Has the Sleeping Giant Finally Awoken?

[Baron Vo Mandor]

get f**ked

You may have a punch up @ the footy once in a while but never rival cultures turning up to get it on with weapons.

 

[Everlovin' Antichrist]

150% agree. Thankyou Guus, but really we should never have been in any doubt. Too many self-interested pricks out there.

Will it hurt LEague ? No, not at all. ONly the spastics from TFC cant see how good this will be for Australia.

And quite frankly, id take their insular opinion with a grain of salt.

Spastic #1 here.

It will mean jack sh*t to the local Soccer and it will have no effect on the other codes.

Stuff all of the players who played last night and who will play in the WC next year play in the A League, The A League's quality is sh*te and even allowing for that, the A League is played in Summer.

I'm very happy that we've qualfied but the problem with Soccer all along hasn't been whether we were good enough to qualify for the WC....

 

[Everlovin' Antichrist]

It is potentially a threat. Mainly in regards to junior playing numbers. The momentum gained from this will be huge. It will positively impact upon the A-League which will carry through to the world cup which will then carry through to all the Asian group qualifers and so on.

Football is a global sport. It has huge appeal whereas league and AFL are, lets face it, park sports in comparison. So if the kids continue to stick with football past the junior years then it can only be a good thing for football in this country.

It's no threat.

It's had massive junior playing numbers for decades. All the advantages it has now have always been there.

All increasing the juniors will do is make more players for the European Leagues where we have significant numbers playing already and it makes no difference here.

 

[eelandia]

If it is going to hurt anyone, it will be Union and super14, they way the Wallabies are playing atm is awful super12 (14) is crappy as and Soccer is a huge threat to it, AFL and NRL are safe.

Right on the money - the ARU have 'tried' to be the nation's favourite sporting team behind the cricketers but their 'international' competition is looking decidely thin compared to Soccer's. Lucky for us Leagueites our international game has been considered sub-par by many yet this hasn't had one negative effect on the domestic comp's popularity.

League will continue to be huge whereas the Wallabies may now be overwhelmed as the bandwagon followers lose interest.

 

[The Colonel]

No threat at this stage. The interest has always been making the WC. They have done that now but it would amount to nought if they had a poor showing and didn't progress past the pool rounds. Australian public loves a winner.......

 

[dubby]

Look, I am concerned. Like we see with the Wallabies, Australia's "favourite" national team, the Aussie public love a winner and a new fad to follow. I don't know how many Wallabies jumpers i saw in the crowd last nite!

It will probably affect junior numbers more than anything, and it will bug the heck out of me with the whole WC06 thing thats gonna happen now in the media. Its a new fad, (just like Ninja Turtles, those electronic pet things the Swans in Sydney and the Lions in Brissy and Pokemon), but I am wary...

What we don't realize is that soccer is the biggest junior participation sport in Aust. Alot of senoirs play it as well.

I am a little annoyed actually, this whole fickle Aussie public thing with supporting the latest sporting craze and "the underdogs" ie Swans, Wallabies, now the Socceroos. The Wallabies built a cult following striaght after the 91WC. No reason the SoccerRoos can't do the same.

Unless of course they get hammered in every game (which is likely) and then Australians lose interest...

 

[Mr Saab]

threat? what threat?
Soccer is stilll a long long way from making it onto free to air TV, add to that it is played in summer. Where is the threat?

 

[gaterooze]

The ONLY threat is to the Wallabies.

And that's fine by me. I'd rather support the Socceroos than the Wannabes.

 

[sooperdooper]

It will never get in front of the Big 3. We still have a weak league where our top players don't play in it. We have nothing solid to follow week after week like in League and AFL, and we play bugger all international games back here.

your honestly kidding yourself. with what happened last night anything is possible.
the a league has made the cap restraints which will rise each year. the signings or marquee and guest players who dont count in the cap are a great idea. it will attract world class players in years soon to come.

also i hear they are trying to get some asian teams into the competition to build up a bigger league, more teams, more money, more tourism, more sponsors....

you do the math....

with the people now in charge of football in this country it has a good chance of going well... not to mention the power brokers in world football

 

[sooperdooper]

The funny thing is Soccer is the code with the largest junior participation in the country. If it wasnt for the ethnic greedy pricks destroying the game here, we would be in the top 20 countries in the world, not 200th.

And before one of you politically correct f**kwits gets on my case, I am one of those ethnics, just not the greedy prix.

we are not 200th we are ranked 57th
only ranked there due to the quality internationals we play a year....

