Will International footy reshape Australian Football?

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Will International footy reshape Australian Football?

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Tuesday, November 10 2009 @ 01:06 pm ACDT

I'm not sure international footy will lead the way, in terms of being copied in Australia, but it may give an indication of the way forward that those of us that follow it will recognise.

I won't generalise to other cities, but I know too many schools in Adelaide dropped Australian football because of lack of fields (in-fill pressure) and players (such as the shift from the aging demographic of inner suburbs to sprawling outer suburbs, so inner suburbs have smaller numbers of children, plus intense competition from soccer and a history of Australian football "dropping the ball" in the 1970s and 80s when the game was under siege from itself, VFL eating the SANFL). It seems moving to smaller team sizes and fields has already occurred in some places, mirroring international efforts (as opposed to copying).

I don't see as much promotion of Rec footy as I would like, but I still have hopes for it as a genuine summer alternative to other sports, thus keeping people and especially women and families involved in the sport. Many people play Touch football (Touch rugby, including myself) and social or indoor soccer, especially in Australia's harsh summers and as they move past their 20s and 30s. This naturally draws their kids into these sports, which is fine in general, but not good for Australian football.

Whether the future in say Europe is 9-a-side is still hard to say. There's definitely two schools of thought, but then a lot of crossover between them as well. 9s definitely has a significant role, the question is whether it will evolve to be the dominant version, or possible even a spin-off sport of its own, or remain as an initial start-up method from which countries/leagues/clubs will seek to "graduate" to the full version.

But as I've stated often before, I'm a big fan of Aussie Rules, in Australia, experimenting with 16-a-side. Drop a forward and back pocket, reduce the congestion, reduce the overheads for setting up a game, maybe allow slightly smaller fields so less real estate required and keep the fans closer to the action (a drawback of Australian football not often discussed and somewhat alleviated by relatively modern stadia like Etihad with stands that are steep rather than swept back 1970s and 80s stadia).

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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