There is nothing more certain that AFL is the grubbiest sporting organisation in this country and their fans are the most insular and biggest hypocrites of all sports fans. If a Rugby League player transgresses off field, the focus from commentators and journalists from outside RL is to highlight the incident as code problem and not a sport in general problem. The AFL cheerleaders in the media particular like to put the knife into Rugby League even though most of these dribblers wouldnt know the difference between Rugby League and Union. Not that the friends of Rugby Union have not had a red hot go over the years putting the boot into Rugby League in the same vain.
Watch when the AFL has an off field incident. The focus starts with the individual and not the sport as a whole. The article will deflect attention away from being an AFL problem and will mention NRL incidents to share the blame around. For their worst incidents, suddenly they want to say its a problem across all football codes. No to mention all the AFL cheerleaders who want to blame the person who comes into contact with their AFL gods.
I lived in London in the mid 90s. Soccers popularity in London reminds me of AFLs popularity in Melbourne, but not as insular. At this time the papers (particular the tabloids) started to ramp up the reporting of soccer players and officials with off pitch activities. At no time, was their any judgement on the sport as a whole or mentioning as a problem with other sports. I had a conversion a year a two ago to a soccer fan about the difference between the reporting by the English press with soccer off field incident and the Australian press with Rugby League. He said they just report it and get on with it. With Rugby League, the media just keep going on and on about it and then passes judgment on the code,
