were played in packed stadiums in 3 different States, no idea what the TV viewing figures were like but if Channel 10 were showing the games in prime time one would assume very decent. I myself had half a dozen texts during Saturday along the lines of "Go Wallabies" from friends around the country (funnily enough I haven't had any response to my replies sent on Sunday!!)

I doubt tennis ranks that highly in England as a sport, but I'll bet more than half the country stopped and watched the Wimbledon Mens Final yesterday........but no one in England gives a **** about tennis right?? If by some major miracle the Aussie rabble should manage to win this Ashes series, I'm going to pull out a Burgesque line that no one in England gives a **** about cricket.........wonder how far that will get me in here.

Just because something isn't the most popular, doesn't mean it still can't be popular. There was plenty of interest in this Rugby Series in Oz, to say otherwise is bull****.

I was very surprised this Saturday. We played a touring team from Australia and the plan was for both teams to go to our home bar and watch the rugby. Only two of the oppo (one being the coach) had any interest in watching the game. Their reason was that they were AFL guys and had no interest. It was the first time I'd been exposed to that mentality. I'm not a big fan of Union but I'd still watch the game. I thought it an interesting insight into how Union is viewed in Aus.

 

[Jono]

Day 1, session 1, of the 1st Ashes Test in England

Does it get any more pure, more beautiful

It's so sacred, and special, that 1st session

True. It'd be more sacred and beautiful if it was at Lord's.

 

[Jono]

2. Aussie Rules is an incredibly well administered/marketed sport in this country with Auskick programs everywhere plus it is easy for kids to understand

I am an AFL tragic, but what makes you say that? It is far more complicated than soccer and even rugby league. Stupidly so at times.

 

[Spikey]

ballllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

 

[Top_Cat]

Charging rule best candidate for sheer WTFery in Aussie Rules, tbh. It's a contact sport but they don't want too much contact.

 

[Spikey]

I'm sorry social but you were tackled without prior opportunity to get rid of the ball but because you didn't attempt to get rid of the ball i must award a free kick against you. now move back onto the mark but don't put your hands up in the air while moving to the mark or else i will pay a 50 meter penalty against you

 

[Maximas]

I am an AFL tragic, but what makes you say that? It is far more complicated than soccer and even rugby league. Stupidly so at times.

In my experience, I knew the rules very well by age five, a year before I began playing at under-9 level, I think many other kids were the same. The offside rules complicate soccer and league somewhat.

 

[Spikey]

Rogers excited about opening with Watson - YouTube


hahahahah check out the nerd

 

[ohnoitsyou]

. The offside rules complicate soccer and league somewhat.

ayy, the offside rule in soccer is as simple as it gets.

 

[Backlash]

Well first up Backlash I'd like to congratulate you on your first post in 60 that is not a boring whinge about Cricket Australia..........well done. Unfortunately it is still a rank effort.

I wasn't placing Rugby Union in any sort of ranking order, I was merely replying to Burgmeisters comment.....



Apart from being a predictable and rather weak response from someone from the losing side, it is also bollocks. You might only rank Union 4th or 5th in the pecking order here and that may be the case, but to say no one in Australia cares about the sport is just rubbish. These 3 Lions games were played in packed stadiums in 3 different States, no idea what the TV viewing figures were like but if Channel 10 were showing the games in prime time one would assume very decent. I myself had half a dozen texts during Saturday along the lines of "Go Wallabies" from friends around the country (funnily enough I haven't had any response to my replies sent on Sunday!!)

I doubt tennis ranks that highly in England as a sport, but I'll bet more than half the country stopped and watched the Wimbledon Mens Final yesterday........but no one in England gives a **** about tennis right?? If by some major miracle the Aussie rabble should manage to win this Ashes series, I'm going to pull out a Burgesque line that no one in England gives a **** about cricket.........wonder how far that will get me in here.

