First I will establish the reason why its is the greatest sport in the world, then i will show why it is better that other sports then why it is not as widely played as other sports.
AFL is a sport played between two teams of 22 men, 18 men ona field at a time from either side, the pitch is larger than any other sport in the world and 36 supreme athletes put their bodies on the line for over 2 hours in extreme performaces of skill speed intensity and endurance.
In a game a typical midfield player and most players at that, will run between 12-25 kilometres, the game stops only every half an hour or so and players get brief rests on the interchange, they spend the majority of the time throwing themselves at the ball, sprinting, jumping and tackling.
There is no room to hide in AFL, unlike other games where players can have specific talents and be fairly avergae at other things an AFL player must be a complete package, you will never see an over weight player in modern afl, nor will you see a weak player, all AFL players are extreme athletes capable of incredible speed, strength and endurance.
AFL requires extreme skill and that skill must be held by all players. The complex oval shaped ball is a hard thing to master yet AFL players can kick it 50 metres with ease onto the chest of another player running at top speed, they can make the ball turn and fly, slide and drift, and all players can do this, it
s not like American Football where only the quater back has to be skillfull at directing the ball, all players in AFL must be.
AFL is the most physcial sport on earth, challenged only by Rugby. Rugby is physical in that men line at up at each other and run and crash directly into the openents, that is an extremely high level of physicality, but that is matched in AFL, a game where there are no drawn battle lines, AFL, a melee of a game has the same bone crunching tackels and collisions that occur in rugby, and the fact that that occurs in such a fluid sport shows its physicality.
AFL is the most fluid game in the world. There are barely any breaks in lay, the ball is constantly on the move, the game a never ending balancing act determining who's in control, the ball could go anyway at any time, and a score may occur at any moment.
AFL is exciting, men leap above the heads of other men and score from freakish angles and distances, every second of afl is a battle between men to see who is the strongest and best, thier is constant rivalry and constant action.
I believe that AFL is the most skillful game, requiring the most athletic capablities and the most physical and exciting game in the world.
American Football is extremely popular but without doubt it is stop start, 48 minutes of gameplay can take up to 2 hours to play out, AFL is 2 hours of continuous gameplay. There is no room to rest on your laurels in AFL, if you throw a bad pass in NFL it may just be an incomplete there is no such fallback in AFL, anything can happen from any time. And the calibre of players is just far superior in AFL, NFL players can be out of shape, weak, men who could never run 10 kilometres in their life or never take 2 hours of endless tackles. There is no room for incomplete men in AFL
Football (Soccer) Soccer is very similar to AFL in alot of way, it is fluid and skillfull. When your team scores in soccer it is an amazing feeling. In AFL you get that same feeling but you get it 20 times a game, and it doesnt reduce the feeling based ont he increased amount of goals, I constantly have my heart in my mouth in AFL and every goal is a relief and rush of excitement the same i feel when United score in the EPL. I know that soccer is meant to be a non contact game based on skill but AFL manages to have extreme amounts of skill wilst maintiang the basic gladatorial style collisions that sport has evolved from. AFL is an extreme version of Football or Soccer.
Basketball would be the only other sport i consider similar, it has a fluid style and greatly athletic men, it takes great skill and great physical attributes. However the scale of basketball is diminsihed by AFL, AFL is 36 players competing and clashing on a huge field and Basketball is hampered by the lack of players, i feel that 5 players and such a small spectacle can in a way reduce the awe inspiring nature of the sport, plus it could do with a bit more physicality
I havent got much to say against basketball because it is a very complete sport, but in my opinion AFL destroys it, There are pssibly to many scores in BAsketball, Football (soccer) has too few and Basketball scores too often and to easily sometimes where as AFl goals are a struggle yet are not impossible. Other sports like Baseball, VolleyBall, Golf, Ice Hockey etc have similar reasons to the big three above and AFL still destroys them all.
The reason why AFL isn't mroe popular.
1. It is a very new sport established in the very late 1800's. By this time Soccer (Football) had already taken shape and by now, the period where really AFL has evolved inot a incredibly serious and exemplary high class sport, the world has had sport established to thoroughly.
2. AFL is a hard sport to play casually, it is very physically demanding and would require at least 6 players a side to be off any resemblance in a small social game. Soccer can be played with a ball and a place to kick it into with as little as 2 players, afl is much harded to play in a casual sense and that is why soccer has spread and AFL struggles too.
3. Australia is a relatively small country and America is a dominant force, Baseball and NFl are being pushed by America's hegemony and AFL is hidden in the great southern land.
I plead all of you who have not heard of AFL or watched it to google the sport.
I would suggest searching Carlton Blues Highlights 2011or AFL 2011 Season Highlights in Youtube to see what you are missing.
Perhaps go down and participate in your local clubs team if one occurs and maybe invite your friends round to watch a game in the upcoming season, i am sure they are broadcasted on some satelite sport stations.
AFL is a sport you need to watch if you are a fan of sport, and the feat of human competition.
