Is touch footy RL?

[*Paul*]

Touch footy used to have kickoffs, and markers, and proper play the balls (not rollballs) - was better way back then as the dump and scoot could be cut off by the marker, and the presence of the marker meant you had play the ball on the mark, which also inhibited the dumping.

Also me and my mate used to run a play down the blindside which involved fooling the marker, which always felt good when it came off.

 

[Eels Dude]

Try looking at it the other way around.. If someone had only seen touch footy, and they went to a RU game and then a RL game, in which rugby code would they see a tackling version of touch footy?

I think the differences between touch footy and either code are too different from touch footy to compare the latter to either. In fact, league has more in common with rugby than it does touch footy.

In response to your previous comment, I really don't know as I grew up going to school in Sydney and touch footy was probably the second most popular sport behind soccer. I don't see what they can do to improve that here. I've no idea whether it's promoted or played in other states so I cannot really comment on whether improvement is needed. Perhaps PerthRed can help us on that???

 

[RL1908]

Another version - touch rugby league (with kicking):
http://touchrugbyleague.com/index.php

 

[Lockyer4President!]

Oztag is basically just Flag NRL and touch footy is a hell of a lot closer to RL than Auskick is to fumbleball. I can't understand why the NRL isn't getting involved with either association.

 

[Eels Dude]

Oztag is basically just Flag NRL and touch footy is a hell of a lot closer to RL than Auskick is to fumbleball. I can't understand why the NRL isn't getting involved with either association.

I cannot comment on Auskick as i've never seen it, but the skill sets of league and touch football are completely different. Touch football is basically run and step, quick stop and play the ball, next person does the same thing, until the defending side are put on the back foot so much that you break the line. It's all about speed.

It's also not an ideal game for people that are not in great physical condition to play or enjoy, unlike soccer or cricket where you can always just have a whack.

If the NRL is considering getting involved they need to start their own game, like touch or OZtag but with kicking and other rule changes so it develops other skills other than just speed and stepping.

 

[Perth Red]

I don't see what they can do to improve that here. I've no idea whether it's promoted or played in other states so I cannot really comment on whether improvement is needed. Perhaps PerthRed can help us on that???

It's massive in Perth with thousands of players and leagues for kids, adults mixed, seniors and womens teams. It gets good Govt support and played in schools and clubs. I played at Sth Perth for a while before the knee reminded me why I stopped playing the real thing! I have some friends who play and they don't relate it to RL/NRL at all. Shame as I am sure if they pschologically thought they were playing a derivatve of RL they would take more interest in the NRL.

www.touchwest.com
www.waaustouch.com.au

 

[Thomas]

It's massive in Perth with thousands of players and leagues for kids, adults mixed, seniors and womens teams. It gets good Govt support and played in schools and clubs. I played at Sth Perth for a while before the knee reminded me why I stopped playing the real thing! I have some friends who play and they don't relate it to RL/NRL at all. Shame as I am sure if they pschologically thought they were playing a derivatve of RL they would take more interest in the NRL.

www.touchwest.com
www.waaustouch.com.au

According to the touch website they have 250,000 players registered across the country and 500,000 school kids playing the game.

That's more than RL and RU player numbers combined, is it not? :shock:

I'm in the camp that says this game should be left to its own devices. Its a completely different sport.

 

[Eels Dude]

It's massive in Perth with thousands of players and leagues for kids, adults mixed, seniors and womens teams. It gets good Govt support and played in schools and clubs. I played at Sth Perth for a while before the knee reminded me why I stopped playing the real thing! I have some friends who play and they don't relate it to RL/NRL at all. Shame as I am sure if they pschologically thought they were playing a derivatve of RL they would take more interest in the NRL.

www.touchwest.com
www.waaustouch.com.au

Thanks for repyling. I think that's terrific. At the very least it shows kids the principles of the game. It's still really different though. If the NRL were to get involved then it would need to be made more like league.

The reason why your friends don't realise it's related to league is probably because the games look so different. A few rule changes here and there might help, I doubt the touch footy traditionalists would adopt this though which is why the NRL, if they choose to do something like this, would need to be a rival and invest on their own. Well it wouldn't be the NRL it would have to be the ARL and the state RL's.