Just because something isn't the most popular, doesn't mean it still can't be popular. There was plenty of interest in this Rugby Series in Oz, to say otherwise is bull****.

Saying no one cares it is over the top but saying barely anyone cares most of the time is more on the mark. The stadiums were packed because at least half were Lions fans. Only times the Wallabies get really big crowds is when they're playing either the Lions or All Blacks (lots of Kiwi expats here sadly) or at the Home World Cup. TV viewing figures were pretty good but weren't as good as they had hoped. Nowhere near as good as SOO and this thing only happens every 12 years here.

I've gone to Rebels home games and a solid amount of their fans are expats from the British Isles, New Zealand and South Africa. People will get on the Wallabies bandwagon here and there (like they do for Tennis in England for Wimbledon I guess) and the Super Rugby teams will get solid support from the locals but most of the time Australians don't really care about Rugby Union. At this time of the year most Australian sports fans only care about the AFL or League.

I know this isn't what you want to hear because it takes away from your Lions' marvellous win. But at the end of the day this was 4 nations beating one nation were most people don't really care about the sport. This wasn't some great sporting achievement, sorry.

 

[Spark]

Rebels have been around for like two weeks, though. Can't expect them to have an amazing supporter base given they're a fairly unsuccessful fledgling rugby team based in Melbourne.

(exaggeration on the two weeks obvs but not much)

 

[Backlash]

Nearly 3 seasons now and their fan base hasn't really grown that much. This maybe the case for the Force fan base as well with a lot of expats from those 3 places above moving to Perth.

 

[Adders]

But at the end of the day this was 4 nations beating one nation were most people don't really care about the sport. This wasn't some great sporting achievement, sorry.

4 nations??? How ignorant can you get??

Have you been to the UK Backlash, travelled between England, N Ireland, Scotland and Wales?? What sort of border control did you pass through?? Did you remember to change your currency before passing into the other Nation?? What about Visas......did you have to apply for separate ones for each??

How do you define a "Nation"?? My passport clearly states I'm from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.......did I get issued the wrong one since I was born in London and am surely an English citizen?? And how come my mates; Ivor from Cardiff, Jock from Glasgow and Mick from Belfast are all getting around with the same passports?? How the **** does that work??

They are no more separate nations than NSW, Queensland and Victoria etc.

I've heard plenty of strange excuses from Australians when they lose, but playing the 4 countries onto one card is just about as piss weak and wrong as it gets mate.

Fact is we give our competition a huge advantage by competing separately most of the time when there is only a historic and absolutely no political or geographical reason for us to do so.

 

[NUFAN]

4 nations??? How ignorant can you get??

Have you been to the UK Backlash, travelled between England, N Ireland, Scotland and Wales?? What sort of border control did you pass through?? Did you remember to change your currency before passing into the other Nation?? What about Visas......did you have to apply for separate ones for each??

How do you define a "Nation"?? My passport clearly states I'm from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.......did I get issued the wrong one since I was born in London and am surely an English citizen?? And how come my mates; Ivor from Cardiff, Jock from Glasgow and Mick from Belfast are all getting around with the same passports?? How the **** does that work??

They are no more separate nations than NSW, Queensland and Victoria etc.

I've heard plenty of strange excuses from Australians when they lose, but playing the 4 countries onto one card is just about as piss weak and wrong as it gets mate.

Fact is we give our competition a huge advantage by competing separately most of the time when there is only a historic and absolutely no political or geographical reason for us to do so.

Errr. what about Ireland buddy.

Also, make up your mind. England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales have their own rugby team and compete in a competition named 6 nations. France and Italy also compete now that's 2 nations so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that the other 4 are nations from a Rugby perspective.

Hope a mod moves this to the general sports forum btw.

 

[LongHopCassidy]

Rogers has all but outed Starc as a starter for Trent Bridge:

Rogers said England should be afraid of Starc, whose left-arm pace knocked him over in the nets.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Just need to wait for Hughes to tweet the full team to us now.