Rob Reacts to... The Barassi Line Explained: A country split by sporting loyalty 

I live in Wagga NSW and you can see the Barassi Line also called the Beer Line here. Not so much today but 30 years ago pubs north of Wagga had Sydney beer and South of Wagga had Victorian beer. Wagga is basically halfway between Melbourne and Sydney and it's where beer and footy codes meet. Many people play Aussie Rules on Saturday and League on Sunday.

Aussie Rules fan well southwest of the Barassi line here. I don't hate Rugby league, I just don't give a stuff about it and tend to ignore it. You can almost physically make out a dividing line through rural NSW - many towns in the west have a strong Aussie rules culture that switches sharply to league through the western plains and the northern NSW Darling river.

In my 20s I went on holiday with some friends up to Jervis Bay (effectively NSW coast), and we played a game of pool in the pub one night with some locals. Someone asked me what my favourite footy team was and I answered “Collingwood”. These guys looked at each other gobsmacked and said “AFL?” like I’d insulted him. It was an eye opener for both parties.

real reason is media southern nsw got victorian television and melb radio and so no throwball coverage in those areas

Rob growing up in Victoria I had never heard of rugby league but since the AFL kept changing the rules to the point that it's not the game I knew (especially the interchange rule) there is hardly any fatigue in the game, now I follow Melbourne Storm to watch a more honest sport (very limited interchange) where you see that players do get fatigued and the smaller men come into their own.

The Sydney/Melbourne rivalry thing is very real and goes back a long time. in 1803, the colony of New South Wales attempted a settlement on Port Phillip Bay (on which Melbourne is now situated). They sent a group of soldiers and convicts by ship. Unfortunately, they chose a site on the Mornington Peninsula, at what is now Sorrento (ironically an expensive holiday town), which had no reliable water source and the endeavour failed. I believe that from that time, people in Sydney regarded the Port Phillip region in general, and subsequently Melbourne in particular, as a barren wasteland. Free settlers in northern Tasmania decided that they wanted to settle Port Phillip but they were denied permission by the Governor of New South Wales. They had to appeal to the Privy Council in London to gain permission. They eventually settled the area. The antipathy of the government in NSW to settlement of Port Phillip was only lifted When the settlers proposed land sales, suddenly the New South Welshmen sniffed the opportunity to make a pound and they decided that they should run the land sales. I believe that since that time, Melburnians have always seen Sydneysiders as money hungry. The rift probably became more intense when, almost immediately after separation of the colony of Victoria from NSW, gold was discovered in Victoria (makes you wonder if the find had been kept secret until separation occurred) and the government of NSW must have realised they has missed literally a golden opportunity to further enrich themselves. I am a surgeon and have worked in Melbourne and Sydney. I think a good barometer of a place is the banter that occurs in operating theatre tea rooms. In Melbourne, the dominant topic is often sport in general and AFL in particular. In Sydney, at least among the doctors (I sensed less mixing of craft groups, such as doctors, nurses and technicians, in conversations in Sydney than Melbourne), it seemed often to revolve around the latest method of minimising tax or some business opportunity.

I grew up in Melbourne, and was going to the footy from about age 5. When I lived in NSW and QLD, I followed the NRL, as there was virtually no AFL available on the telly. When I returned to Victoria, my love of AFL just grew and grew, as let's face it, it's the better spectacle.

I’m from Tasmania and grew up with AFL. When I was about 30 I visited the UK for the first time. When I arrived at my cousin’s house in St Albans he was just about to sit down to watch a game of rugby on TV. I said I’d be more than happy to watch it with him as I’d never seen a rugby match before. He was gobsmacked and couldn’t believe there were Aussies who didn’t know about rugby. It was from him I learnt that there were two rugby codes, and he also got an education in AFL 🙂

Yea rob with my school in Brisbane its a bit different like the 2 big sports are actually cricket and football (soccer). but interestingly most of my friends liked AFL more.

Thanks for reacting to the video! I should clarify that I definitely agree that footy/football is not rugby and personally when I refer to footy or football I’m talking about Aussie rules. I just used the term rugby football in the video to be more technical about its origins

Generally speaking, one-eyed Australian Rules followers are indifferent towards rugby league, whereas league diehards are outright hostile towards Australian Rules. I'm sure this comments section will eventually tell that tale.

