I spent the better part of a year working in Australia, and got exposed to a different culture sports-wise, rugby and cricket. Doubt if anyone's interested in cricket, but we could start a thread on that as well. My opinion of rugby is that it's a pretty neat game. Big, and I mean big, guys essentially playing tackle football with little or no pads! No blocking, no forward passing, emphsis on stamina and the kicking game. There's Rugby League, which is their equivalent of the NFL, Rugby Union, which is more like college ball, including girls games, and Australian Rules. League is typically played in Queensland and New South Wales and sometimes in Victoria. Australian Rules is primarily played in Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia (unsure about the Northern Territories, which I don't think is an Australian State, and Tazmania). My opinion, and it's only my opinion, is that League and Union are for real men, and that Australian Rules is Netball on grass. ------------------ "Who Wants To Be A Rocket?" - and probably a millionaire as well. The off-season will be interesting!
Now that is bait if I've ever seen one My view on Rugby is that it is too one dimensional - there is very little else to the game other than running into tackles, trying to break them, and trying to fins a way through the opponents line. It is a game of strength and pace. Now Aussie Rules requires players to be strong, fast, fit, agile, and skillful - it involves so many facets of physical ability that it's amazing. One player named Robert Harvey (previous MVP, or Brownlow Medalist as we call it) on average runs the equivalent of a marathon every game! All while collecting possessions, tackling opponents, and kicking the football. Netball on grass! Please. It is a full contact sport, no-one wears ANY pads and EVERYONE touches the ball. There is no fat-ass 350 pound lineman whos only job is to block. (BTW Did you know that they actually really do play netball on grass?) Where did live in Australia? I'm betting it was either Queensland or NSW judging by your sport bias. ------------------ Current Rocket's Salary & Contract Info
Maybe the reason I prefer League is that the game more closely resembles American football. No doubt Australian Rules requires a great deal of skill, especially in trying to drop-kick that funny shaped football through one of those sets of posts. Maybe it's those jerseys with the cutoff sleeves that make the players look less like football players. Or maybe it's the scores in the hundreds and nineties that turned me off. I did live and work in Sydney, and had multiple opportunities to see both footy games and cricket matches. Friday Night Football was big on TV, and the introduction used the same music and format as ABC Monday Night Football. I like the fast paced action (no timeouts or huddles after every play). BTW - I think it's against the rules to block; those big Hookers can sort of run interference (and sometimes carry the ball). The debate over the real footy in Australia will go on and on. But, to the best of my knowledge, Aussie Rules is an internal sport, and you don't have international competition like there is with Rugby Union. ------------------ "Who Wants To Be A Rocket?" - and probably a millionaire as well. The off-season will be interesting!
AFL is the realest deal. I catch it on FS2 from time to time and those guys are serious men. I mean I thought ice hockey was the manliest of all sports until I started watching Australian Rules Football. Too bad it hasn't really caught on in the states. It is far more action packed than the NFL and loads of scoring too. Oh...and one of the current best AFL players going is a Texan...
