I have been writing for Sportingo for exactly one year and this is, coincidentally, my 100th article, so I am going to be a little self-indulgent for a while. Approaching this personal milestone and feeling a little introspective, I was looking back through my contributions for inspiration and found something that both surprised and amused me.

In January, I wrote an article that tried to decide the best football code. It was a light-hearted,” fluff” piece comparing all six mainstream football codes. It was a silly bit of fun and was obviously influenced by the fact that I hail from one of the AFL dominated states in Australia. It was largely ignored at the time but, for some reason the article saw a surge in interest over a period of a few days in August. The critics of the piece, mainly Rugby League fans, thought that it was poorly researched and treated their preferred code unfairly. 

Looking back, I stand by what I said in the original piece, but I thought that the comments warranted a response of some kind. There was, I’m pleased to say, a pretty spirited defence of League, but not in a very convincing way. None of the comments espoused the reasons why they considered League to be so superior to AFL, rather they took the easy route and simply attacked AFL.

'Rugby League may well be more international than AFL, but it doesn’t come close to the more broadly based Rugby Union or even cricket, let alone a true world sport like soccer'


What seems to have upset most League fans is the fact that I referred to their players as Neanderthals and that I suggested that their chosen sport was possibly the most violent mainstream sport on the planet. While the Neanderthal quip may have been a bit harsh to our thick-necked friends, the rest of the comment is not actually a criticism - in fact, it's quite the opposite.

Indeed, the physical clashes are a major drawcard of the game and are celebrated and promoted by the NRL itself. The NRL runs both a “Try of the Year” and a “Hit of the Year” competition, showcasing both the skill and physicality of the game. Sports fans everywhere marvel at the ability of League players to dish out and receive punishing hits, usually without serious injury. Rather than shy away from the violence of the sport, the NRL embraces it and uses it as a marketing tool.

The AFL has gone to great lengths to remove the physical contact from the sport and the game is much poorer for it. It is certainly a faster, more skillful game now, but somehow it just doesn't seem the same. Of course, attendance figures continue to skyrocket, so what would I know.

The criticism then moved to AFL rewarding mediocrity by awarding a point for a near miss when scoring. I always find this criticism amusing and it is particularly difficult to defend. On one hand, it is kind of amusing that you get rewarded for being close, but it also helps to prevent frustrating draws. Besides, we AFL fans don’t think of it as a point for missing, we think of it as extra points for being really accurate.

Besides, this criticism is a bit rich coming from a code whose preferred method of scoring is to cross a line 68 metres long and put the ball down anywhere in an area that ranges from 400 to 750 square metres. That’s the size of a suburban house block, in case you were wondering, but it’s the AFL that rewards inaccuracy – right!

The invective then lurched to the internationalism of AFL. While it is true that AFL is played in 20 countries, it is also true that it is dominated by Aussie expats. But the sneering superiority of League fans doesn’t survive close scrutiny. If you were to take the weekly gate attendances of every top level League throughout the world and add them together, they don’t come close to the number of people who go to watch the AFL in Australia alone.

Feel as superior as you like, but it is the fans who are willing to hand over their hard-earned cash that really count in these arguments. And really, even though League is played outside Australia, it isn’t really done very well. See the recent Test against New Zealand and the fact that Australia has won the last six consecutive World Cups and nine out of the 12 to be held, as evidence. Rugby League may well be more international than AFL, but it doesn’t come close to the more broadly based Rugby Union or even cricket, let alone a true world sport like soccer.

The final criticism of AFL football is that it’s played by criminals, indeed one wag referred to AFL as the Australian Felons' League (very clever – really, it made me laugh), but then imagine how much I laughed when Andrew Johns came out and admitted he was a drug addict. Not at Joey himself, understand, he has a problem, but this superiority was exposed for what it was – a hollow joke.

The NRL's Bulldogs, too, are model citizens. That’s probably why extra police were forced to attend their games, to stop overly enthusiastic autograph hunters – riiiiiiight! And let’s not go near the pack-rape allegations from 2004. Yes, the AFL has its bad boys, but let’s not pretend they’re alone.

At the end of the day (to pick a random cliché), Australia is big enough for both sports. Rugby League is the sport of choice for people in New South Wales and Queensland, whereas the rest of us know better and follow AFL. Regardless of where you live, there has to be grudging admiration of the individuals involved, even if it can never be public. Even I’m afraid of angry AFL fans.