My View on Footy Codes

1. Rugby League

Rugby League is an international sport that is only played seriously in Australia. Sure, it's played professionally in the UK, but the competition is a joke, propped up by retired Australians who want to earn some cash after they retire from the serious competition at home. It's played in France (really!) and New Zealand.

Having a narrow support base, Rugby League will struggle to expand outside its boarders.

Although brought up on Rugby League, and acknowledging the improvements to the game rules in the past 20 years or so, I still find it somewhat mundane.

Verdict: Will always be strong in the northern half of NSW and in Qld. Going to struggle everywhere else. Will keep losing players to Rugby Union.

2. Rugby Union

The amature rugby code until only a few years ago, it still carries the bagage of it's past. It's more entertaining to watch than Rugby League, largely due to the fact that possession of the ball can change at any time, but its rules are complex to the point of being incomprehensible.

The scoring system deperately needs to be overhauled as the value of goals, particularly field goals, are too high. England won the World Cup due to an exceptional goal kicker rather than the ability to score tries.

Union is more international than Rugby League, although the World Cup showed that the depth of the international competition is pretty shallow. The strong countries are Australia, New Zealand, France, UK (made up of Scotland, England and Wales), and if you're generous, Argentina. All the rest just make up the numbers.

Verdict: Will become stronger as rule changes make the game less technical. The greater international scope will attract more League players.

3. Soccer

The only truely global game.

Soccer has a huge amature following in this country yet hasn't been able to transform the grassroots support into a popular national competition. The sport seems to lurch from one crisis to another, the most serious in recent years after the national body bet the house on the Australian team making the last World Cup. They didn't.

With huge amounts of money being paid overseas for soccer talent, any player who shows promise ends up leaving the country. Makes the local competition look very ordinary.

Verdict: I find soccer slow to the point of tedium, penalty shootouts to break draws in important games incomprehensible, and its popularity hard to understand. But, hey, I'm only one person against of a couple of billion who find it great! What would I know?

4. Australian Rules

My favourite game. Fast, furious and addictive. Played across the country. Teams set up in the rugby cities, Sydney and Brisbane, prove that the game can be established in foreign places and gain acceptance (but, to be fair, not dominance).

No international competition to speak of, except for a hybrid game played against Irish gaelic football teams.

Australian Rules doesn't need onfield hype in the form of dancing girls, music, or fireworks to gee up the crowd. The game does that.

Verdict: I think its fabulous, that's all that matters! No chance of expanding internationally, but neither has American Football, and it seems to be doing OK at home, too.