When I went to school in Emerald, central Queensland, we played Aussie Rules football on fridays phys ed.

Rugby Union was the top sport in Western Australia up until the 1880s and there was resistance of clubs against Victorian Rules being adopted. But people were changing their opinions as they travelled over east and saw it as a better game to watch and play.

Agree. NRL (Rabbitohs) supporter but I've always asked myself 'how can this be football?'. Although hand ball doesn't really suit the game. Thugball? I was surprised by the amount of league supporters there are in Perth especially, Adelaide also had a core group of league supporters, mainly in the southern and noth eastern suburbs. Country NSW, especially the Riverina districts are probably more AFL.

I'm a fan of both sports but AFL is the fourth highest average attended domestic sports league in the world

Fun fact - With the possible exemption of Gaelic Football , Aussie Rules ( AFL ) is the only Football code where no players are allowed to throw the ball.

The influx of Pacific Islanders & Kiwis to Australia is prolonging the NRL's existence here. I think it's now 50% PI's now in the NRL. The Indigenous game AFL is the dominant sport & always will be in Austalia

I’ve never heard of this line but it’s a great visual depicting the truth! I grew up in country NSW and had never even heard of AFL until I was about 19 and moved to Sydney. I decided early in life that league players were a bunch of thugs so discovering AFL was a dream come true! I know you don’t agree but footy is just a slang shortening like barbie, toastie, brekky, sunnies, cocky (cockatoo) etc so Australians can use the term as a shortening for football, whatever football means to them. We make the rules here Rob 😂 lol😅

Well I'm from Queensland and I follow the AFL. I don't care about the line lol.

AFL is far more popular overall than rugby league, just look at crowd numbers, memberships and overall spread and influence. AFL are moving to a Tasmanian team soon and will be considering another 20th team to balance it out. Rugby league is a minnow sport compared to AFL.

Should be remembered it was called Victorian Ruiles at first, then later Australian Rules Football after Australia become a nation early in new century. So I have no doubt it actually was the Victorian and New South Wales rivalry that lead to NSW not taking to heart the actual sport that was unique to this nation. Of course later generations in NSW just followed what their early generation did out of familiarity and habit. The Barassi line is just a name for rough guide where it turns from Aussie Rules territory to Rugby territory. I think of Wagga Wagga in NSW as where rugby starts and anywhere east of there I see as Rugby world and anywhere west and south of Wagga Wagga is mostly Aussie Rules footy territory. Basically an hour over Victorian border into NSW is basically rugby territory. Culturally you can feel the difference in Sydney. It is another world there. I just feel like it not even a sporting city because they do not follow footy there. I mean I am sure the soccer followers in England are more passionate about following their soccer club than Sydney siders are following their rugby club. I think of Melbourne and English cities as similar tribal feel for their clubs. That why their so many clubs in Melbourne and same for soccer clubs in your premier league. I just do not think rugby in Sydney rates anywhere near in terms of followed with passion and attendence like soccer does overseas and Aussie Rules does in the only fair dinkum Aussie states here. There, I said it. NSW and Queensland are not fair dinkum Aussie states.... 😜

Early Aussie Rules was not as dissimilar from Rugby as it is today (a lot less less kicking and catching, more of a rolling maul etc.). It may have seemed in the 19th C like playing variations on similar sports. As a Tasmanian growing up, I was barely even aware that Rugby existed. It was never mentioned on the sport report at the end of the news etc.

The problem with Sydney is it’s as shallow as a birdbath. If the game had been NSW Rules then there would be no divide. Sydney’s fear and hatred of Melbourne is ridiculous. But can comfort themselves by watching a game (Rugby League) that is as useless a a rugby league scrum.

Living in Brisbane, all my friends like both games, we go to the Gabba to watch the Lions and we'll go to Lang Park and watch the Broncos or State of Origin (NSW vs QLD). So I think the divide is non existent now, they are both great games, the average crowd size for last year at the Gabba was 30,000 per game, the average crowd size for the Broncos at Lang Park last year was 29,500.

AFL in Perth

A big thing in NSW QLD is the division of the Rugby codes. There is no geographic division. It's toffs for Union and working class for League. AFL has no class division. Toffs and bogans play together.

AFL is definitely more popular in the part of NSW that borders Victoria. When I first visited around there I was expecting to see NRL and NSW beers but it was all AFL and CUB beers. I guess it makes sense with Melbourne being closer than Sydney.

