"Can you smell the fear?", do the other football codes in Australia (AFL,NRL), genuinely fear football?
- Thread starter SR1968
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They won't get bigger ratings than the world cup. It'll be an enjoyable fest of sports so anything to get people out, enjoying themselves and spending a bit of money is a good thing.
Punchanello
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Nice.
Robbos
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Now you make a lot of outlandish statements, but this one takes the cake.
NicCarBel
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History shows it won't
2017 opening game of RLWC (Australia v England) - I believe this is the last time 7 had the rights - via https://mumbrella.com.au/rugby-league-world-cup-gifts-seven-friday-night-ratings-win-480419
2018 FIFA World Cup socceroos games - via https://footyindustry.com/index.php/2026/06/16/historical-fta-socceroos-world-cup-ratings/
NoMates
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State Of Origin had massive numbers crushing the FIFA WC games and finals, Im just basing those numbers off that as I expect it to be just as big if not bigger in ratings.
onedaywinners...
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Why are we feeding the beast?
NicCarBel
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Game Breakdown (Metropolitan Audience)
- Game 1 (6 June 2018): 2.347 million viewers (national peak 3.9 million)
- Game 2 (24 June 2018): 2.132 million viewers ( Sunday night slot)
- Game 3 (11 July 2018): 1.769 million viewers (dead rubber match)
Either way - your initial claim mentions the Rugby League World Cup. Given the disparity between the RLWC TV ratings and SoO for 2018, I doubt it.
Punchanello
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Football us life
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I've often wondered if the columnist and author Peter Fitzsimons was one of these rusted on "soccer-haters"?
Ad a high profile sports column writer there's been years of consistent scepticism, mockery of its star culture, and lower emotional investment compared with his beloved rugby.
In the SMH during a World Cup, he asked whether elite "soccer" players are “up themselves” as a breed and labelled them “poseurs.” He singled out Cristiano Ronaldo’s self-focused comments, Lionel Messi thanking God for his skills, and Erling Haaland for celebrating without acknowledging the teammate who provided a perfect cross — calling out a broader pattern of scorers chasing personal adulation instead of showing team gratitude...
www.smh.com.au
He has built a long, consistent track record of snide, mocking, or dismissive commentary about football (and the Socceroos in particular). It’s a signature style that runs through decades of his Sydney Morning Herald columns and media appearances.
It’s not one-off trolling — it’s a sustained, decades-long posture. Rugby league fans get similar treatment from him on concussion and other issues, but the "soccer" commentary has a particular snide, outsider-looking-in flavour that football people have long noticed and often resent.
I get why in the landscape of Australian sports media, columnists often adopt hyper-partisan personas to spark debate within the tribalism of various sports.
Maybe for FitzSimons, poking fun at "the round-ball game" and its fans has become a long-running, tongue-in-cheek schtick designed to get a rise out of the football community.....
Or perhaps, the star-driven theatre of elite football is a bit aesthetically and culturally off-key in relation to the rugby code he loves, and he works in a media environment that rewards such disdain?
Ad a high profile sports column writer there's been years of consistent scepticism, mockery of its star culture, and lower emotional investment compared with his beloved rugby.
In the SMH during a World Cup, he asked whether elite "soccer" players are “up themselves” as a breed and labelled them “poseurs.” He singled out Cristiano Ronaldo’s self-focused comments, Lionel Messi thanking God for his skills, and Erling Haaland for celebrating without acknowledging the teammate who provided a perfect cross — calling out a broader pattern of scorers chasing personal adulation instead of showing team gratitude...
In a World Cup of poseurs, this trio would fill the podium
Are elite soccer players, as a breed, up themselves? The evidence of the last week in the USA would suggest so.
He has built a long, consistent track record of snide, mocking, or dismissive commentary about football (and the Socceroos in particular). It’s a signature style that runs through decades of his Sydney Morning Herald columns and media appearances.
It’s not one-off trolling — it’s a sustained, decades-long posture. Rugby league fans get similar treatment from him on concussion and other issues, but the "soccer" commentary has a particular snide, outsider-looking-in flavour that football people have long noticed and often resent.
I get why in the landscape of Australian sports media, columnists often adopt hyper-partisan personas to spark debate within the tribalism of various sports.
Maybe for FitzSimons, poking fun at "the round-ball game" and its fans has become a long-running, tongue-in-cheek schtick designed to get a rise out of the football community.....
Or perhaps, the star-driven theatre of elite football is a bit aesthetically and culturally off-key in relation to the rugby code he loves, and he works in a media environment that rewards such disdain?
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Graz you should invite Fitzsimmons on the pod and quiz/school him on it.I've often wondered if the columnist and author Peter Fitzsimons was one of these rusted on "soccer-haters"?
Ad a high profile sports column writer there's been years of consistent scepticism, mockery of its star culture, and lower emotional investment compared with his beloved rugby.
