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

LFC said:
mono I get his confusion though - every time our Roos step onto the pitch - there is Fear, you can smell it hahaha
Yer we're feckin scared shitless whats going to happen every minute hahaha
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That's the same with all football matches when YOUR team is playing.

Turned up to 11 when the Roos are playing but yeah... it's such a gladiatorial sport and one goal can kill.

That's what differentiates our code from the others. One goal means nothing in AFL.
 
Mr.C I get your point when it’s YOUR team - being a gooner supporter for so long like you hahaha

Yes of course though - our game is sink or swim - gladiators trying to find the weakness for the knock out blow for when you think you got your opponent covered they can counter against everything and blow the wind out of your sails within 2/3 pass’s and the finish !
I’ve haven’t stressed over LFC for near on a decade barring the exceptions but the Roos - every single game I’m on thin ice I imagine like a gooner till the past season haha
 
HappyGuus said:
What about cricket and rugby being British but making it big here? Is it because they were seen as "upper class" sports?
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Yep, that’s why. Never mind that ⚽️ and those other sports were invented by much the same socioeconomic class of people, but the others didn’t take off w/the working-class in the UK to the extent that football did.

The other thing is, once football did finally reach these shores(quite later than it by rights should’ve, BTW), cricket and Aussie Rules had already entrenched themselves. But it was ⚽️ here‘s fault as well for not showing a
united front/daring to think long-term; the NSW FA(now Football NSW) proposed a tour of the UK in the 1880s but it didn’t end up happening, to provide one example.
 
BA81 said:
Yep, that’s why. Never mind that ⚽️ and those other sports were invented by much the same socioeconomic class of people, but the others didn’t take off w/the working-class in the UK to the extent that football did.

The other thing is, once football did finally reach these shores(quite later than it by rights should’ve, BTW), cricket and Aussie Rules had already entrenched themselves. But it was ⚽️ here‘s fault as well for not showing a
united front/daring to think long-term; the NSW FA(now Football NSW) proposed a tour of the UK in the 1880s but it didn’t end up happening, to provide one example.
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Then there's the second story of post-war migration. By the time that was happening Cricket and the other football codes were obviously firmly entrenched here. Australians largely identified as part of a British empire but with parochial local traits. Wog-ball was either irrelevant or looked upon with suspicion or contempt. A foreign anathema.

I don't really see that changing in the near future. Football may be immensely popular, representative and fundamentally democratic, but it will always be treated as less legitimate by that establishment i.e. commercial media, political class and other codes.

There are some great books about this like Sheila's, Wogs and Poofters but Andy Harper also wrote a fantastic thesis which takes this on called "Australia’s Power Structures and the Legitimisation of Soccer (2003-2015)"
 
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Punchanello said:
Australians largely identified as part of a British empire but with parochial local traits. Wog-ball was either irrelevant or looked upon with suspicion or contempt. A foreign anathema.
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I don’t remember whether it was Ian Syson or Paul Mavroudis who in his blog on 🇦🇺⚽️ history had curated a compilation of anti-football “Letters to the Editor” stretching back to the 1920s, but anyway: I read one from a football fan who pleaded the game’s case by stating it’s a British-originated sport just like 🏏 and the 🏉 codes, so why is it treated so differently in this country? As it turns out, he got a reply from an Aussie Rules fan who, whilst agreeing on ⚽️‘s British origins, was adamant in stating that it was 'an inferior code to our own indigenous one' and that it was vital for 🇦🇺 as a nation to have some points of cultural-difference from the British motherland. That was from the 1930s, so before the wave of European non-WASP migration.
Punchanello said:
I don't really see that changing in the near future. Football may be immensely popular, representative and fundamentally democratic, but it will always be treated as less legitimate by that establishment i.e. commercial media, political class and other codes.
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💯%. Hence my unwavering belief that attempting to convert mainstream-🇦🇺 en masse to the game, no matter how big/enthusiastic the bandwagon at WC time, is ultimately a waste of time and resources that would be much better off divested towards consolidating what we already have.
Punchanello said:
There are some great books about this like Sheila's, Wogs and Poofters but Andy Harper also wrote a fantastic thesis which takes this on called "Australia’s Power Structures and the Legitimisation of Soccer (2003-2015)"
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That and “One Fantastic Goal” by Trevor Thompson, as well as “Death and Life of Australian Soccer” by Joe Gorman are the definitive Bibles on the topic.

Incidentally, did anyone on here watch that doco “Wog Ball” on SBS last night?
 
BA81 said:
I don’t remember whether it was Ian Syson or Paul Mavroudis who in his blog on 🇦🇺⚽️ history had curated a compilation of anti-football “Letters to the Editor” stretching back to the 1920s, but anyway: I read one from a football fan who pleaded the game’s case by stating it’s a British-originated sport just like 🏏 and the 🏉 codes, so why is it treated so differently in this country? As it turns out, he got a reply from an Aussie Rules fan who, whilst agreeing on ⚽️‘s British origins, was adamant in stating that it was 'an inferior code to our own indigenous one' and that it was vital for 🇦🇺 as a nation to have some points of cultural-difference from the British motherland. That was from the 1930s, so before the wave of European non-WASP migration.

💯%. Hence my unwavering belief that attempting to convert mainstream-🇦🇺 en masse to the game, no matter how big/enthusiastic the bandwagon at WC time, is ultimately a waste of time and resources that would be much better off divested towards consolidating what we already have.

That and “One Fantastic Goal” by Trevor Thompson, as well as “Death and Life of Australian Soccer” by Joe Gorman are the definitive Bibles on the topic.

