Apr 12 2007
That’s Not Cricket
Part 4 in a series on how our playing fields shaped our football games.
If you’re looking for a reason why Aussie Rules may never truly catch on in America, look no further than Subiaco Oval.
This cavernous arena in Perth is the home of two AFL teams — the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers. It’s also the largest playing field in all the AFL, with a playing surface 176 meters long and 122 meters wide. By comparison, the ovals at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Telstra Dome and Telstra Stadium are only 160 meters long, and the Sydney Cricket Ground oval is a mere 149 meters long. (Before West Coast won the Grand Final last year, some pundits speculated that the Eagles’ huge home field had something to do with their inability to win a title in the smaller MCG.)
Now, name one major American stadium that could hold a playing field as big as the Sydney Cricket Ground. We’re talking 163 yards by 149 yards. I’ll give you a minute to go Googling…
You can’t find one, can you?
You can thank blame the game of cricket for this. Cricket was it in Australia back in the 19th century, way before football showed up. All of the major AFL stadia are used for cricket as well as Aussie Rules. In fact, the first Australian football club, the Melbourne Football Club, was an offshoot of the Melbourne Cricket Club, and its members determined that football should be used to help cricketers stay in shape during the winter months. As a result, they wrote a football code that allowed them to use cricket ovals as the field of play, thus allowing for continued use of said ovals throughout the year.
Cricket ovals, like baseball fields, can vary widely in shape and size, which is how you get such huge discrepancies between Subiaco Oval and Sydney Cricket Ground. You won’t find this sort of variation in gridiron-based games or in rugby league. Association football allows for some variation in pitch size, as does Gaelic football on a lesser scale, but rarely does pitch size variation give teams a home field advantage in those games as it does in Aussie Rules.
Regardless, the required size of the playing field makes it nigh-impossible for the AFL to export its unique brand of football to the rest of the world, because neither Wembley nor Rose Bowl could fit an official AFL game. And it’s all because of cricket, a sport far more baffling and thus, far less awesome to an ignorant yank like me. It just doesn’t seem right, I tell ya…
9 Responses to “That’s Not Cricket”
In my research on early footy this is what we found.
From 1860 to circa mid 1870`s the matches were played on a rectangle shape ground -180yds long and 150 yds wide approx or whatever large area was available and was marked out with small posts. (Inherited from Rugby and Soccer)
Cricket in Summer became popular in the same period and our game gradually found its way on to their ovals. It was not an overnight decision. If Cricket had not been available then our game would have likely taken a different direction.
Keith: Interesting stuff. You wouldn’t happen to have a web link to this research, would you?
Cricket was actually a still fairly popular sport in the USA in the late 19th century when American gridiron was evolving, just not popular enough to influence anything.
I have seen a photo in a book I have somewhere about early American football, I think from the early 20th century; in the photo they were playing a gridiron football game in a cricket ground. The cricket ground had no influence on the size or shape of the gridiron; it just happened to be a stadium that was available and happened to have a roofed grandstand where people could watch the game. I think this photo was from somewhere in Pennslyvania circa 1900-1910 or so; Philadelphia happened to be a stronghold of USA cricket up through the 1920’s.
There is a modest revival of cricket in the USA thanks to the influx of immigrants from the Carribbean and from India and Pakistan. Someone was even talking about building a cricket ground for international play somewhere down in Florida, though I don’t know if anything came of that.
Maybe you should get the Aussie rules and the cricket people in North America together, they might be able to work something out together, at least for creating more large sized ovals for amateur play for their respective sports.
Dave,
Unfortunately actual history info on the web is virtually not available except for Wiki which does have some stuff.
We had to build up our own book library to do the research.
However we would strongly recommend one book which covers a wide range of topics from 1857 to 1890.
A Game of our Own – 2005 edition – by Geoffrey Blainey
May be available through Amazon.
Re- the cricket ground in Florida comment. This big cricket facility will be finished in September and is being built at Fort Lauderdale. It will likely become the HQ of Cricket USA, and has the blessing of the ICC and lets hope Aussie Rules can get some games on it in the future
A Google search under images will find it.
[...] Paragon SC <info@conquestchronicles.com> wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptCricket was it in Australia back in the 19th century, way before football showed up. All of the major AFL stadia are used for cricket as well as Aussie Rules. In fact, the first Australian football club, the Melbourne Football Club, … [...]
***”Association football allows for some variation in pitch size, as does Gaelic football on a lesser scale, but rarely does pitch size variation give teams a home field advantage in those games as it does in Aussie Rules.”***
Actually variations in pitch size can give a big home field advantage in association football. In fact Colorado Rapids new field in Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (love the name) is 120 yards by 80 yards, which is pretty big and forces tactical changes to visiting teams that are used to more average size fields. Teams with unusually narrow or small fields also have certain home field advantages that they can take into account. It changes the nature of the game considerably, having or not having that extra bit of width.
If you don’t believe me, look at how long it took Arsenal this season to get used to their new digs at the Emirates. The pitch there is wider than at their old home at Highbury. Arsenal dropped an unusually large number of points at home early in the season precisely because they were not used to the bigger field. They were playing there like a visiting team, not like a home team.
Sorry Dave,
but I dont mean to be rude but your article is completly crap.
You sound like a typical ignorant American who cant see outside the borders of your own country. Just because there’s currantly no purpose built Aussie Rules or Cricket stadiums in the U.S., doesn’t mean there arn’t any in the rest of the world. (The world is a lot bigger than America)
I mean seriously do your research.. Do you know how many countries in this world play cricket??? Here’s some examples that may enlighten you, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, England and the various countries in the West Indies. My point is with the above mentioned variations in Aussie Rules stadiums in your article, THERE ALREADY IS PURPOSE BUILT STADIUMS IN THIS WORLD….. Just like in Australia these grounds could easily accomodate Australian Rules Football.
Anyway just because there aren’t now stadiums in the U.S. for Footy, doesn’t mean there couldn’t be in the future………
For disbelievers like yourself that dont think Aussie rules can one day take off, you should try googling,”worldfooty” and see how many links come up.
There is no reason why a modified variety of Aussie Rules can’t be played on smaller, even rectangular fields. Afterall, the Arena Football League is basically American Football played in indoor venues with slightly modified rules and has established itself right around the US in just 20 years. In fact these sorts of venues are where many Aussie Rules exhibition matches have been played in places like Tokyo and Toronto in the past. If these leagues reach a decent size, Aussie Rules leagues in the US and UK could easily use other types of venues (so long as this is sanctioned by any governing body which is in the least bit interested in what is good for the game). All they would need for future international matches against Australia or any other country is a single international venue of standard size (like the one being built in Florida), and the fitness to run out a full game on a larger field.
I discovered aussie rules only 6 months ago. The reason is that i live in Holland and there are no stadiums here big enough for a aussie rules field so the game never was able to reach these shores. Or perhaps there is a stadium…..
Would a aussie rules field fit in a stadium with an athletics track? I watched the sydney essendon game round 8 2008 yesterday which was played in the 2000 olympics stadium. The athletics track was removed to make place for a large oval field. must be more stadiums over the world where you can do the same!
Perhaps the olympic stadium here in holland can hold a playing field:
http://www.olympischstadion.nl/images/stories/Olympisch%20stadion%201.jpg
What do you think?