sleeping giant my arse

[Steelers4eva]

As with the majority of most Australians I was pleased and very proud of the Socceroos last Wednesday night, great to be Australian and you would have to be pretty hard to please if you could not get excited about a finalle like that.

However I find it hard to fathom that people could contemplate the possibility that soccer could challenge either of the major winter codes in Australia. Rugby Union shone for a little while when the world cup was here but look at the attendance rates of thier major NSW competetion every week. Sure the participation levels in soccer are high in Australia but with the exception of the highest level soccer (European PL's and World Cup) it is a very boring sport to watch. I mean a high proportion of people jog everyday in Australia as well but how many tickets do you think you could sell to watch someone jog around the park.

Added to this is the fact that the ethnic rivalries of this sport have discouraged a lot of people from embracing the game. Now before you jump all over that statement I know RL has its own problems in that regard but it has never resorted to having to ban local clubs from participating in the comp due to drive by shootings or rioting. This is the sort of stuff we are used to seeing on TV from overseas. The new A League has taken a huge step to rectify this but the grass roots of the game are still born of ethnic origins.

 

[Mr Saab]

soccer has a loooong way to go before it is embraced by this nation.
For a start it has to make it to free air commercial TV on prime time.I cant see ch 10 9 7 picking it up any time soon.
2nd, the salary cap has to be something like 5-10million so it can keep some of its stars and at least compete (albeit in a minor way) with some overseas comps. There is no point in having A league as a feeder league for the likes of high powered overseas clubs where players can earn 100k a week. Australians like to see the best of the best....and Australia have that in NRL and AFL and also super 12.
Until the A league can lift its standards it will be nothing more than a 2nd grade comp.

 

[Misty Bee]

Charlie, as usual, an excellent post....[/tongue in cheek]

TWas thinking last night about what would happen is A league went gangbusters and outdrew NRL for a season. Well, for a start, it would mean jack sh*t to those, like me and a few million others, who have no access to an A league team.

In my local area, Soccer would have to win the battle as well. DEspite how hard the networks push their respective sports (prime=Yawnion - always pushing the Manning River Ratz) or Ten (pushing AFL), League is still far and away king in Group 3. Same with all the other NSW rural groups, and the same in regional Queensland as well.

That's Union's problem - they pack Telstra for one Bledisloe game and think the own the world. They don't.

League is not king up here merely for traditional reasons. It's the only code that bothers with us. We have had KNights players on 3 occasions visiting our school, or conducting coaching clinics, including 2 trips from Buderis. Parra and Souths have had graded players up here as well.

Union has mich publicised training camps at Coffs Harbour - which don't include any local promotion at all.

AFL - I think Nicky Winmar stopped at Kempsey maccas on his way up north once.

Having a huge soccer player base in Oz means zip. If it meant anything, the massive soccer takeover would already have happened.

Boing Boing, I DO get behind the soccerroos. I get pissed off when we post one lucky win and all of a sudden half of the supposed League fans on here ditch the code and jump on the Soccer bandwagon as though League never existed.

 

[russ13]

There was a "study" released a while ago. League was actually the safest sport in regards to major injuries. AFL was the worst I believe with Football somewhere around the middle.

This is it:

Medibank Report Shows Soccer/AFL Myth
Mon Sep 20, 10:02pm (NSW)
Source: ARL Foundation
With the advent of the Safeplay Code and more educated coaching methods, Rugby League injuries to junior players both minor and major have declined steadily.

A Medibank Private Report shows that in sport in Australia, AFL has the largest percentage of serious injuries. The survey was conducted as a percentage sample taken from an equal number of participants in each of the sports. AFL easily rated worst with 21.6% of all major injuries, Soccer third with 8.1% and Rugby League/Union fourth with 7.8%.

When all categories of injuries, major and minor, were taken into account Rugby League fared even better with Netball outpacing all the football codes as the worst rating sport.

News courtesy of: www.arlfoundation.com.au

I have another health report about kids heading a soccer ball that causes brain damage.

In profession players who sometimes head the ball 600 to 700 times a season there has been confirmed cases of early onset of brain diseases such as Parkinson & Alchemizes. I will get try & find the report.

 

[dubby]

Would someone please explain to me, why is soccer termed "sleeping giant"?

