stoush.net

I don’t need to crow over league or AFL, they are here to stay. But I agree with you soccer can be a national code for us in a way the others aren’t. I had a little spray about where I think soccer stands at my blog this morning.

If SBS didn’t have the #1 spot I would call for a complete change of ratings supplier. Good work.

Shame the Origin lost 300,000 people but I know a few sideline observers who were so involved in soccer they completely forgot it was on or were catching a nap before the WC starts at 11.00pm.

Look for a bounce for SOO3 - particularly as more Victorians will watch. The Socceroos will hopefully make the next round and a kind draw could see them with another 11pm timeslot and an even bigger audience. Given the toughness of Croatia and our sordid football past I have inner demons taking tickets to shout at me that we will fluff this :o(

I need more coffee after watching this mornings game! I need someone to teach Harry how to kick low. WE COULD HAVE WON YOU NIT! Don’t worry, I still love you though :P

What a morning.

Exceptional stuff from the Australians.

Our readers had earlier picked Brazil in overwhleming numbers.

But dispite this, Australia kept its shape, were tactically very disciplined. It was only Brazil’s overwhelming individual technique and star-power in Adriano and Kaka that threatened us.

That is a little bit misleading Liam. In an earlier fairfax article, it had been clearly shown that in NSW and QLD, where the game was played live, SOO outrated soccer significantly.

I thought it was a little bit of an embarassment for soccer to only get those numbers. Given its lack of regionality, the non-stop promotion, the kind sympathising English editors, the prestige of the tournament etc. etc. one might have concluded that soccer was going to kill all and that would have been accepted. I mean how many more articles in the newspapers would there have been on the WC than on Origin? Probably outnumbered it at least 20-1, and it still lost easily to SOO.

Maybe viewers were scared off by the 1-0 bore-a-thon victories.

Socceroos better get that draw or Australian soccer will be in a big worry..

patrick - get your hand off it tiger. when a rugby league match is shown in an 11pm to 1am timeslot and gets figures like that, then get back to us. as it stands, i think SBS were hailing it as the biggest audience for something at that time of night ever, full stop, and nobody was disputing it.

1-0 bore-a-thons? last night in the croatia japan match i swear i’ve never been so thrilled to see a nil-all draw. and then the australia brazil match was a belter. tight and tough, with a bit of shoddy refereeing (but hey, it’s the world cup… notice though that nobody’s making a point about the referee’s nationality? he was bodgy, but being german and white it’s no biggy apparently…) but generally a great contest. which SOO wasn’t, it’s fair to say.

and next time you want to complain about media bias against rugby league, consider the fact that until very recently, you’d be very lucky to see any football coverage within 10 pages of the back page, buried behind the fishing report and hidden in a corner next to the vice-regal announcements.

so people are paying more attention to the world cup than state of origin? makes sense - 64 games vs 3. 32 nations vs part of one. a tradition going back to 1930 (but really 1950 was the birth of the modern world cup) compared to 1980. once every four years vs annual. the absolute peak of a sport played by more people than any other (this is not so much a ‘popularity’ argument, more a ‘demographic inevitability’ argument) vs a sideshow in a sport that is a minority sport pretty much everywhere.

i love state of origin, i remember hating wally lewis with a passion, hating steve renouf even more (especially as a dragons supporter who watched him put us to the sword in the premiership and origin), and i love the first ten minutes of ever game where they all leave their self-preservation in the dressing room and it’s on like donkey kong, but nothing compares to the world cup.

the asian cup is going to be like a mini version of the same thing too, every few years. then there’s the asian champions league. then there’s all the womens tournaments too, plus those for the juniors.

i don’t really want it to ‘replace’ other codes, just complement them. football may not ‘take over’ from the other sports but it’s going to be at the table for a while yet. like it or not.

Partick, live State of Origin does have the advantage of being on just after dinner-time, while you have to compromise viewing of the World Cup with your ability to turn up to work on time or sleep.
Misleading is as misleading argues.

And Dibo, you’re right about Japan-Croatia. Wow!

what’s that about lack of Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….

sorry…

i did manage to snatch a coupla hours this morning and had a brief nap yesterday after playing, but i’m so rooted it’s not even funny…

That is a little bit misleading Liam. In an earlier fairfax article, it had been clearly shown that in NSW and QLD, where the game was played live, SOO outrated soccer significantly.

but patrick! i’m confused! i thought fairfax were the sworn enemy of rugby league football? i thought they’d be doing anything in their power to hide such encouraging (to the ARL) figures as that (and i’m sure their likely mentioning of the fact that league gets buried in midnight slots down there was a similar abberration)!

Quite right Dibo, they are biased. The headline was a negative one to RL and it was placed in the RL section.

a tradition going back to 1930 (but really 1950 was the birth of the modern world cup) compared to 1980

Please!

Read this.

The Rugby League World Cup sprang from French initiatives, who, had since 1935 been campaigning for a Rugby League World Cup. The idea was further pursued in 1951, post-war France, the pioneer of the concept was Paul Barriere, the President of the French Rugby League. In January 1952 the idea gained momentum. Rugby Football League secretary Bill Fallowfield persuaded the Rugby League Council to support the concept. At a meeting held in Blackpool, England, November 1953, the International Board accepted Paul Barrie’s proposal that France should be the nation to host the inaugural Rugby League World Cup. The first World Cup was held the following year, with Great Britain defeating France to claim the title.

hold your horses son! i was clearly talking about SOO. but if we’re going to talk about a world cup where one nation will win it each time barring flukes by one of two other nations, then fire away. audiences, attendances, participation, media interest… do tell! :D

Dibo the French are returning. They only lot by two points to NZ last year and stayed with Australia for most of their past two games against Australia. Wales is also developing well which will make them a competitive threat at the next World Cup.

