For the first week of this new blog format, we’ll take a look at the six most popular football games on the planet, in no particular order but the one I choose, and give a brief overview of where they come from and where they might be going.
Somewhere in the Land Down Under, there are people in high places who want you to believe that Association Football is “the only true football” — and how could that be if you can’t kick a guy in the shins, hmm? — and therefore it’s the only form of football that should be promoted on the continent. A couple of good runs in the World Cup will give you just this sort of ego.
The soccerroo onslaught, however, hasn’t even put a dent in the audience for Aussie Rules. In fact, as of last year, the Australian Football League has the highest per capita attendance of any sports league on the planet, and most indicators suggest that these attendance figures are stilll growing.
In America, though, Aussie Rules is still thought of as some bizarre afterthought that used to be shown on ESPN in the early 80s. That’s patently unfair. Once you figure out what’s actually happening on that oval pitch, you realize that Aussie Rules is really fun to watch. It’s a high-action, high-scoring, high-contact game that doesn’t get nearly enough respect here in the Northern Hemisphere, because nobody here really understands the rules.
So what are those rules, anyway?
(More after the jump.)
For all you confused Northern Hemisphere residents, here are the basics:
You start with a large oval pitch that’s almost twice the size of an American football field. At either end of the pitch are four goal posts. (Pictured above.) The object is to kick the ball through the center goal posts; that’s a goal, and that’s 6 points. If you kick the ball between the side goal posts or hit the center uprights, that’s a behind, which is only 1 point. A behind is also called a “miss” by the announcers; kicking accuracy is kind of important in this game.
Two teams of 18 players go at it on the pitch, and there’s no offside rule, so players can go pretty much anywhere on the pitch. The game starts with a “center bounce,” which is kind of like a tip-off in basketball, except the ref bounces the ball in the center square, and two big guys called ruckmen fight to tip the ball to their teammates.
Once a guy gets the ball, he has four options:
- He can run with the ball, but he has to bounce it off the turf every 10 meters or so.
- He can kick the ball to a teammate or through the goal.
- He can “handpass” the ball, which is an underhand punch of the ball. (It’s gotta be punched, too. Laterals are for rugby, punk.)
- He can stand there and get his ass tackled.
Of course, he can only get tackled between the shoulders and thighs. If a player goes for the head or knees, that’s a penalty and a free kick for his opponent.
There’s a basic concept in Aussie Rules called the mark. If a player makes a clean catch of another player’s kick, he can take a mark, back up from the spot of the catch and make a free kick. He only has about 5 seconds to make that kick, though, before the ref shouts, “Play on!” And if a player gets a mark within 50 meters of the goalposts — sort of an end zone, if you will — that player gets a free kick for goal. That’s when most of the points are scored.
The concept of marking the ball was swiped taken from an aboriginal Australian game called Marn Grook. English settlers watched in wonder as one aboriginal kicked a stuffed possum skin high into the air, and others jumped up to catch it. Whoever caught it got to kick it next. The settlers liked that idea and tried to spread the idea to their own football games, starting with the Cambridge Rules code of 1848. It never really caught on in England, but the Aussies loved it and ran with it, forming the first Aussie rules code in 1859 — a full four years before the Football Association formed in London.
Why this game never caught on anywhere else remains a mystery to me, really. Despite a small group of devoted followers in America, Aussie Rules remains a primarily Australian obsession. Perhaps it’s because of the name; by its nature, “Aussie Rules” implies it may not be suitable for non-Australians. That’s a shame, too, since the growing AFL audience down under ought to be able to spread this game around a bit more. I mean, if the EPL can find an audience on American cable TV, surely the AFL could, too, right? Not too many sporting events in 2006 were more exciting than those matches between the Sydney Swans and the West Coast Eagles — especially in the Finals Series last September.
Somebody get the boys at Versus on the horn. I think I have a programming idea for them — one that will hopefully let me watch the games legally. My ISP frowns upon all that BitTorrent usage…
(For the record, I’ve thrown my hat in with the Eagles, because the Swans’ fight song uses the same melody as the Notre Dame fight song. Notre Dame waitlisted me, and thus, singing that melody is unacceptable — even though I think Barry Hall is badass.)
22 responses so far ↓
1 West Ham Geezer // Mar 14, 2007 at 5:57 am
Aussie Rules is a shite game played vy the gutter scum of Australian sport.
2 The Postmen | A Sports Blog with a Pop Culture Twist // May 17, 2007 at 11:06 am
[...] to a post I just peeped over at Dave’s Football Blog, Aussie rules football has the highest per capita attendance of any sports league on [...]
3 Steve M // May 23, 2007 at 9:12 am
Aussie Rules is indeed awesome and there’s a local team here in Raleigh: The North Carolina Tigers — if you feel up to it, come have a kick…
4 WithMalice // Jun 11, 2007 at 9:48 am
THE EAGLES????