 

[Balmain_Boy]

I hope that study took player numbers into account. From the way it is worded it doesn't SOUND like it does.

 

[Misty Bee]

The survey was conducted as a percentage sample taken from an equal number of participants in each of the sports

So, yes it was taken into account.

 

[Raider Ultra]

I thought soccer was a fairy sport, where no one got injured?

 

[ali]

Charlie, as usual, an excellent post....[/tongue in cheek]

TWas thinking last night about what would happen is A league went gangbusters and outdrew NRL for a season. Well, for a start, it would mean jack sh*t to those, like me and a few million others, who have no access to an A league team.

In my local area, Soccer would have to win the battle as well. DEspite how hard the networks push their respective sports (prime=Yawnion - always pushing the Manning River Ratz) or Ten (pushing AFL), League is still far and away king in Group 3. Same with all the other NSW rural groups, and the same in regional Queensland as well.

That's Union's problem - they pack Telstra for one Bledisloe game and think the own the world. They don't.

League is not king up here merely for traditional reasons. It's the only code that bothers with us. We have had KNights players on 3 occasions visiting our school, or conducting coaching clinics, including 2 trips from Buderis. Parra and Souths have had graded players up here as well.

Union has mich publicised training camps at Coffs Harbour - which don't include any local promotion at all.

AFL - I think Nicky Winmar stopped at Kempsey maccas on his way up north once.

Having a huge soccer player base in Oz means zip. If it meant anything, the massive soccer takeover would already have happened.

Boing Boing, I DO get behind the soccerroos. I get pissed off when we post one lucky win and all of a sudden half of the supposed League fans on here ditch the code and jump on the Soccer bandwagon as though League never existed.

I don't think the majority of us are ditching League. It's just that there are a lot of very stupid and stereotyped opinions on here. The problem with soccer is that there has been no outlet to watch it other than the premier league on TV or whatever. We are going to get a series of home internationals that will at least rival the Wallabies. And this will come of the back of increased attention due to our world cup qualification. So for mine it's inevitable that soccer will grow. But I don't think it is any chance of rivalling League in NSW or QLD at this stage. 1 A League team in Sydney can only at best be as popular as the Tahs or Swans. The A League would need to seriously expand before soccer ever thought of being number 1 in Aus. Because just like RL, clubs rule in soccer and they are where players play 95% of their games.

 

[LRC]

When the socceroos play their next world cup qualifiers in the asian group..we willprobbaly have about 10 or more games which will have huge TV audiences both here and abroard as well as huge crowds... this is their strength moorethan anything.
Bottom line though....is its still a game which often leaves you bored at the result (nil each).... but the excitement of the stakes(world cup) are the main selling points.

 

[dubby]

I thought soccer was a fairy sport, where no one got injured?

It is a fairy sport. Nobody said no-one got hurt. You can get hurt playing hopscotch...

 

[russ13]

It is a fairy sport. Nobody said no-one got hurt. You can get hurt playing hopscotch...

Brain damage is the 'sleeping giant' of a disease for former soccer players.


For example:

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]...While little research has been done with children and adolescents, several studies have shown that adult soccer players have mental deficits measured in many parameters. "No child under the age of 14 should head the ball," cautions Dr. Lyle Micheli, chair of the Sports Medicine Department at Children's Hospital in Boston.
..[/font]
http://www.fi.edu/brain/head.htm

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]National Soccer Team Head Injury - Study[/font]

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A Norwegian study of active and former national soccer team players investigated the incidence of head injuries caused mainly by heading the ball. One-third of the players had central cerebral atrophy, and 81% had mild to severe deficits in attention, concentration, and memory. Players who headed the ball more frequently during competition had higher rates of cognitive loss. 5[/font]

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In 1998, Dutch researchers showed that professional soccer players' performance on memory, planning, and visual-perceptual tasks declined as their number of concussions and frequency of heading the ball increased. 6 Amateur soccer players had similar results: performing significantly more poorly than control athletes on cognitive tests for attention, memory, and planning abilities. 7[/font]