Agree on your saying Rugby is not football. Rugby and gridirion in USA are both throw ball. Or just different version of British Bulldogs

This video had been recommended in my feed for a while and I hadn't got around to watching it, so this was perfect timing. Gold rushes had a lot to with how things panned out (pun intended) as well. In the 1880s, Melbourne was one of the wealthiest cities on Earth on the back of gold discovery, and they were brimming with the confidence to think that they could innovate in all sorts of ways, sport included. New South Wales was more old school and traditional. But the West Australian gold rush in the 1890s had a lot to do with why Aussie Rules became their dominant sport. The game had already spread to South Australia via Victoria, so it was only natural that those who came east from interstate to try their luck in Coolgardie etc would bring the game with them. By the 1930s, many Victorian clubs were scouting SA and WA for talent, not least of which South Melbourne, who adopted the nickname the Swans because they had just so many Western Australian players in their team (the black swan being the symbol of WA -- and also that nearby Albert Park Lake in South Melbourne had swans in it). And yes, rugby is not football, and neither is American Gridiron. There are only three forms of football that I know of: traditional football (soccer), Aussie Rules and Gaelic Football. Yet Australian Rules and Gaelic Rules are the only two of the three where a goal can only be scored by kicking the ball.

I'm an AFL fan across the Barassi Line. AFL definitely has a fair few fans. The introduction of the women's league shouldn't be underestimated in terms of broadening the appeal of AFL across the Barassi Line as well.

Rugby league or union is most definitely "football". "Football" is just an umbrella term for sports that descend from an ancestral form of team sport involving a ball played on foot as opposed to on horseback in the medieval days.

I'm in Sydney, and the majority of the people would struggle to name more than 1 current AFL player.

When I watch AFL and NRL on TV, I spend multiple times estimating the number of people in the stands. Very few in Rugby codes and full to overflowing in AFL stadiums. Telling isn't it?!

From Melbourne, I wouldn't say we "hate" NRL, it's just that nobody is interested in it. I think most of the Rugby fanbase down here depends on demographic, a lot of Kiwi's and Fijians/Pacific Islanders are more into it I'd say (in Melbourne). I mean, I live near a Rugby pitch and noticed the demographics of who the players are. I think AFL is more popular in NSW and QLD than NRL is in Victoria for sure, but NRL is still king in those two states and likely always will be.

I live in QLD but born in NT I grew up with AFL and NRL

AFL is so much more fast paced and exciting. I may watch the NRL final every 3or 4 years, but love AFL and watch and follow it regularly.

I went to a regular high school in Warwickshire, the school played union, kids wanting to play soccer had to do so outside of school. The argument for rugby was that by having 17 in the team as opposed to 12 for soccer, it enabled more kids to ply for the schol. Obviously playing both would have enabled even more to take part.

I'm Victorian and I love both, but NRL is a recent addition(about 6 years ago), whereas I grew up on AFL. The Barassi line is very much still real, but starting to be brought down slowly. It helps when State of Origins are played on the AFL side and when AFL Finals are played on the NRL side.

It’s the marker showing where AFL is mainly not played & where Rugby League is , Ron Barassi drew it up on a drunken road trip in the 70’s.

Yes, it's true! I grew up in Tasmania, t never saw a Rugby match in Tasmania, but AFL was played in every suburb and schoolground! Before the gold rush brought people and prosperity, Victoria was administered by Launceston,Tasmania the connection remained! Many Tasmanian players joined the VFL/AFL! My father moved to Sydney but kept up his strong interest in AFL, despite the distance and Rugby bias! Soccer was big is Hobart too, with a large European population! When the new Sydney Swans became successful, it gave him a much more active social life! Athletic excellence vs blue collar thuggery? 🤔

“Football” is an umbrella term: Association football American football Canadian football College football Australian football Gaelic football Rugby league Rugby union Football is religion. What you follow is largely determined by where you grew up.

I'm Taswegian and AFL through and through. My brother left for Brisbane over 10 years ago, he played Aussie Rules down here as a junior. But when we talk it's obvious that the culture has got to him and he often refers to NRL games i.e. State Of Origin. I say he should extract the digit and get to some Brisbane games. Afterall there's a connection, our cousin played several years for FITZROY in the late 80's. Ahh.. I dunno...

