World Footy News

A day before the match, the AFL and the GAA hope for a crowded house at the MCG for the second International Rules series contest between Australia and Ireland even given predicted showers.

At the same time, the game exists in another crowded environment.

October is the time of Australia-India Test cricket from India, V8 Super Car racing, this year a Wallabies’ Bledisloe Cup match against New Zealand in Hong Kong, the soccer and basketball seasons, the Rugby League World Cup in Sydney and, via pay TV and news reports, the MLB World Series and the English Premier League.

Above all, in Melbourne, is the spring racing carnival.

While International Rules has to compete for media attention, in a sense the crowding problem demonstrates the need for Australian Football to have an international dimension.
The international still matters. The ABC TV news which runs nightly scripts read by soccer and Rugby League aficionado Peter Wilkins remains a generally Australian Football free zone, for example.

Even in local sport obsessed Australia the international matters.

Since the success of the Subiaco match, with a big crowd despite the weather and a good game, there has been continuing coverage.

There is also the good news of the AFL-GAA decision to hold a series in Ireland in 2009 and then in Australia in 2011 and in Ireland in 2012 with another rest year in 2013.

This means that a tradition that has reached its half century has a real future.

From an Irish point of view there have been discussions of a cap on AFL clubs recruiting Irish players. Although not all succeed or choose to stay, Gaelic football can’t afford to lose too many young stars to Australian Football (or to the bigger money of English soccer). There could also be a lifting in the minimum recruitment age from Ireland – from 18 to 19.

There is also the proviso about the future series. It will happen assuming that there is no undue violence on Friday night.

That takes us back to the media. Even when the positives are shown, TV news loves a bit of biffo, that is sometimes running the old footage of the unsuccessful previous series in Ireland.

That raises a similar question for Australian Football around the world. Sometimes biffo is run on the sporting equivalent of TV bloopers or home videos of falls and follies. Sometimes, YouTube and other sites do the same.

How is the message to be got across, to those who are ignorant and are interested in amazing ‘shock horror’ stories that not only do kangaroos not roam Bourke St and Pitt St Malls but footy is a great sporting spectacle and a skilful game?