In the SMH during a World Cup, he asked whether elite "soccer" players are “up themselves” as a breed and labelled them “poseurs.” He singled out Cristiano Ronaldo’s self-focused comments, Lionel Messi thanking God for his skills, and Erling Haaland for celebrating without acknowledging the teammate who provided a perfect cross — calling out a broader pattern of scorers chasing personal adulation instead of showing team gratitude...
In a World Cup of poseurs, this trio would fill the podium
Are elite soccer players, as a breed, up themselves? The evidence of the last week in the USA would suggest so.
He has built a long, consistent track record of snide, mocking, or dismissive commentary about football (and the Socceroos in particular). It’s a signature style that runs through decades of his Sydney Morning Herald columns and media appearances.
It’s not one-off trolling — it’s a sustained, decades-long posture. Rugby league fans get similar treatment from him on concussion and other issues, but the "soccer" commentary has a particular snide, outsider-looking-in flavour that football people have long noticed and often resent.
I get why in the landscape of Australian sports media, columnists often adopt hyper-partisan personas to spark debate within the tribalism of various sports.
Maybe for FitzSimons, poking fun at "the round-ball game" and its fans has become a long-running, tongue-in-cheek schtick designed to get a rise out of the football community.....
Or perhaps, the star-driven theatre of elite football is a bit aesthetically and culturally off-key in relation to the rugby code he loves, and he works in a media environment that rewards such disdain?
Football us life
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Hahaha....That would certainly be a fiery episode. Getting him on to defend his decades of football-bashing against someone ready to break down the global reality of the sport would make for great theatre....
Decentric might even put his ironing down for half an hour!!
Fitz is probably alright in real life!
I mean he's deeply passionate about history and social causes.....
A classic case of sports media character versus reality – the shock-jock or provocative columnist persona is designed to stir the pot, while the actual person is often entirely different!
He might even secretly like football!!
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The tightness of the bandana has cut the blood to his brain so he's even more wacko and hypocritical. The bloke is a total nimby. Wealthy and preachy with an odd mix of conservatibe and liberal ideas.I've often wondered if the columnist and author Peter Fitzsimons was one of these rusted on "soccer-haters"?
Ad a high profile sports column writer there's been years of consistent scepticism, mockery of its star culture, and lower emotional investment compared with his beloved rugby.
In the SMH during a World Cup, he asked whether elite "soccer" players are “up themselves” as a breed and labelled them “poseurs.” He singled out Cristiano Ronaldo’s self-focused comments, Lionel Messi thanking God for his skills, and Erling Haaland for celebrating without acknowledging the teammate who provided a perfect cross — calling out a broader pattern of scorers chasing personal adulation instead of showing team gratitude...
In a World Cup of poseurs, this trio would fill the podium
Are elite soccer players, as a breed, up themselves? The evidence of the last week in the USA would suggest so.
He has built a long, consistent track record of snide, mocking, or dismissive commentary about football (and the Socceroos in particular). It’s a signature style that runs through decades of his Sydney Morning Herald columns and media appearances.
It’s not one-off trolling — it’s a sustained, decades-long posture. Rugby league fans get similar treatment from him on concussion and other issues, but the "soccer" commentary has a particular snide, outsider-looking-in flavour that football people have long noticed and often resent.
I get why in the landscape of Australian sports media, columnists often adopt hyper-partisan personas to spark debate within the tribalism of various sports.
Maybe for FitzSimons, poking fun at "the round-ball game" and its fans has become a long-running, tongue-in-cheek schtick designed to get a rise out of the football community.....
Or perhaps, the star-driven theatre of elite football is a bit aesthetically and culturally off-key in relation to the rugby code he loves, and he works in a media environment that rewards such disdain?
I actually appreciate his efforts with popular history writing and think it has a fair place among the range of books you can buy. I get historians don't like his style or exaggeration but it's easy reading for the population over academic texts. I think he and historians both get it wrong at times with their stubbornness and refusal to budge on certain matters in their books.
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There is an Australian journalist in Mr Cleansheets.I've often wondered if the columnist and author Peter Fitzsimons was one of these rusted on "soccer-haters"?
Ad a high profile sports column writer there's been years of consistent scepticism, mockery of its star culture, and lower emotional investment compared with his beloved rugby.
In the SMH during a World Cup, he asked whether elite "soccer" players are “up themselves” as a breed and labelled them “poseurs.” He singled out Cristiano Ronaldo’s self-focused comments, Lionel Messi thanking God for his skills, and Erling Haaland for celebrating without acknowledging the teammate who provided a perfect cross — calling out a broader pattern of scorers chasing personal adulation instead of showing team gratitude...
In a World Cup of poseurs, this trio would fill the podium
Are elite soccer players, as a breed, up themselves? The evidence of the last week in the USA would suggest so.
He has built a long, consistent track record of snide, mocking, or dismissive commentary about football (and the Socceroos in particular). It’s a signature style that runs through decades of his Sydney Morning Herald columns and media appearances.