I'm English (from Sunderland) and have a membership for Fremantle docker's but also support the Penrith Panthers in the NRL. I guess Perth is that far from the line we've never heard of it 😂

Learning about this has given me perspective on that extra resentment of fans when a team from the wrong side of the line wins the GF.

Ruby league in Sydney has always been a Catholic/working class game. I don't hate AFL, i jump on the band wagon when the Swan are winning.

Sorry Rob, but you can't arbitrarily declare what other people can call football. Well you can, but its meaningless. If there's an overwhelmingly dominant code, then its called football, no matter if you're in Manchester, Minneapolis or Melbourne. In North Queensland, there is basically one code, and its called... football. In any case, the term football was originally used to differentiate a game from one played on horseback, no matter whether the players touch the ball with their hands or not. So unless the rugby players have changed the rules, or laws, to make it more like polo, then its a form of football.

Narrator is wrong I believe. I grew up with Sat Night Rugby League on tv @ prime time - 6.40-7.30pm maybe. … I HATED IT! The players were non de script usually ugly thick legged & thicker necked stunted humans with ugly uniforms and a penchant (rules of the game) for group hugs & sado masocistic tendencies like chewing on the other teams ears & the TV Callers of the same show gave me headaches EVERY SHOW. I eventually walked away from parent time & played records in my room instead. The same father who religiously watched this horrific sport weekly ALSO took me with him to AFL games held in Brisbane with visiting AFL Vic TEAMS ( I remember seeing Collingwood a couple of times). They are brilliant memories & AFL is DEF my choice of football.

I'm in Sydney and follow AFL...but I grew up in Adelaide. NSW is very much a Rugby League state, though - so few people follow AFL in comparison.

Living in Sydney I follow the Knights and the Roosters in the NRL, the Swans in the AFL and the Waratahs in the Union. I’d rather consume the buffet rather than the set menu.

He clearly made that name up,I've never heard of it but it's 💯 Correct

Yeah there was a rivalry between Victoria and New South Wales during the 1850s after Victoria split from NSW and then the gold rush started. When Aussie rules football started NSW didn't want to play a Victorian game and instead adopted rugby. Today the AFL is the more dominant than rugby league with the Swans and Giants in Sydney and the Lions and Suns in Queensland and those states do have people playing Aussie rules. Sadly rugby league is still only played in NSW and Queensland there is the Melbourne Storm in the NRL but there isn't any Victorians playing for them as there is no strong rugby league competition outside NSW and Queensland. In the 90s there was a team in Western Australia and South Australia the Perth Reds and the Adelaide Rams but that was during the Super league war where the rugby league competition split in 2 (the ARL and Super league). When they came back together in 1998 to form the NRL they cut those teams from the competition.

i live in victoria and i prefer afl. i have tried to watch the nrl a couple of times and its alright, but nothing can beat the afl for me

There's also note on Australian colonial imperialism and sport here. PNG was basically a colony of QLD after WW1 after the Germans were kicked out and League was established as the dominant sport. Meanwhile, the tiny Pacific island of Nauru was a Victorian colony for it phosphate resources. Therefore Aussie Rules is huge there.

As someone who grew up in Brisbane in the 60s, I always knew about Aussie Rules, as it was played in the state league (QFL) games a long time before the AFL expanded into Qld. However, I played Rugby League from primary school to my senior year in high school, but I never disliked Aussie Rules as such. What I did dislike was NSW stealing all our Qld players in the RL when we played interstate games - at least, until they created the State of Origin games in the 1980s. I think some of the interest in RL came from going to watch Australia play Great Britain at Lang Park in the 60s. Having international competition raises the interest to the next level, which still continues to the current day. Although I rarely watch the game these days, because of all the betting ads and apps corrupting the sport.

I’m Victorian and Australian Rules Football is in my blood, I follow the Brisbane Lions however (strong family history tied to Fitzroy) and know from my support of the club that they do it harder than the Vic clubs due to their location in hostile territory but things are improving year on year. I’ve personally never even considered following Rugby of any type but I do respect the Melbourne Storm

The world map at 3:19 surprised me, as a Kiwi we share our love of rugby with PNG, but we seem to be the only two nations on earth, I really thought South Africa would've been in there to.

I live in Australia and didn't know we played Rugby in Australia at all until I went to NZ. There's 0 exposure to Rugby outside of the those two states.

