NRL in trouble, Football has arrived

[Misty Bee]

Soccer has as much chance of taking over Australia as Amanda Vanstone getting on the cover of Sports Illusrated.

This week we also won at Ascot, and a golf major. Ooh, a Golf state of Origin would attract 80 000 at Eastlakes and be watched by 4 million nationwide. League is doomed!!!!

The difference between soccer and League is that in League, the kids growing up can actually see the stars in League. My lad is very proud of his NSW Blues cap signed by Joey Johns. How many kids in Oz have got a Kewell signature?

 

[Mr Angry]

The world game where only European and South American teams have made the final, as it will be again.

If you speak Spanish, soccer rules.

Enjoy your cup soccer fans, which European or South American team will win it?

 

[walker smith]

The world game where only European and South American teams have made the final, as it will be again.

If you speak Spanish, soccer rules.

Enjoy your cup soccer fans, which European or South American team will win it?

im a little astounded by some of the xenophobic responses to this topic on this board!

Frankly, Paullyboy should just cut the pretence of political correctness and return to calling soccer what it is plain he wishes to call it...."soccer"!

 

[***MH***]

well.... at least League can say that our referees make less blunders than Soccer referees!

 

[Bezant]

Well one thing is for sure...the well cup is generating emotions and euphoria all round...but people please lets look at this a bit more clinically. Everyone is on the band wagon now because this is the first time in 32 years we have qualified for the world cup in a game which we have never really been any good at. Also as Australians...living in our (so percieved) loney neck of the woods in the world we appreciate that soccer is a huge game overseas (especially in a lot of countries where a lot of us have come from Uk, Europe etc). So when we get in..score a good win over the japs and play well against the world champs of course you would expect the public to be excited. Do you honestly think that our greatest sporting moment..winning the america's cup was amazing because everyone was in love with sailing :lol: ?? No it was the fact the we BEAT THE YANKS AFTER 100+ years! Same with the world cup...us aussies..who are champs at everything we do are now threatening to beat the rest of the world at its own game . Thats why we are enjoying it.

Now once this is over (assuming we dont do the incredible and actually win it!!!) then the frenzy of the event will pass into fond memory. Sure soccer will get a kick along but with an A-League that is pretty average and most of the stars overseas and with it up against Australia's only truly dominant seasonal sport - cricket it will not pose a direct threat to league or AFL which are week in - week out winter sports. aussies are not fools, we now the soccer here is not the real deal.

Also I have this sneaking susspision that John O'Neil will jump ship to bigger and better things as he did after the union world cup because he knows that having a headline event that is successful is the quickest way to gaining a big corporate profile and a long slog do your career no favours. In the short term soccer will still have the same ethnic dominance it still has now...look at the team...Sure longer term this exposure will mean more aussie players in the premier leauge and europe and I predict that we will now consistently get into the world cup as we have shifted to asia...but the thing is it just wont be the same if we make it all the time and keep on getting put out at the 2nd or 3rd rounds....before this we didn't believe we could play soccer...in 10 years time we'll all know that we can...but just not as good as the europeans and south americans...

In the meantime league and AFL will continue to provide aussies with weekin - week out entertainment at there highest levels during winter. League's push into melbourne will successful in getting a niche if the keep pushing..it wont be huge but it will be part of the melbourne psyche just as AFL is not part of Brisbane's & Sydney's. If anything this world cup will help open up victorians to others sports and the origin and these top storm games over the next few weeks seem to be coming at the right time if we wnd up getting beat by italy and people look for a new bandwagon to jump on...

Sure the world cup will help soccer in the short term but will it fall into a RU style whole after the world cup and once John O'Niel leaves??? The only impact i see soccer having is on RU and it's claim to international competition and world cup entertainment. the socceroos and wallabies are the closest compitetion to each other...

there my two bobs worth anyway...now back to the frenzy of the world cup and a great melbourne storm win:crazy: :crazy:

 

[tigger]

I love it when people with small minds have to use insults to try to disagree with another person's opinion.

Sydney FC has attracted an aggregate match attendance of 183,335 from its 11 home game with the average crowd 16,668.
Sydney FC set a record crowd of 25,208 for the opening game against Melbourne Victory and broke the record when 25,557 fans attended last Friday night’s 2-1 win show-stopper against Adelaide United despite continuous rain.

This was before the footballroos looked like getting into the world cup.

I just find it amusing that you think you are protected because 'Viduka & Kewell', who are both ordinary footballers anyway, wont play in the A-League. You could also look at the other angle, which is that kids can see that they can travel the world playing football, earning up to 25 times what the highest paid league stars command & being watched the world over. The A-League will never be a great competition in terms of the world's greatest players being involved, but i would suggest the standard of Australian football players that play in the A-League will continue to improve and that with a few older English players coming in for a few years in the sun, the A-League will be massive in Sydney.

 

[Woods99]

I love it when people with small minds have to use insults to try to disagree with another person's opinion.



This was before the footballroos looked like getting into the world cup.

I just find it amusing that you think you are protected because 'Viduka & Kewell', who are both ordinary footballers anyway, wont play in the A-League. You could also look at the other angle, which is that kids can see that they can travel the world playing football, earning up to 25 times what the highest paid league stars command & being watched the world over. The A-League will never be a great competition in terms of the world's greatest players being involved, but i would suggest the standard of Australian football players that play in the A-League will continue to improve and that with a few older English players coming in for a few years in the sun, the A-League will be massive in Sydney.

