Interesting last few pages. I too think that Australian Rules Football is the best game in the world. Cricket is the only other sport that comes close to matching it for me, but I never lose interest in the footy.
Over the last few years, probably last year in particularly (before you compain, I know we won the flag, that was great...I'm talking about the sport in general) I've lost a great deal of interest in the the AFL altogether. I can't tell if its the media, the people running the show, the fact that by next year we'll have two new teams? I'm all for expansion so that can't be it. I just dunno, can't say I love going to the footy anymore either.
I can watch both codes of rugby. I think Union is probably the better game. Don't ask me why, I don't watch much of either, but I remember watching the 03 World Cup and getting right into it. But perhaps I say that because Union is truly a world game in the sense that there is a lot of passion for the Wallabies (or there was, until about three or so years ago) and virtually none for the Kangaroos. I love watching State of Origin and I can definitely appreciate a good game of league.
I used to like Union a lot. I was into the end of the '99 cup, the '03 cup when we had guys like George Gregan (I know I've spelt his last name worng, right? whom I admired. But sometime in 2004, I totally lost interest in the game and have never really picked back up with it.
Soccer (I don't care what anyone says, I will never call it football) is indeed fun to play, but I hate watching it for the most part. My main problem is that yes, not much happens. Inte says that a game that ends 0-0 can be fucking brilliant, but I just don't agree. That bores me to tears and it's one of the few sports that I just could not sit and watch for the entire time. World Cup is a slight exemption, as everyone gets into it and there are some damn good skills on display. And I was actually in the States when the world cup was on last year, and let me tell you from my experience, it was pretty huge. Admittedly once USA was knocked out the interest dropped off a bit but it's certainly not an underground sport over there, at least not on that level.
I call it "real" football. Not that AFL isn't football, but soccer, that thing you can only use your feet for, it is Football. Indoor soccer is the funnest game ever to play
I go in and out of intrest in this sport all the time, usually because of the lousy timeslot, and the fact that Liverpool seem to play all their games on a sunday night at like 3am.
I think the reason our footy hasn't exploded anywhere else is that it's so exclusive; there is no incentive for an American to watch a full AFL game, really, other than the novelty factor. I would support a NZ team but that is at least decades away. As Ax rightly pointed out a lot needs to happen before that's even considered.
I'm right into Ice Hockey at the moment, I love it. The most intense sport I've ever watched, its soccer on ice on steroids. I just really love the game as a whole.
I'm frustrated free-to-air aren't showing the NBA finals. I've kept up-to-date with the playoffs but haven't seen five minutes of footage. That is a good game, though I think I'd struggle to watch an entire game if I wasn't doing something else. The scoring is so prolific it can get a little boring.
HA. Yeah ONE were at least showing the finals on a 1 day delay last year, I don' think they even have the rights to them this year? Seriously free to air needs to have a good hard look at itself. I know the time zones make things hard and all American sports are pretty much Prime Time for the US, while it might be 10am on Wednesday morning for us, they've gotta understand that they aren't gonna attract massive ratings. At least put a replay of the game on at 7:30 that night, no?
Gridiron I don't like. Apparently if you understand the rules, it's a good game to watch (I know Bonnie is a fan) but every time I've caught it on ONE it seems like there is 30-60 seconds of play, then the ball will go over the boundary line, the swathes of people on the sidelines erupt in either disgust or delight, and then there is a two-minute break in which the last 15 seconds is discussed. I watched the entirety of the superbowl, and enjoyed it, but the game should not take that long.
I can't get into this. Too much stopping and starting. Lets bring out our whole defensive team out, and shit we are attacking now, stop the game for 15 minutes while we change tactics and bring out our offensive team. WTF!!? One game I will never call football.
I feel bad knocking baseball given that I am such a huge fan of cricket, so I feel a bit hypocritical, but it is a boring sport. I saw the Giants take on the Red Sox in San Fran, and aside from the bitter cold weather, it was ordinary to watch. The game lasted three and a half hours, and I was more than ready to go home after two. Even the atmosphere was not as good as I had been told. There was a game last week between the Cincinnati Reds and someone else, which went for 19 innings. From I think the eight inning to the 18th, there was not a single run scored. I'm not sure if that's considered a good game or not, but how anyone could subject themselves to that, with all the downtime of timeouts, breaks, foul balls, etc, is just beyond me.
I wish I could get into baseball, and I usually do come playoff time. But the season is what 172 games long or something? No thanks.
It's an incomparable story to Eddie getting pissed off at a Saints flog for saying some none-too-kind things towards Andy Krakeour, as from all accounts they were nothing to do with his race, and more to do with the fact that he's a convicted criminal who nearly killed a man. For Eddie to bring the race card in is absurd and offensive, and says more about himself than the St Kilda perp.
Heaven forbid. WE GET IT. Eddie obviously can never do anything right. So why keep yabbering on about him?