Football World Cup - Qatar 2022

Or soccer, as you may call it Down Under - football/footy tends to refer to Aussie No Rules or Fake Rugby I think

Anyway, England and Australia (and Wales) are competing in the very sensibly, non-corruptly selected host country with an unblemished human rights record. The Premier League’s even been put on hold for it. Will this crazy one-off give us a crazy one-off winner, I wonder? Or one of the usual suspects again?

Bring.it.on.

Still laughing at the Italians...

JGK wrote:Still laughing at the Italians...

Yeah, European champions in between two World Cups they failed to qualify for!

I take it you saw today’s rugby result though, was pasta joke for the Wobblies…

The fact that Kiwi Rennie sucks as Wallaby coach just shows a lamp-post could coach the All Blacks and they'd still be dominant.

Meanwhile, the Samoans beat England for a Rugby League World Cup Final spot.

beamer wrote:Or soccer, as you may call it Down Under - football/footy tends to refer to Aussie No Rules or Fake Rugby I think

‘Football’ means AFL here
‘Rugby’ is rugby (union), and would never be referred to here as football
‘League’ - self explanatory and again would never be referred to here as football

And your round ball game is often called soccer here, or ‘the round ball game’, or ‘the world games ... except by first generation immigrants, who will call it football, and Invader Zim, who disparages it as ’gayball’.

Phurt, spoken like a true Tozzie.

In Sydney, "going to/watching the Footy" very much means going to/watching a Rugby League game. It is the dominant football code on Sydney and Brisbane. Only a Vomit/Soz/Toz or Woz would claim "Football" ONLY refers to Aussie Rules. "Melbourne" arrogance in the extreme.

Lived in Queensland for 15 years and never once heard either rugby code referred to as 'football'.

Nor in 2 years Sydney - it was always 'rugby' or 'league' ... and if you ever got the two confused, you betrayed your out of state origin

Selective hearing.

I can assure you, phrases like "looking forward to the footy this weekend" and "great game of footy last night" are regularly spoken during the "footy season" in Qld and NSW. Footy being Rugby League.

Anyway, a tad pompous of you, old fruit, to make a statement on behalf of a country when you can only claim to represent a one rabid half of the population.

Been around the various states a bit more than you, though. Have you ever listened outside NSW?

But fair dos, I may never have encountered any of those who 'go to the footy' in Sydney.

The crowd figures suggest that there aren't many of them, so give us a break ...

Anyway, back to “footy” as the rest of the world (bar Yankland) knows it…

Opening game in a week’s time, heavyweight clash… yeah, Qatar v Ecuador. Good luck selling that one, broadcasters. England take on Iran in the Group of War opener a day later.

lardbucket wrote:Been around the various states a bit more than you, though.  Have you ever listened outside NSW?

Population of NSW = 8.2 million. Population of Qld = 5.2 million. About half of the population of Aus. I'm a regular in both states. So I reckon I have some idea.

I have been to Vic and Tas numerous times (and even SA on 3 or 4 occasions) but got very bored with the 15 pages from the back of all newspapers being filled with the religion of AFL.

Perhaps I'm a little more working class than you.

"Friday night is a great night for football"

was the theme song for the Channel 9 Friday night NRL game back in the 90s when the replay was shown in woz just after kebab oclock on a Saturday morning

which im pretty sure they nicked off the seppoes Monday night football

skully wrote:

lardbucket wrote:Been around the various states a bit more than you, though.  Have you ever listened outside NSW?

Population of NSW = 8.2 million. Population of Qld = 5.2 million. About half of the population of Aus. I'm a regular in both states. So I reckon I have some idea.

I have been to Vic and Tas numerous times (and even SA on 3 or 4 occasions) but got very bored with the 15 pages from the back of all newspapers being filled with the religion of AFL.

Perhaps I'm a little more working class than you.

I was talking about residency and immersion - not touristic visits. I think you knew that but weren't keen to engage.

Shouldn't you be comparing the AFL and league match attendances and memberships (actual following) rather than the total populations of these states? Does the total attendance of all League games in any given winter weekend regularly exceed the attendance across the AFL football matches in the same state?

I believe there are three League matches a year that are worth watching ... and I watch them, but I prefer the football.