The A-League has a huge structural problem, which is that it is monopolised by Sydney. They are and will remain the strongest franchise.

Are people following other franchises going to maintain their interest whilever the competition remains a Sydney benefit?

 

[Holla if ya hear me]

What a load of crap..rugby league is the winter sport in this country.when the world cup is over[and i do hope we win it .or at least go as far as they can}then the football 'cling ons' fans will go back into the hills whee they came from.or there city suburbs
You watch when the league world cup comes to Australia..youll see all these soccer fans now decked out in their countries colours as well

Would much rather watch n feel the game from last nite[Dogs v Storm]than sit thru 90 min of potentially No score at all

 

[Moffo]

I have never seen so many people with flags, T-shirts, jumpers, posters etc etc etc. The A league will now dominate the NRL in Sydney & the Central Coast, kill off the Storm. THE ARU have a lot to worry about aswell.

As Frank Skinner sang "Footballs coming home, its coming home, its coming home, its coming, footballs coming home"

tigger i hope you were drunk when you wrote that

i love football but I also went to most A League games last year and the standard is sh*t. no way it will be successful, it'll die in the arse

 

[Big Bunny]

Soccer is 2006's Hula Hoop.

I'm enjoying the soccer world cup, but like most people I don't give a rats arse about soccer itself, you would have to pay me to watch it if Australia wasn't involved.

A fan knows the players in a lot of teams, not just their own, and they are there during the hard times and that applies to all sports. Most people who say they liked the NBA in the 90's wouldn't know more than a few Chicago Bulls players, and today very few people who claim to like the NFL can name their supposed favourite teams entire offensive line. Like those fads and winning teams in the NRL we're going to see this new bandwagon fizzle pretty quick, even if there will be a moderate rise in interest in soccer overall.

The difference between some people on this forum and the general public is that we aren't kidding ourselves. Soccer is an average game, I'm under no illusions about that. Seeing Australia do well in big international events taps into the part of us that wants to get into a pissing contest with the rest of the world. Soccer appeals to a lot of people for the game itself, but most of its supposed fans are drawn in by everything apart from what's happening on the pitch. They could deny that until the sun goes down but it wouldn't make it any less true. It's just human nature to like the most popular things. If the rest of the world was fanatical about lego building or hotdog eating contests then most people in Australia would jump on that instead because it's human nature to jump on the bandwagon, and a bandwagon is nothing more than people riding success to make themselves feel better and as though they are a part of a winner. To an extent, the people who are quickest to jump on bandwagons, and are oblivious and actually think they are fans are more than likely the same sort of people who go out and join cults; lost people with little to believe in.

People don't give a crap about athletics, skiing or swimming, but they do when they a part of a chest beating, masturbatory exercise like the Olympics. Soccer's world cup is the same. Enjoy it for what it's worth, but don't try and build it up to be more than it really is, a fun circus which will be here and gone until the next time it hits town.

 

[fatshark]

Id cheer on the f**king Aussie tiddly winks team, doesnt mean Im a convert.

 

[LESStar58]

^

Exactly...

I will continue following my EPL, SPL, Serie A and Primera Ligeria teams however!

 

[Raider_69]

I'm right into the socceroos right now but as soon as it's over I won't even blink at soccer again until theres another world cup. yeah I'm on the band wagon but I'll jump off soon.

well said
im riding this socceroo wagon for all its mileage, but come our eventual elimination, ill jump off and piss on the a-league and soccer in general for being dead boring, without blinking an eye

 

[aenima1]

its true, already people are staying away from nrl games, the attendances this year are disgraceful. football has hit australia and it's hit hard. even though it is the world cup and cant really be compared to the nrl competition, rugby league will never offer anything on any level compared this.

 

[pennywisealfie]

who really cares. ive managed to go to every Broncos game for the last 2 years yet im a massive football fan. they can both co-exist. I believe Football will boom in this country.

 

[Misty Bee]

Footballhas been booming in this country since 1908!!!!

As for soccer.....it's main claim to fame is to get people onto SBS - and eventually Inspector Rex!

 

[brendothejet]

YEAH THE CROWDS SUFFERD THIS WEEK...

18K IN nEWCASTLE, 16K IN PENRITH...

DAMN. sOCCER KILLED RL.

EVEN THO WE GOT A SOLD OUT STATE GAME , IN VICTORIA, CLUB GAMES DRAWING 30K AND AN INTERNATIONAL SERIES AT THE END OF THE YEAR...

RL IS DEAD.

OHHHHHH.


LISTEN, AS LONG AS IM ALIVE THERE WILL BE AN NRL. I SAY THIS BECAUSE EVEN IF I HAVE TO FUND IT, PLAY IN IT, COACH IT, FILM IT, SHOW IT TO PEOPLE ON A HANDHELD TV AND MANAGE IT THERE WILL BE AN NRL.

 

[Captain Clark]

Don't think it'll ever take over any sport.

But that doesn't mean it won't become one of the most popular. I support both codes, football first though.

 

[Captain Clark]

Football being football, not rugby (league) or AFL.

 

[brendothejet]

Cc -

You Support A Referee And Soccer....

Im Starting To Question You...