G'day Rob. A bit late to comment on this video, but here goes. First, a bit of history. Back in the 1870's, when the football codes were becoming organised and administrative bodies were formed to run competitions, Australia as a nation did not exist. We were 6 separate colonies and yes, there really was that competitiveness, naysay disdain, for the other colonies, especially between NSW and Victoria, or more particularly, Sydney and Melbourne. Victorian Rules, as it was known back then, would have been looked down upon within NSW. In both NSW and Queensland private and independent schools adopted Rugby Union as the code of choice, and it still pretty much is to this day. It was the prospect of inter-colonial matches with NSW that helped to sway Queensland to adopting Rugby Union as the preferred code. Re Rugby League, the take up of the game here was exactly for the same reason as in England, the fact that NSW Rugby Union refused to compensate players injured playing the game for any time off work, as they felt it went against their amateur status. After the 1907 season clubs broke away to for Rugby League clubs, deciding to adopt the Northern League rules, and the Sydney comp started in 1908, Brisbane in 1909 and Newcastle in 1910. Almost immediately the game grew to be bigger that Union. Fun fact, there was a Perth team, the Western Reds, in what was the ARL (Australian Rugby League) comp from 1995-1996, then Super League in 1997. After the Super League war was resolved the Western Reds were a casualty of the peace negotiations which was a shame, as I believe Perth would have been able to support a League team as well as Melbourne have with the Storm.

Correct Rugby is throwball

Yes true. In 1908 the 1st boss NSWRL want tame back in 1908 because he could see a tame from will last. He got his 90 yrs he get his wish

Grew up in country NSW and have followed/played both AFL and NRL. Have a preference to the NRL due the the physicality though marvel at some of the AFL player’s athletes. If you’re a sport fan and you’re head space is stuck in old stupid generalisation you are really missing out on some amazing sport in australia.

The reasons he gave are largely wrong. Sydney and Brisbane are both older than Melbourne and there was limited movement between the colonies due to the lack of transport infrastructure. Both these cities developed their own football cultures and by the time Australian football spread to Sydney and Brisbane rugby was already established. Due to disagreements over payment to players most clubs in Sydney chose to adopt the newly formed Rugby League rules followed by Brisbane a few years later, making league the dominant form of Rugby in Australia. QLD also was part of NSW until 1859 so that was also a factor. NSW, QLD and the ACT make up more than 50% of Australia’s population and NRL tends to get higher tv ratings overall than AFL, which instead dominates match attendance. Australian football is generally more popular in NSW, QLD and ACT than Rugby League is elsewhere which kind of evens things out. Rugby League has a longer term problem in that it’s player base is collapsing due to kids not taking up the game in the same numbers as years gone by and aren’t following the NRL with the same enthusiasm as previous generations. The fan base is ageing with the average NRL fan now in their 50’s and junior leagues are shrinking. The perceived violence of the sport and risk of injury is turning parents off sending their kids to junior league and the shift of immigration to those from Asian backgrounds means that these parents, who make up an increasing proportion of young families have no connection to or interest in Rugby League. Junior soccer numbers are however booming and Rugby League is in danger of being supplanted by soccer in the future as the dominant sport of NSW & QLD. Despite the propaganda of those in the AFL states, their sport will never become #1 on the other side of the line- it’s just not in the culture of these states.

The main reason Aussie rules is not dominant is due to most of the headmasters and other leading lights in Qld/NSW from 1880 to early 1920's were born in England (and were snobs) and looked down on the colonial game. Victoria and other sates were far more independent minded and less conservative and not looking backwards to the old country for approval.

Should be noted, Ron Barrassi himself saved the Sydney Swans from basically dying in early to mid 90s. If he did not coach them I think the club may have died there or merged with Fitzroy in some form. The late Ron Joseph that I think died last month, asked Barrassi to coach Swans and talked the league into taking back the Swans from the private owners. Barassi was well past his coaching days but he turned the culture of the place into a reall football club which the private owners had no clue how to do. Sydney was set up for next coach to have a real football club culture and the Bloods culture has been strong ever since. Sydney been in finals for most years since. When Barassi took over they had lost over 20 matches in a row and were a disaster. Every Swans fan should be grateful for what Ron Joseph and Ron Barassi did to turn what was heading to an end of the Swans in Sydney when private owners were running it. Rest in Peace Ron Joseph

NRL supporter here in newcastle, very surprised how popular AFL is elsewhere

Hi Rob, Craig again ;-) I went to a Brisbane private school named Brisbane Boys Grammar School (BGS for short). They had an internal school debate (entire school population) over 70 years ago to decide if the major football code of this 'mega=school' should play Rugby Union or Australian Football. The students voted for Rugby Union. (Interesting.)

