When was that?

Great game the other night, great game NRL. Just watch chanel 9's digital Chanel GEM 7.30pm Friday Night Footy, the best team of them all is giving the Broncos a lesson in NRL as we speak.

artie"last name spelt Beetson and to start a debate REAL FOOTBALL is played in all countries of the world and uses a ball that is round.

I believe before a game can be called "Football" you must at least use your foot. The one on the bottom of your leg not the width of the neck (if they can find it)
Sorry cant find the interest to even watch it.

True game is Soccer and then AFL the others are grown men ryin to get rid of the ball before someone touches them as they might break.

When playing AFL we had people from other states try and play and they could not handle the speed and the force of the contact and the different directions it could come from. They expected that once they had the ball they could tuck it under their arm and run like hell but when they got a good shirt front they crumbled HAHA.

Regards
Brian

The perennial argument and rivalry between the different ball games perhaps stems from the individuals' background and their understanding of the rules & skills of the various codes. Not to overlook the 'tribalism' aspects.

 

For my part, as a lad, soccer was considered a sissies game in the suburbs where I lived. Our culture was largely that of railway workers from the industrial English Midlands where Rugby League was the game. However in other suburbs of the same town where families of Welsh miners lived, soccer was the go.

 

We all thought that Rugby Union was the game of the private schools and we were from the working class families, all going to public schools, so no Rugby for us.

 

Our knowledge of Australian rules was minimal, and we thought that it was a glorified form of the 'forcing back' game that swarms of kids played in the school grounds at big lunch. It was commonly called aerial ping pong. In those days it seemed to us to be played only in far away Victoria.

 

None of us had ever watched a game or knew any of the rules or skills of either Soccer or Aussie rules.

 

Many at our school got involved with field hockey towards the end of our primary school days. This gave us a rudimentary understanding of soccer tactics, because of many similarities in the flow of the two codes.

Although I have some understanding of the game (soccer), I feel that for me, it has been let down by its failure to modernise to the degree that hockey has. e.g. Moving to synthetic surfaces- though not such an issue with soccer I think; but in particular by abolishing the off side rule; modifying the obstruction rules to give advantage to the striker, all leading to a faster, higher scoring and free flowing game that usually involves lots of scoring & finishes with a result not a scoreless draw.

I am also concerned at the smell of corruption, internal dis-unity and spectator violence that surrounds international soccer. But then with respect to corruption, I have the same view of the Olympic Games gravy train.

 

But you can't ignore the world wide popularity of soccer. It must have something and is the only code that can realisticaly claim to be the world game.

But then Aussie Rules attracts fantastic fanatical crowds in southern states while soccer frequently plays to almost empty stadiums in this country.

 

Although Aussie rules has broken out of Victoria into SA & WA and more recently into some of Qld & parts of NSW, it is really just an Australian game with nothing to compare with the Qld v NSW State of Origin or the international competition mainly between Australia, NZ & Great Britain/ England and France, plus a few emerging countries.

Rugby Union stole a march on RL when the RL code imploded during the super league era, and RU established first class international competitions.  They claim that RU is 'the game that's played in heaven'.  That's not an issue with me as I probably won't get there.

 

I can happily watch - almost any RL game especially if there is a Qld based team involved, international RU and any hockey game, but soccer and Aussie rules leave me cold. IMO watching soccer is like watching grass grow and Aussie Rules is still to me much like 'forcing back' or 'aerial ping pong'.  I have absolutely no concept of Aussie Rules tactics, rules or skills.

 

But then American football is another story .. I dislike it too.

 

Why all the debate on which is the better/tougher game of football?

I think that you will find that anyone who as played any code at a reasonable standard can appreciate the skills required to play any form of football at an elite level.

The debate will rage but you will never convert real supporters of any code to switch.

Appreciate it for what it is or don't watch.

gee i love this debate i remember in china when i bumped in to some south aussies who started talking up afl they couldnt answer a simple question "who won the last world cup of aussie rules"? but hey this is all tongue in cheek all sports have theier plusses and minusses(gee i cant spell) enjoy life and hopefully see you on the road some day