Heading a soccer ball results in head accelerations of less than 10 g (or less than 1000 rad/second2) whereas the minimum values for the development of sport related concussion are 40-60 g (or 3500-5000 rad/second2).3 4 In contrast, head to head contact can generate enough of the forces required to cause brain injury as in any conventional head injury. Recent biomechanical research has found that commercially available soft helmets fail to reduce even this degree of head trauma to a safe level, which implies that these helmets have only a limited protective role in this setting.5

There is no evidence that sustaining several concussions over a sporting career will necessarily result in permanent damage.6 Research on experimental animals provides some supporting evidence against the concept that recurrent concussive injuries alone cause permanent damage. http://www.studentbmj.com/issues/03/10/editorials/351.php

 

[strong_latte]

How does everyone know we'll get belted at the finals? You've suddenly become experts have you? If you had any idea, and weren't just trying to put the game down, you'd see that Australia performance over the two legs was exemplary. Never before has an Aussie team passed another one of the park. Don't try and give sh*t to something you don't understand, you'll have egg on your face in June next year.

Interesting fact: The World Cup has been in existance since the 1930's yet only 7 countries have managed to win it, all of them soccer super powers... I may not be an expert, but excuse me if I think we have f#ck all chance of winning the thing.

P.S Global scale or not, we don't all have to jump on the bandwagon just cause the socceroos have finally managed to get into the cup.

 

[strong_latte]

When the socceroos play their next world cup qualifiers in the asian group..we willprobbaly have about 10 or more games which will have huge TV audiences both here and abroard as well as huge crowds... this is their strength moorethan anything.
Bottom line though....is its still a game which often leaves you bored at the result (nil each).... but the excitement of the stakes(world cup) are the main selling points.

True, there's no other game that see's more draws in which one team has outplayed the other... there's been over 25 draws in the EPL this season already, 10 of them 0-0! You're right, soccers main selling point is whats at stake... other than that I find it a very dull game, as it virtually requires devine intervention for teams to get points on the board.

 

[Raider Ultra]

Where did I say we'd win it? I said there is a great chance we could do well there.

 

[Tommy Smith]

True, there's no other game that see's more draws in which one team has outplayed the other... there's been over 25 draws in the EPL this season already, 10 of them 0-0! You're right, soccers main selling point is whats at stake... other than that I find it a very dull game, as it virtually requires devine intervention for teams to get points on the board.

The fact that you say "points on the baord" shows you obviously dont understand what football is about and hence will never like it. And that's fair enough, each to their own.

0-0 draws can be exciting depending on the numbers of chances created or whats at stake. Sometimes they are boring though. But thats like alll sports in that not all matches are exciting. How many Legaue games were there last year that nearly put you to sleep? I can think of plenty. There were also plenty of great games, just like there are in football.

 

[sunny]

Yep, I'm sure the soccer authorities are quivering in the boots at the thought of strong latte and winnyason's non-attendance at matches:lol: . Given winny's record on here (last time we got into a debate about different football codes on here, he literally threatened to bash someone:lol: ), it's probably for the good of all that he doesn't leave his house, let alone attend a sporting fixture.

 

[strong_latte]

The fact that you say "points on the baord" shows you obviously dont understand what football is about and hence will never like it. And that's fair enough, each to their own.

0-0 draws can be exciting depending on the numbers of chances created or whats at stake. Sometimes they are boring though. But thats like alll sports in that not all matches are exciting. How many Legaue games were there last year that nearly put you to sleep? I can think of plenty. There were also plenty of great games, just like there are in football.

I didn't say the play is of low quality. It's apparent that they are quite skillful, but I just find watching draws so incredibly frustrating in soccer, because one team has more often than not out played the other, but because it is so difficult to score the game still ends as stalemate... In a game of Rugby Union, if a team dominates a game, then even if the opposition has a fantastic defence despite definciencies everywhere else, they can still go for a drop goal worth 3 points to get something for all their hard work. You don't have that in soccer because it's there's only really 1 dimension to scoring.

 

[Hoops]

put it into perspective, australia will never take to the diving sooky stuff for free kicks, how about that black striker checking in the gap in his hands if he gets a free kick.
they get a big crowd every four years let's look at it
nrl(rugby league) about 5 to six games a year over 40 thousand.
rugby about 5 to six as well.
afl a lot proably guessing 10 to 15 a year.
soccer once every four years.

try about 40-50 for AFL

 

[Misty Bee]

Hoops, he said every year.