Hi born in Sydney have lived in Queensland for the last 40yrs when growing up AFL wasn't a thing, I was living on the Gold Coast and a good friend of mine talked me into going to a game this was the 1992 Brisbane Bears vs Geelong this was when Gary Abblet snr( God) was playing and it was a slaughter Geelong 236 Brisbane 75 not a great introduction to the game. I enjoy watching AFL but League is still my preferred sport have followed the Bulldogs from a kid Cheers

Another example of Brisbane & Sydney thinking they *are* Australia. As you can plainly see *most of the country* isn't divided over it, a lot of people don't even care that much about either sport. Most of what I remember are Rugby fans being a lot more... brutal, in their fandom & AFL being considered a family thing. I really think it's has a lot to do with attitude clashes & broadcasting. If broadcasting had been different on either side it'd be a very different story.

Pretty true 3/4 of Australia are AFL 1/4 are NRL , interesting in WA a lot of people follow Victorian teams still where in South Australia the either follow the crows or power , not many follow Victorian teams

INteresting,.,I’d heard of it, but i never really realised what it was…

I live on the New South Wales south coast. Does the Barassi Line fall on the Victorian border or somewhere on the New South Wales south coast?

Grew up in Western Sydney supporting NRL team Parramatta Eels. Married a Scotsman and learnt about football. Now support the Western Sydney Wanderers and go to every home game and some away games since their beginning. I used to flat with a friend from Adelaide, who took me to a couple of AFL Games, don't understand why you get a point for missing. But then I don't know why they still set scrums in NRL when they don't actually contest the ball in the farce it has become. Being from Western Sydney we were going to support GWS when they were launched as they were meant to play very close to our home. But after our local council and the government spend loads of money on the facilities for them, they decided they didn't want to play there and moved to Homebush, which is not Western Sydney - more Central and therefore they lost any support they may have gotten from the West. GWS are a huge failure and are yet to get more than 9000 to a home game. I will never support them. 1997 the Rugby League competition was split when Super League started with teams in both Adelaide and Perth which were much more successful than GWS are. But after a legal war the Super League concept was abandoned at the expense of these 2 clubs. Rumours are the NRL are going to bring them back in the next few years. We will wait and see.

I’m an Aussie Rules footy fan who lives in Brisbane. The sport is gaining a lot of traction in the last few years however the rugby league majority still try to discriminate against the game and put it down at every opportunity . As an AFL player in QLD I copped a lot of slack from rugby league supporters including teachers who would call the sport GAYFL. Just shows their insecurities with the rise of our National game up here. I went to Brisbane vs Collingwood at the Gabba on Thursday night and the place was packed out with over 33,000 beating the Broncos who had 30,000 last night at Suncorp. There is a clear increase in Aussie rules culture up here with all the southerners coming up and will only get better

In my experience NRL strongholds like Sydney and Brisbane aren’t threatened by AFL and coexist - all sports are embraced (even if the die hard NRL supporters don’t watch AFL); yet the so called capital of sport “Melbourne” really just follows AFL and is the first to quote statistics whenever threatened. Who cares? They’re different sports and you don’t have to choose. Also both types of a rugby are also Football, it’s literally what the ball is called, and Rugby League has been nicknamed Footy for decades in the league states so good luck changing that.

What he failed to take into account is NRL is now becoming dominated by Polynesian heritage players all most 50% ... such as Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Cook Islands, papua new guinea, and NZ... In NZ the game is played predominately by Maori and the Island heritage NZ born players. So from a logistical and recruiting aspect the NRL has broader range of players from different nations being drafted into their club systems as well as those of Polynesian heritage living in Australia and NZ .... Where as for the AFL has not tap into this resource successfully... If you were to have these Polynesian genes in the AFL game u wonder what that would look like... I would say that NRL is the more popular game considering on want they are doing to expand the game inside and out of Australia....

