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Rugby League vs. Australian Rules


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Can anyone enlighten me as to what the current situation is regarding which code holds sway where?

 

As I (very vaguely) understand it, the traditional split was like this:

NSW and Queensland - solid RL

Victoria and Tasmania - solid Aussie Rules

Sharp dividing line between them where the one sport is an obsession and the other doesn't get a look in.

 

South Australia - not sure but get the feeling that Aussie Rules WAS dominant?

Western Australia - again I assume Aussie Rules was the main code but no idea if there's a Perth v. interior or White v. Indigenous split in terms of what people are watching and/or playing.

Northern Territory - seems to an outsider to be divided in to two districts - Darwin and Emptiness. Have they ever had ANY professional team based there (and I don't just mean for guesting/pre-season matches)?

 

As things stand now...

 

NSW - Still pretty solid RL but Sydney Swans and GWS encroaching on media coverage and fan interest where before they were just an afterthought?

Queensland - Brisbane Lions seem to be picking up though looking at AFL forums it seems this is more people who actually live in Brisbane whereas smaller towns and country areas are still solidly RL?

Tasmania - what's this strange "Rugby League" you speak of?

Victoria - not sure what kind of coverage Melbourne Storm get as it seems AFL is an utter obsession (and it appears some fans would dearly love it if the league shrank back to being a glorified VFL)

WA - Looks like AFL dominates although whether that's genuine popularity and love for the sport or a reaction to the idiocy of the NRL and especially the ARU in how they treat Perth, I don't really know

South Australia - SEe above - do fans like Aussie Rules for the sport or just because there's no pro RL to watch?

NT - I assume this is where Aussie Rules completely dominates because of the Indigenous population?

 

Any truth or am I just clueless and should stop embarrassing myself?

 

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WA and SA strongholds for AFL with long history of their own leagues that produced may top players who were snapped up by Victorian teams....hence the string hatred of Victoria.League dominates in NSW and Queensland.

NT strong AFL tradition.  While league is played there not much of a history/tradition.

 

Tassie AFL thru and thru.

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Australian Rules is an obsession in both WA and SA, similar to Victoria.

WA does have a reasonable Union/League following based on the large number of Islander, South African, British migrants. Could sustain an NRL side in my opinion.

RL does dominate the Sydney market, however, there is no bigger sports club in terms of turnover, profit and attendances in  NSW than the Sydney Swans.

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On 03/08/2021 at 15:14, Sports Prophet said:

 

RL does dominate the Sydney market, however, there is no bigger sports club in terms of turnover, profit and attendances in  NSW than the Sydney Swans.

I used to fear the continued march  of the Swans and AFL in general across Sydney and NSW. 

I now straddle between not caring and actively wanting the AFL to continue thier take over

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On 03/08/2021 at 15:14, Sports Prophet said:

Australian Rules is an obsession in both WA and SA, similar to Victoria.

WA does have a reasonable Union/League following based on the large number of Islander, South African, British migrants. Could sustain an NRL side in my opinion.

RL does dominate the Sydney market, however, there is no bigger sports club in terms of turnover, profit and attendances in  NSW than the Sydney Swans.

🧙‍♂️🤑

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On 01/08/2021 at 09:09, MidlandsJohn said:

Can anyone enlighten me as to what the current situation is regarding which code holds sway where?

 

As I (very vaguely) understand it, the traditional split was like this:

NSW and Queensland - solid RL

Victoria and Tasmania - solid Aussie Rules

Sharp dividing line between them where the one sport is an obsession and the other doesn't get a look in.

 

South Australia - not sure but get the feeling that Aussie Rules WAS dominant?

Western Australia - again I assume Aussie Rules was the main code but no idea if there's a Perth v. interior or White v. Indigenous split in terms of what people are watching and/or playing.

Northern Territory - seems to an outsider to be divided in to two districts - Darwin and Emptiness. Have they ever had ANY professional team based there (and I don't just mean for guesting/pre-season matches)?

 

As things stand now...

 

NSW - Still pretty solid RL but Sydney Swans and GWS encroaching on media coverage and fan interest where before they were just an afterthought?

Queensland - Brisbane Lions seem to be picking up though looking at AFL forums it seems this is more people who actually live in Brisbane whereas smaller towns and country areas are still solidly RL?

Tasmania - what's this strange "Rugby League" you speak of?

Victoria - not sure what kind of coverage Melbourne Storm get as it seems AFL is an utter obsession (and it appears some fans would dearly love it if the league shrank back to being a glorified VFL)

WA - Looks like AFL dominates although whether that's genuine popularity and love for the sport or a reaction to the idiocy of the NRL and especially the ARU in how they treat Perth, I don't really know

South Australia - SEe above - do fans like Aussie Rules for the sport or just because there's no pro RL to watch?

NT - I assume this is where Aussie Rules completely dominates because of the Indigenous population?

 

Any truth or am I just clueless and should stop embarrassing myself?

 

For all sorts of cultural and historical reasons everything is in a state of flux right now, so it's really too simplistic to say stuff like 'NSW=RL'.

Just take NSW for example; sure RL is still the dominant sport in NSW and to a much lesser the ACT, but AFL is growing fast, and has more or less taken over large parts of southern NSW. From about Goulburn it's roughly a 50/50 split (with some notable exceptions) with AFL becoming more dominant the closer you get to the Victorian border. People will say 'look at the Barassi line it's always been like that', but they are wrong, the AFL has grown significantly in the region and frankly the Barassi line has been slowly creeping north over the last 40 years and could/should be realigned.

Similar is true of all the states and territories of Australia, even the ones that most people would say are most solidly NRL/AFL territory like QLD, Tassie, and SA, but I won't go into each in detail as it'd take forever and I'm not informed enough to talk on some places (the NT in particular). One thing I will say though is that Indigenous people are not more inclined to support AFL than any other code in my experience, and that what state/territory they are from is a better indicator of their preferred code than their ethnicity.

If you are really interested in learning about this stuff, and in understanding how and why the Australian football market is the way it is and why the NRL acts the way it does, then I suggest picking up a copy of Code Wars - The Battle for Fans, Dollars and Survival by Dr Hunter Fujak. It's an excellent book that goes into much more detail on this subject than any of us could hope to.

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