Incidentally, did anyone on here watch that doco “Wog Ball” on SBS last night?
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Yes there is a thread already :)

Monoethnic Social Club

Thread 'SBS Doco on tonight 24/06/2026'

www.yourtv.com.au

Wogball: Australia's Beautiful Game TV Show - Australian TV Guide - 9Entertainment

Wogball: Australia's Beautiful Game TV Show - Australian TV Guide - 9Entertainment
www.yourtv.com.au www.yourtv.com.au
  • Like


As for Ians Blog... link below... lots to cover.

Neos Osmos

A blog about Australian soccer and Australian soccer history
neososmos.blogspot.com neososmos.blogspot.com
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
Yes there is a thread already :)

Monoethnic Social Club

Thread 'SBS Doco on tonight 24/06/2026'

www.yourtv.com.au

Wogball: Australia's Beautiful Game TV Show - Australian TV Guide - 9Entertainment

Wogball: Australia's Beautiful Game TV Show - Australian TV Guide - 9Entertainment
www.yourtv.com.au www.yourtv.com.au
  • Like


As for Ians Blog... link below... lots to cover.

Neos Osmos

A blog about Australian soccer and Australian soccer history
neososmos.blogspot.com neososmos.blogspot.com
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I forgot about Ian .... so he has not posted in 3 years?
 
My perspective as more of a league fan and a hockey player.

I played a bit of soccer, but unfortunately spent too much time as a goalkeeper, due to accidentailly saving a penalty with my head.

I would love too see Australia win a soccer world cup one day, we will not see that this year, but some time in the next 8-12 years it might happen.

I wish that the local soccer comp was a higher standard, closer to EPL with less BS.

If soccer was better i would definately watch it on TV more often. If they can get it right, it can be the biggest sport in Australia.

Sports compete to some extent for athletes, but soccer is very different to league, union, and AFL.

There is room for all sports, I wish soccer in Australia was bigger and better, and I would love to see us win a world cup.

In the EPL, I was a West Ham fan before I adopted a league club. I haven't built a strong interest in any local Australian soccer club, but ia am open to the idea.

A lot of the unconverted like me will not be hard to convert, they just need to get the product right, that starts with junior pathways.

Soccer should copy some of the league and AFL junior development process. That will need some money. I saw some under 10s soccer coaching once by junior rep players and I was impressed.

In hockey sometimes rep players were asked to ref games. Involving junior players in coaching and refeering has a lot of upside.

Good skills coaching ages 14-21 is essential, soccer requires a lot of skill. When it is well executed, skill is entertaining.
 
Hounddog said:
My perspective as more of a league fan and a hockey player.

I played a bit of soccer, but unfortunately spent too much time as a goalkeeper, due to accidentailly saving a penalty with my head.

I would love too see Australia win a soccer world cup one day, we will not see that this year, but some time in the next 8-12 years it might happen.

I wish that the local soccer comp was a higher standard, closer to EPL with less BS.

If soccer was better i would definately watch it on TV more often. If they can get it right, it can be the biggest sport in Australia.

Sports compete to some extent for athletes, but soccer is very different to league, union, and AFL.

There is room for all sports, I wish soccer in Australia was bigger and better, and I would love to see us win a world cup.

In the EPL, I was a West Ham fan before I adopted a league club. I haven't built a strong interest in any local Australian soccer club, but ia am open to the idea.

A lot of the unconverted like me will not be hard to convert, they just need to get the product right, that starts with junior pathways.

Soccer should copy some of the league and AFL junior development process. That will need some money. I saw some under 10s soccer coaching once by junior rep players and I was impressed.

In hockey sometimes rep players were asked to ref games. Involving junior players in coaching and refeering has a lot of upside.

Good skills coaching ages 14-21 is essential, soccer requires a lot of skill. When it is well executed, skill is entertaining.
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Interesting, always good to hear from a complete outsider... we live in our own bubble sometimes.
 
Punchanello said:
At it's core, the hostility to football is not really about the AFL or NRL. It's this Australian colonial mindset. The same reason most nations born out of British colonisation have largely rejected the sport until recent times but took to other codes and home grown pastimes.
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Not necessarily, it’s huge in most of Africa, much of which was colonised by the British. Also, other colonies of other countries embraced it a lot.
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
I think he means the white elites in Oz, the US, NZ, Canada, SA etc
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I guess maybe but white working-class people like other codes too. It is an interesting phenomenon though, since outside Africa and Asia most British colonies (especially settler colonies) prefer other sports on a domestic level. However, colonies of other countries love football, even “white elites”.
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
I think he means the white elites in Oz, the US, NZ, Canada, SA etc
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Yep, the ruling classes and establishment. But I was also thinking about Latin America and the Carribean. In Latin America, Britain's influence was unofficially colonial, largely given effect commercially and diplomatically. Football's popularity and spread was a useful tool of soft power.
 
HonestSpursFan said:
Not necessarily, it’s huge in most of Africa, much of which was colonised by the British. Also, other colonies of other countries embraced it a lot.
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True and there are exceptions, but it wasn't always that way. In much of what was once British colonised Africa, football's popularity is fairly recent in the grand scheme of things, like ours. And popularity doesn't always mean acceptance.
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
I think he means the white elites in Oz, the US, NZ, Canada, SA etc
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League was the major sport at our high school.

I can identify many working class high schools that are league high achools.

I can identify many elite private high schools that are union high schools.

I don't know a single anglo high school where soccer is the major sport.

We had a couple of reasonable soccer players at our high school, but in the 1970s-1980s it wasn't obvious what club they should approach.

In the era, for a guy with a Greek or Italian background, they knew which club to approach.

We now have a lot more anglo players in the A League and the Socceroos. But when a school is traditionally assocated with a particular sport, those links last forever.

Link a few schools to soccer clubs, talented kids wanting to play a particular sport often change schools and sometimes move to a new country.

Many parents of kids playing league would prefer their kid to play soccer.
 
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