 

[*Paul*]

but the skill sets of league and touch football are completely different. Touch football is basically run and step, quick stop and play the ball, next person does the same thing, until the defending side are put on the back foot so much that you break the line. It's all about speed.

In my day at least, lower divisions were less oriented on settles, and there was more emphasis on being light on your feet, switches and running into spaces. So it can be more interesting than a who's-the-fittest contest.

 

[The Engineers Room]

What people want is for the NRL to whack their logo on the events and claim it as a derivative of RL. What they should do is send officials to touch/oztag comps and encourage them to try RL or offer the touch association an affliation so they can streamline any cross over.

They should run a touch footy tournament between the NRL clubs in the summer with past greats and celebrities and put the NRL logos everywhere.

Oztag/touch could be RLs twenty20.

 

[Lockyer4President!]

I cannot comment on Auskick as i've never seen it, but the skill sets of league and touch football are completely different. Touch football is basically run and step, quick stop and play the ball, next person does the same thing, until the defending side are put on the back foot so much that you break the line. It's all about speed.

It's also not an ideal game for people that are not in great physical condition to play or enjoy, unlike soccer or cricket where you can always just have a whack.

If the NRL is considering getting involved they need to start their own game, like touch or OZtag but with kicking and other rule changes so it develops other skills other than just speed and stepping.

I know what Touch Footy and OzTag involve, I've played both for ages. Oztag does have kicking btw, it just has to be at or below head height.

There's no need for the NRL to create yet another version of RL when we've got two extremely popular social games based on RL.
All they need to do is give OzTag a decent deal to have the name changed to NRL OzTag (with NRL logos on the balls) and bingo, we have our Auskick equivalent.

 

[Lockyer4President!]

What people want is for the NRL to whack their logo on the events and claim it as a derivative of RL. What they should do is send officials to touch/oztag comps and encourage them to try RL or offer the touch association an affliation so they can streamline any cross over.

They should run a touch footy tournament between the NRL clubs in the summer with past greats and celebrities and put the NRL logos everywhere.

Oztag/touch could be RLs twenty20.

They had a beach touch footy comp a few years back on Bondi beach iirc. Went for two days. Had all kinds of celebrities and current and ex players.

 

[yakstorm]

Touch football and Tag football are both as similar to Rugby League as Futsal, Indoor Soccer, Beach Soccer and 6-a-side is to the full version of soccer.

The difference is when the Football Federation of Australia go to the government for funding, or for ground allocations and so on, they can lay claim to participants numbers across all the variations of their game.

This is what helps make soccer the largest participant team sport in Australia, and in many countries.

If League had Tag and Touch under its sporting portfolio, it would at least be as big if not bigger than Soccers combined participation numbers.

Full contact League has just over 400,000 participants
Touch football has 750,000
Tag football has around 400,000

Soccer has roughly around 1.4 million participants across its variations of the game.

And yes before someone comes on and goes there is double counting in the combined league / tag / touch version, there is the same double counting in every sports participation numbers.

 

[RL1908]

I'm not suggesting that the rules of touch footy be changed. All I'm suggesting is that it come under the NRL or ARL (or a united RL body).

While RL-derived touch footy is booming, the game of RL itself is portrayed in the media as in decline below the NRL, bush clubs are dying etc.... the reality is in the fast-paced world of the 21st century, people are opting for a softer form of RL to play socially.

With the athletic gap between the pro level of RL (which drives the rules of RL) and the rest widening, the numbers opting for touch footy to get their RL fix is only going to grow. People also want to play RL, but invest less time in training (if they do any at all), and can't afford to risk injury - that too leads to opting to play touch footy. Women and kids can play touch footy too, whereas fewer will play 13-aside RL. The game can be played well past your 50th birthday. It is all RL in my view.

When it comes to trying to expand the profile of RL in non-RL states & NZ, some connection needs to be made to the popularity of RL-derived touch footy. It is a means to connect with these people, to give the NRL an opening. In NZ, touch footy boasts that it is the largest participation sport in the country - that is something RL should be shouting from the roof tops about.

All I'm suggesting is that RL should embrace touch footy, brand it nationally under the RL banner, and start putting up the picture that presents interest in RL in a much more positive position.

 

[Eels Dude]

I know what Touch Footy and OzTag involve, I've played both for ages. Oztag does have kicking btw, it just has to be at or below head height.