Oh damn Dave… you coulda picked a team with a history…
5 Dave // Jun 11, 2007 at 10:08 am
I *did* pick a team with a history. Granted, it’s a history of drug problems, but that just makes them more fun to write about…
6 Greazy Tony // Aug 1, 2007 at 10:33 am
Dave,
Good on ya with the blog. I’m an American through and through, but I think Footy is just as entertaining as the NFL. I think some cable outlet would do very well to air the games here, hell they put on Rock, Paper Scissors on ESPN on July 4th. I, myself, am a Geelong Cats supporter and was before this amazing season they’re having. Go the Cats!
7 jerkson // Oct 10, 2007 at 5:12 am
West ham geezer should be shot, i’d love to see him play footy and get his ass smacked from here to the pommy shiithole he hails from. GO HOME WHINGER!!!!!
8 aussierules // Nov 26, 2007 at 8:01 am
Dave,
I would have thought AFL would be popular among Americans, given their love for the NFL?. What is not to like about “Aussie Rules”, big hits, high marking, long kicking, no padding, and of course the drug taking. I even hear that our own Ben Cousins made news in America?
Great work with the blog Dave, keep up the posts about AFL. Pre season has just started up again for the upcoming 2008 season.
9 Philip Stiff // Dec 23, 2007 at 7:48 am
I’m a Canadian and am a huge fan of Aussie Rules Football. I watch it religiously on Setanta.
10 Aaron from WFN // Jan 2, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Hi, great blog.
Aussie Rules has a very passionate worldwide audience, although it’s still something of a cult-fandom sort of scene. If you are in any large city around the world though, you’ll definitely find other fans if you look hard enough, probably a pub where you can watch games, and increasingly often a club or two where you can actually go for a kick of the footy.
I’m one of a group running a news site about footy outside Australia, you can read our stuff at http://www.WorldFootyNews.com – hope you don’t mind my blatant plug.
11 Ausralia Serious About Hosting World Cup 2018 - World Cup Blog - African Cup of Nations 2008 // Feb 15, 2008 at 2:10 pm
[...] to overcome though. The bid would require the co-operation of the Australian Football League (Aussie rules not the A-League) and the National Rugby League, who would need to alter their season to make some [...]
12 Glenn // Feb 16, 2008 at 7:56 am
G’day have moved recently from Canberra to West midlands Uk and have a 13 year old lad desperately wanting to play AFL.
BUt all the sights I have visited are either useless or dont respond, any idea how I can dind out some useful info to getting him into the game here.
13 Kick2Kick // Feb 19, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Hi
Love your write up!
I have actually just released a website that goes very well with what you have written up!
Its called Kick2Kick.net and teaches and helps people understand the game of Australian Rules video clips of the skills and rules and other mediums that will help like a blog and a coaching section.
and btw I like your choice of the West Coast Eagles
14 Fribitz // Feb 25, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Well done Dave! I’m an American and a Collingwood supporter. Is there any way to watch the games in the states? Go Pies!!!
15 jack // Apr 10, 2008 at 4:57 pm
The pies suck GO THE MIGHTY LIONS!!!!!
16 Krazza // May 19, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Noticed a few comments looking for footy on cable here in the US. Footy is now on Setanta Sports via Direct TV. Its a $14 package a month but great to see three games live each week and some other replays.
If want to see the latest about the game locally here in the US come over to http://www.usfootynews.com where you will find all the latest scores and stats.
Dave great blog btw…
Cheers
17 anne mendes // Jun 10, 2008 at 12:37 am
Can you please provide me the names of Australian football key opinion leaders in the sport and their contact details etc.
I so look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards
anne
18 Canada Footy // Aug 12, 2008 at 2:35 pm
To Phillip Stiff,
Check out http://www.ontariofooty.com or aflcanada.com and get involved with one of the 16 Canadaian footy teams. If there isn’t one near you contact the guys at the OAFL and perhaps look at starting your own team.
Cheers, JB.
19 Warren // Aug 27, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Aussie Rules tule!! that and the game known in
the USA as soccer.
20 Ben Cousins // Dec 9, 2008 at 5:43 am
Just for clarification, there aren’t four goal posts: there are four posts; two goal posts and two point or behind posts (the outer and shorter two posts). Good description of the game though and great blog !
21 Ketch Rudder // Jan 15, 2009 at 5:21 pm
A second run of ARF on American TVs would go over better.
Since ARF on ESPN during the 80s, Americans now have BBC America, Simon on American Idol, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords, and other sorts of funny sounding English speakers (Aussies, Kiwis, Brits).
ARF beats MLB and the NBA hands down.
22 AFL Australian Football // Feb 2, 2009 at 11:12 pm
A player in possession can also kick or handball to space. i.e., to a part of the field where there are no players at the time. Particularly if his players are positioned in front of their opponents, are faster than their opponents and/or are better at winning a ‘loose football’ then their is a strategic advantage to this and gives a player in possession under pressure an opportunity to dispose without penalty and without kicking to an uneven contest with one of his team-mates.