It’s not one-off trolling — it’s a sustained, decades-long posture. Rugby league fans get similar treatment from him on concussion and other issues, but the "soccer" commentary has a particular snide, outsider-looking-in flavour that football people have long noticed and often resent.
I get why in the landscape of Australian sports media, columnists often adopt hyper-partisan personas to spark debate within the tribalism of various sports.
Maybe for FitzSimons, poking fun at "the round-ball game" and its fans has become a long-running, tongue-in-cheek schtick designed to get a rise out of the football community.....
Or perhaps, the star-driven theatre of elite football is a bit aesthetically and culturally off-key in relation to the rugby code he loves, and he works in a media environment that rewards such disdain?
He is described as having very nice hair but discerning readers will make their own conclusions as to any real life people he might be based on.
Very bad things happen to him in the story.
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I've often wondered if the columnist and author Peter Fitzsimons was one of these rusted on "soccer-haters"?
Ad a high profile sports column writer there's been years of consistent scepticism, mockery of its star culture, and lower emotional investment compared with his beloved rugby.
In the SMH during a World Cup, he asked whether elite "soccer" players are “up themselves” as a breed and labelled them “poseurs.” He singled out Cristiano Ronaldo’s self-focused comments, Lionel Messi thanking God for his skills, and Erling Haaland for celebrating without acknowledging the teammate who provided a perfect cross — calling out a broader pattern of scorers chasing personal adulation instead of showing team gratitude...
In a World Cup of poseurs, this trio would fill the podium
Are elite soccer players, as a breed, up themselves? The evidence of the last week in the USA would suggest so.
He has built a long, consistent track record of snide, mocking, or dismissive commentary about football (and the Socceroos in particular). It’s a signature style that runs through decades of his Sydney Morning Herald columns and media appearances.
It’s not one-off trolling — it’s a sustained, decades-long posture. Rugby league fans get similar treatment from him on concussion and other issues, but the "soccer" commentary has a particular snide, outsider-looking-in flavour that football people have long noticed and often resent.
I get why in the landscape of Australian sports media, columnists often adopt hyper-partisan personas to spark debate within the tribalism of various sports.
Maybe for FitzSimons, poking fun at "the round-ball game" and its fans has become a long-running, tongue-in-cheek schtick designed to get a rise out of the football community.....
Or perhaps, the star-driven theatre of elite football is a bit aesthetically and culturally off-key in relation to the rugby code he loves, and he works in a media environment that rewards such disdain?
I'd like to hear what Fitz thinks of the charity work guys like Mata or Grealish do compared to the elites of other sports, like the AFL nose candy players getting their strikes buried, or the NRL wife beating types. Has he written about that yet? If there are few elite soccer players "up themselves", I can probably live with that compared to other sports' "role models".
Football us life
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One observation about Fitzsimons is he is an outspoken secularist and republican who has frequently taken aim at public displays of religion. But applying that lens to someone like Lionel Messi, as he did in the aforementioned SMH column or South American and European footballers in general completely misses how deeply embedded Catholicism is in everyday life and sports culture across Latin America.....
When Messi looks to the heavens and points upward after scoring often dedicating goals to his late grandmother or when players cross themselves before stepping onto the pitch, it isn't an aggressive, preachy proselytisation. It is a deeply personal, habitual reflex baked into the cultural fabric of countries like Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.
Unlike most Australian peferred codes football is a truly global sport played passionately in heavily Catholic regions where faith, family, and football are entirely intertwined....
Expecting a Latin American icon to strip away a lifelong cultural practice just to satisfy a secular trendy leftist Australian columnist is a bit like expecting a Wallabies player to drop their entire sporting upbringing and it ignores the very roots of where these players come from.
But I note a glaring double standard here from Fitzsimons and his ilk. While Messi’s deeply ingrained Catholic habits from Argentina are dismissed as theatrical, Muslim superstars like Mohamed Salah would never be subjected to the same scrutiny for dropping to their knees in prayers after scoring a goal. This is selective secularism and highlights a major blind spot from him.
Targeting visible Christian habits or general public prayer is treated as edgy or progressive secularism, but similar public rituals from minority faiths are sometimes handled with a lot more institutional hesitation or avoided entirely to steer clear of sensitive cultural minefields.
Fitzsimons is following that notion when 'sports-politco' commentators will lean into a progressive or fiercely secular worldview, they often target traditional, mainstream, or familiar majority cultural expressions (like Catholicism) because it feels safe or culturally rebellious within a Western context.
Barney Ronay from the Guardian in the UK has also sneered at players 'blessing' themselves once or twice.....
It's a hypocritical double standard where rules aren't applied evenly across the board.
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Dont know if he has much interesting to say so could be a short pod
melbcityguy
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Why does he write about football if he doesn't like it? I don't like Star wars I'm not gonna write about it just stay in your land son