There's no need for the NRL to create yet another version of RL when we've got two extremely popular social games based on RL.
All they need to do is give OzTag a decent deal to have the name changed to NRL OzTag (with NRL logos on the balls) and bingo, we have our Auskick equivalent.

I disagree. The fundamentals between league and touch footy are too great. Perth Red said the game is huge there but few know it's related to league. This can be improved by making the games more similar. OZtag would work a lot better.

 

[chrisc101]

Of course it is Rugby League!!! And I totally agree that we undervalue it from a growth and promotional point of view.

Touch is league, like AFL is Auskick!! We should do what they do and include these numbers in our participation rates.

 

[RL1908]

The final sentence in this quote from http://www.convictcreations.com/football/touch.html is interesting:

"Touch football was invented in the 1950s by Robert Dyke and Ray Vawdon, both members of the South Sydney Junior Rugby League Club. They wanted a game that would help rugby league players further refine their passing, catching and stepping skills. They also wanted to broaden the social appeal of rugby league."

So, part of the reason the game of touch football was invented at all was to assist the growth, appeal and awareness of RL in the wider community - all of which (if successful) ultimately produces future generations of RL fans, players, officials and sponsors.

Touch football subsequently spread across the globe, but "the RL message" failed to go along with it.

 

[RL1908]

History of Touch
http://www.hillshornetstouch.com/history_touch.php

The game of Touch had very humble beginings indeed. Used as a training technique for Rugby League teams during the 1950s and 60s it was never seen as a sport in its own right.

Eventually more and more people turned to touch for a safe social game to play and it soon became inevitable that an official competition would be held.

The first official game of touch was held in the traditionally strong rugby league area of South Sydney. The South Sydney Touch football association was founded in 1968 and ran a competition in that year. The matches were held at the aptly named Pioneer Park. Very soon after this other associations were formed and interdistrict competition began in 1978.

The establishment of the national body, "The Australian Touch Football Association" came in 1976.

A highlight came after the drawn Sydney Rugby League Grand Final of 1977 when the rematch needed a curtain-raiser and Rugby League officials asked the newly formed "Touch Football Association" to provide the prelude game.

With a crowd of 40,000+ this game helped to raise the profile of Touch around the world and was nothing short of spectacular according to Bob Dyke in the book "The Story of Touch".

Another profile raiser came in 1978 when the Sydney Metropolitan Touch Football side played the Touring Great Britain Rugby League Team, an excellent touchdown-scoring spectacle, with the local team winning with a disputed touchdown on the siren.

As more people began to play Touch, organised competitions developed. Very soon other associations emerged and representative matches have been played since 1978.

 

[milchcow]

The final sentence in this quote from http://www.convictcreations.com/football/touch.html is interesting:

"Touch football was invented in the 1950s by Robert Dyke and Ray Vawdon, both members of the South Sydney Junior Rugby League Club. They wanted a game that would help rugby league players further refine their passing, catching and stepping skills. They also wanted to broaden the social appeal of rugby league."

So, part of the reason the game of touch football was invented at all was to assist the growth of RL.

Touch football subsequently spread across the globe, but "the RL message" failed to go along with it.

Oztag is the same, it was invented by Perry Haddock when he was at St George in the early 90s as part of a training routine.

I don't see what point this thread is getting at? Are there really a lot of people who don't associate touch/oztag with league and/or union?
Does it actually change anything if the NRL officially says "by the way, a lot of people play touch, which is a bit like league"

If the NRL can really get some sort of government benefit by claiming all oztag players as league players then fair enough, may as well try it, assuming the touch/oztag bodies agree to go along with it.

 

[KalgoorlieRed]

It's funny you mention that RL1908 I was thinking the same thing a few weeks ago while the Oz-Tag Grand Final was televised on Fox. With all these so-called "soccer mums" out there now I see Touch and especially Oztag as a perfect introduction to the game of Rugby League for kids at a young age.

I dont think its a case of one organisation not wanting to be associated with the other i see it as if both are too lazy to get up and do something about a possible affiliation. The NRL should really get in there and form connections with both Touch and Oz-Tag because the participation rates for both games are huge. I read somewhere Oz-tag has over 3500 teams with 360,000 players in all the major cities...

Soccer mums are a bleedin nusciance! The arrogance of these loud mouthed arrogant cashed up idiots is beyond me. This town is full of them!