Media interest means nothing more than the perverted voyeuristic delusions of the school teachers.

Curiously, you will read it here first. I am betting on the GB RL team to blindside Australia and New Zealand in this years Tri-Nations and win. Odds are decent for this, as their squad is developing well.

Woo hoo! Soccer won the ratings. I wish the lads in Germany well and hope the make the second round but this talk of soccer being the new national sport is premature.

When the ratings figures can be sustained over the years and not during the world cup then that will be the test of soccer’s popularity. Given this is the first time in 30 odd years we have made it to the finals no wonder the ratings are high.

How do you think an international against Japan shown in the wee hours will rate in 2007?

Especially when it is only on foxtel.

that (the foxtel thing) is going to be a pretty serious problem. but i think regular matches that actually matter will have a really positive effect on football here. when we play japan, sth korea, china, iran, saudis etc… we’re going to be up for tough matches and they will be for something. competitive matches that are part of a larger campaign. it’s going to make the cook cup or tri-nations or whatever seem a little pedestrian i think, just because the permutations and so on are so much greater and it’s also something that will have genuine nation-wide interest (as in there are relatively very strong bases in pretty much every capital).

the foxtel problem could be solved pretty easily by protecting FTA access to national team matches by placing them on the anti-siphoning list. i think there is sufficient national interest to warrant considering them events with a protected status within the tv market.

My understanding was that O’Neil had sold them as part of the 20 million dollar a year deal to pay t.v. along with the A-League.

correct. the problem is now that as opposed to say, the match we played away against bahrain that screened at about 3am and which i was able to watch from the comfort of my bed on SBS, that those matches will only be shown on fox.

i don’t have fox in my flat. i can’t get fox in my flat. therefore, even if i was willing to fork over the $50 or so i would need to watch the ‘roos matches, i can’t and am stuck with watching it at a pub or something. not cool, especially as the asian qualifiers are on weeknights.

if the national team matches went onto the anti-siphoning list, then SBS or whoever could pick them up and i could watch them at home.

it’s important that especially kids have access to the national team matches, especially now that there will be more of them and meaningful ones at that. how else are they meant to develop a feel for the game if they can’t see us playing at the top level unless they’re in one of the 25% of houses with foxtel?

Monomania is about to end.

No will anymore.

I know there is a bias occurring against RL. Any person with open eyes and a good mind can see it.

But… I really cannot be bothered to care. On an equal playing field RL will beat any other sport.

That is how I know that Sydney has the best taste in the world.

I am much more concerned from now on about going to the football and talking football. I do not care if soccer people try to steal that word because they will never be able to steal it from me.

Yes it is offensive the extent of coverage that is given to AFL but who cares. The supporters have to watch that game be slowly strangled by soccer.

So with no assignments involving the internet remaining, I say

Goodbye all.

Dibo.

Get a new apartment and get FOX.

Oh, and bye Patrick.

RL indeed. A sport invented by Pommie capital bosses to keep their workers fit and vent their violence without letting them play the Gentleman’s game of Union.

NFL without the girly pads. More than half the sports-loving nation couldn’t give a rat’s distended date for it.

And yes, I DO understand the rules, I HAVE been to a game (2 - both close and hard) and yes, the atmosphere WAS exciting. But given the choice, I’d rather watch any team ball sport I can think of. Soccer, AFL, Union. Even baseball.

Lacrosse.

Handball.

Gridiron. There, I said it.

Hippys and Thatcherisms, the cause of all evil in the modern world.

dunno, as i’m not sure i’ve ever seen you on here before. welcome to the stoush, and thanks for the laugh.

“ASADA chief executive Richard Ings said that no NRL player had tested positive or was the subject of a current investigation - but he would not comment when asked whether charges were pending against a player from a minor league.”

Why the hell is there any focus on football as opposed to soccer with drug scandals than?

It was as galling as when the Herald attempted to link the Italian soccer scandal with the NRL instead of soccer.

“http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,20230731-23214,00.html

Why the hell is the Herald not running this?

Herald is so biased now I am going to discontinue having anything to do with it. I am sure this is a mutual sentiment.

It is a strange day when the Telegraph becomes a higher quality of journalism than the Herald but it has happenned.

Headlines about Ian Thorpe becoming “fat”, headlines about “another black day for league” have done it for me.

I am sick of this.

Bizarrely enough, Patrick, I agree with you on this one entirely and unreservedly.
Recreational cocaine use is in no way a ‘drug scandal’—the NRL and Herald should come back once they’ve got some actual drug cheats instead of some silly bugger who didn’t read the provisions in his contract.

Well yes, I saw the headline behind a huge promotional section for the soccer. Just a glance no more.

Anyhow I noticed an unmissable syringe.

Seeing that there is allegations of cocaine and marijuana, I could not make sense of it.

Is there anything about the new A-League which is not an English import?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Hill

Can you believe this guy had the gall to comment on Australia’s greatest sporting moment.

This guy had the gall to spit on Sydney’s culture and call soccer football.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/oakley-appointed-heralds-new-editor/2005/09/26/1127586785726.html

Feel free to add further English immigrants or English educated people on from this but I am beginning to get the sniff of a foreign imperialist culture. I predict the A-League will in the end go the way of basketball.