So you have to be a member of a club or attend a game to use a shorter nickname for your favourite winter sport??

Man, you really are keen to trademark "Football" as exclusive to AFL, aren't you?? Typical rabid AFLness.

You're wrong. Full stop. Stop erroneously trying to tell NSW and Qld fans that they don't and can't call Rugby League "Football".

As for AFL games worth watching, there's just one.









[Awaits sneery post about Cats superb victory in AFL GF]

Anywho, as beams says, this is about the real Football World Cup. So let's see many great games and fantastic goals.

skully wrote:Stop erroneously trying to tell NSW and Qld fans that they don't and can't call Rugby League "Football"

I didn't! BUT there are far more football (AFL) fans in Australia than League fans (check the match attendances and TV audience numbers if you doubt me), so MOSTLY when you hear someone in Australia say 'football', they mean AFL. I expect the site called BigFooty is so named for a reason.

Dubbers and a few Billies (and even fewer League fans in other states in other states) can and should call all codes whatever they like, but they'll be in the minority overall when they call League 'footy'. I commend you to Wiki or a Google search for a reality check.

But back on track - I'm also looking forward to watching some of the games in the 'soccer' / world game / round ball World Cup, mainly to support Australia's efforts there, although I don't watch any of the club games here or in the UK (or anywhere) ... insufficient interest. At 63 that's not likely to change. Go the Socceroos.

Only in the rabid states. I commend you to do Voxpops all over western Qld, where they will fly for hours to watch their beloved Cows or Nags because they are "footy sluts" as they refer to themselves.

You made a bullshit statement, poo-pooed my referring to half the population of Aus (NSW and Qld) using the term footy to refer to Rugby League, then try to use the same argument about population but only for members and attendees. An obtuse argument in the extreme.

You can pompously go on claiming YOUR favourite sport is Australia's "football" but I don't see a Footy World Cup currently being played for Aussie Rules, as there are for Rugby League and Football (soccer).

And I reckon fans of the number one participation football code in Australia (soccer) would also heartily disagree with your views on which code in Aus is "football".

Let is go, mate. You've started a silly argument with an incorrect statement and stubbornly refuse to accept that you are wrong. AFL insularity is tedious.

AFL may be "Football" in some states, but it ain't in others. Simple.

Calling other games 'football' will always be one of my fave ways of winding up AFL numpties with relevance anxiety

Perhaps Mrbucket's motive all along was to stir a debate.

If so, congrats to him and much kudos. If not and he is genuine in his insular view re: footy and AFL, then he falls into your numpty category, Nerkles.

I'd like to take some issue with you over the '15 pages of AFL news' in the Melbourne papers...for a start, that is only true in one case (the other these days struggles to find enough news of all categories to fill 15 pages in between Harvey Norman ads), and secondly, there may be 15 pages of material where the names of AFL teams and prominent AFL identities are very prominent - but of those 15 pages, about 0,67 of one page is 'news' - the rest is made up of roughly half the opinions of Cornes, Kingy and Robbo et al and the other half clubs' predictably territorial reaction to said opinions. Which makes for tough times for Melb sports followers when the start of the Test season is delayed - so tough I actually watched last night's circus from first ball to last.

Mea Culpa. For "news" substitute "stuff".

Or even better, in recall of Dame Nellie Melba: "muck"!
Not that the AFL would see anything except more evidence of its mind-blowing 'bigness' in this ability to generate junk media.

Only one bloke getting personal in here. Talk about a Llap Goch response to a bit of gentle prod....

Suggest you read the posts again with your eyes open!

Standing by my analysis that the MAJORITY of football supporters, Australia-wide, are supporters of AFL. It’s not just the rabid Viles Dizzies and Wozzies, with a few Tozzies, but very substantial mobs across Brisbane, Logan, the Gold Coast, Western Sydney, and Southern NSW are predominantly AFL-focused. A few poshos in Manly, the insular peninsula, and Sydney’s Northern suburbs may well feel that League is football, but for decades they have failed to turn up and the Sydney Swans are now one of the most popular AFL clubs in terms of membership, and easily the most popular football club (any denomination) in the city in terms of membership. No League club in Sydney comes close to its membership numbers, most have embarrassingly small crowds on a weekly basis.

All good for the post count, this ‘argument’, skully!