In the 1970s I was in uni studying Social Science with a geography component to do with city planning and the influence of topography as a growth factor. One of the comments was that land was more expensive in Sydney therefore less scope to construct numerous footy/cricket grounds. Rugby grounds were smaller and easier to accommodate. I have no idea of the truth in this. Another anomaly is the class divide between rugby league and rugby union in Sydney. Did Sydney Shark fans accept Scomo as a legitimate sharks fan as he was north shore and a union follower? If not, I never heard about it but then I live in Crowland. NRL didn't stand a chance in hell here. Goodbye forever the rams.

The dislike and jealousy of Victoria is the entire reason that Canberra even exists, Sydney couldnt accept Melbourne being the Capital and Melbourne being financially dominant at the time wouldnt accept Sydney having it either. Albury/Wodonga on the state border was even the more likely capital initially, but Sydney complained it was too close to Melbourne, the compromise was Canberra.

Nrl fan in Sydney. I Wouldn’t say i hate AFL, I just don’t prefer watching it over nrl.

This line was drawn up by a ex AFL player / coach.. What the line doesnt tell you is Western Australia is mainly ( 90 % ) barren land and desert . take that away and it doesnt look so impressive...

Different and confusing football cultures in Australia.. Victoria, Tasmania, Western and South Australia are AFL crazy and NSW and QLD are rugby nuts... And there is a minority that are association football crazy also 100% right there. haha 0:25.. when i'm in Newcastle, i say football regarding rugby just to keep the peace but it makes me dead inside. Lol

I was born in Sydney played Auskick moved to mlb family reasons and still been an afl guy ever since altho I do like a rugby team mainly because as a child It had the Christmas colours also my grandfather was a fan of them but when an nrl fans shits on our indigenous game on social media I’ll let loose on them and shit on their British knock of sport

AFL - however the lack of game being shown on free to air I think it doesnt help AFL

The vote by the school masters in the 1800s was made by mostly by half English headmaster's. Which of course would favour the rugby codes Rob! Same in New Zealand. Aussie Rules was played in New Zealand well before Rugby or the All Black's! In the 1800s. The English headmaster's put a stop to that! A lot of Kiwi's have no idea that was the case! I like NRL and AFL just like you!

I would have to disagree with that it is i think just because there are teams other states I.e Melbourne storms nrl and Brisbane lions afl it is very obvious there is still a huge divide

Rugby league fan live in NSW

I played all 4 codes in my youth, and all were fun to play, but there's no greater spectacle of strength, speed and skill, than Rugby League. Aussie Rules should be called by its real name: Fumbleball. The game is overwhelmed by inaccuracy - poor kicks, handballs, fumbles ad nauseum. For the majority of game time it's just a mess. It's even so skewed to inaccuracy and imprecision that it goes as far as rewarding you for your inaccuracy: if you miss the goal, you still get something - a behind. It's embarrassing.

This is blurred in current times.

Rugby League IS FOOTY fight me.

AFL

I fellow both codes

IF you talk rugby here in WA ,most people wont know what you are talking about.They will totally ignore you

You can tell where the barassi line is come state of origin We don’t like afl not cause Victoria sucks Lots of states think Victoria sucks and play afl Victorians couldn’t hack it in league and Union so they made up their own sport declared themselves the best in the world at it spending their time picking on smaller state’s (population wise) with smaller talent pools to pull from Lame Also school sport is not as big a deal here in Australia Kids play club That means they come to the game that is watched in the house hold it’s cultural that’s why Union doesn’t do as well in Australia cause the only reason anybody would play that game is if they are indoctrinated in school to like it League is the working class man’s game like cold chisel jimmy Barnes is a league fan

Lol yeah someone says football and means soccer, no problem. AFL is Footy. Rugby is Rugby they call it football or footy but both taken, sorry, its rugby. Does USA have the same thing? is ice hockey big in north but not south?

Canterbury bankstown bulldogs

Grew up in Melbourne but definitely do not follow the AFL and 100% follow the NRL …give me 80 minutes of hard hitting try scoring footy players RUGBY LEAGUE ALL THE WAY

Furthermore rugby league is not rugby

I'm from NSW Sydney but I'm AFL Mainly I just love the game but I don't support the Swans I support St Kilda, in the NRL I support the Roosters (Easts) yet I live in the Bankstown area but my main love is the AFL and St Kilda ❤️🩶🖤

AFL