 

[morri (cWo)]

Goose Hiddink 4 Pm!!

where you holding that sign?


this will be great for soccer and people need to realise that it will have little effect on league.

 

[sooperdooper]

Soccer posses no threat at all to the other codes Australia wont do anything at the world cup and as soon as people realise we aren't good they will be deserted. It's an ok building block but people aren't going to warm to it once the fad factor wears off. Lets not forget that all generations haven't been brought up on soccer watching no playing yes. So long as rugby League continue's like this year, they have no problems. In fact a soccer fad is possibly just what NRL, AFL, might want, Because it's the type of thing that can potentially backfire. A good couple of months or a year then whamo reality sets in and the finances hit home.

your an expert on the game now?

a fad? ok your opinion

you think we are not that good? you may think that, we can mix it with the best in the world...eg: u r gay, england, france

we lack the professionalism of international games

 

[Tommy Smith]

I dont think people should be seeing it as a threat. Just because its great news for football and the sports future in this country doesnt mean it has to be a threat to other codes.

Fact is, is that it only takes half as much skill and ability to play Rugby League as it does football so once kids get to a certain age most of them probably realise that their main chance to make it big in sport is at League or AFL. There's plenty of chunky Mark O'Meleys around who can catch a ball and run into a wall of people, but there are very few Harry Kewells.

However, the way football will become successfull is if/when the momentum gained from WC entry and then the Asian qualifiers results in more sponsoship/money for the A-league so that the A-League can provide the up-and-comers who arent quite Harry Kewell with a league they want to stay in...rather than go to play in the Swiss or Belgian leagues in Europe. Or a league that they can come back to once they've given it a shot overseas.

Last night was definately a huge long-term psoitve and not just abit of short-term hype.

 

[The Preacher]

no worries, no threat, without bringing the players home from playing OS, no depth.

But, WELL DONE to Golden Guus and the Socceroos. Pity JW didn't get to see it.

 

[magpie_man]

soccer is a bigger threat to afl and union than league.
the afl relies on saturating it's markets, if soccer can gain some momentum in vic, sa and wa, the afl is in trouble.
union's popualrity relies on the success of the wallabies as a team for all the bandwagoners to cheer for, now they have a better alternative. union is in serious trouble in australia imo, but that's another issue...
out of all the australian football codes, the least hostility exists between soccer and league.

 

[gaterooze]

your honestly kidding yourself. with what happened last night anything is possible.
the a league has made the cap restraints which will rise each year. the signings or marquee and guest players who dont count in the cap are a great idea. it will attract world class players in years soon to come.

also i hear they are trying to get some asian teams into the competition to build up a bigger league, more teams, more money, more tourism, more sponsors....

you do the math....

with the people now in charge of football in this country it has a good chance of going well... not to mention the power brokers in world football

We heard exactly the same thing after the Union World Cup, and look what's happened since...

 

[sooperdooper]

We heard exactly the same thing after the Union World Cup, and look what's happened since...

thats the difference between union and football

 

[Alba]

i think so .. and its about time too .. ive never been a huge soccer fan but always preferred watching games from the EPL rather than the NSL .. and the A-League is already getting some pretty healthy crowds and last night was an ELECTRIC atmosphere out at the stadium ive never felt anything like it .. and the Roos making the WC will boost the interest in the A-League imo and maybe in a few years the world will know us for our soccer instead of the AFL .. and i cannot wait for the day when soccer is big here and i think with the talent rising that day is coming closer!

 

[Everlovin' Antichrist]

I dont think people should be seeing it as a threat. Just because its great news for football and the sports future in this country doesnt mean it has to be a threat to other codes.

Fact is, is that it only takes half as much skill and ability to play Rugby League as it does football so once kids get to a certain age most of them probably realise that their main chance to make it big in sport is at League or AFL. There's plenty of chunky Mark O'Meleys around who can catch a ball and run into a wall of people, but there are very few Harry Kewells.

However, the way football will become successfull is if/when the momentum gained from WC entry and then the Asian qualifiers results in more sponsoship/money for the A-league so that the A-League can provide the up-and-comers who arent quite Harry Kewell with a league they want to stay in...rather than go to play in the Swiss or Belgian leagues in Europe. Or a league that they can come back to once they've given it a shot overseas.

Last night was definately a huge long-term psoitve and not just abit of short-term hype.

Mate, you're a drongo. Normally people who know as little as you are sitting in a nursing home in a rocking chair.

Take a bex and jump off a cliff you terminal wally.

 

[Everlovin' Antichrist]

thats the difference between union and football

Between Union and Rugby League?