First came Michael Jordan, 2nd came Shane Warne, then came Lance 'Buddy' Franklin!

[evertonfan]

Aussie Rules is a minority sport just like American Football is. That's why no players from the sports can ever be regarded as true greats of sport. I've got nothing against Aussie Rules but it's way behind the likes of real football, rugby, cricket, tennis and even golf.

And for the record, the 5 greatest sportsmen of all time are easily Maradonna, Woods, Jordan, Warne and Me.

 

[.::Stevo::.]

From your point of view yes. Even though AFL has the highest average crowd attendance in the world.
If you asked the average American who Warne is, they wouldn't know
If you asked the average Englishman who Buddy Franklin is, they wouldn't know
If you asked the average Australian who Maradonna is, they wouldn't know.

So basically in Australia AFL players ARE held in the highest regard (aswell as been scientifically proven they are far more supreme athletes than soccer players)

Its all about where your from, and unfortunetly soccer fans can't comprehend other countries supporting "minority sports" over their beloved sport. And why is it when ever there is an AFL thread soccer fans always come in and try and prove their point that "no once cares about our sport", bloody hell, OKAY, WE GET THE POINT, AUSTRALIA ONLY PLAYS AFL. But i invite you to come over and see how passionately it is supported, you will then change your mind.

 

[evertonfan]

I'm not denying the popularity of AFL and I haven't said that nobody cares about it because evidently, a lot of people do. The thread is about discussing Lance Franklin's credentials as being one of the best sportsmen to have graced the earth so i'm well within right to say that I don't think he is. I'm nto slagging AFL off, but you can't deny that it's a minority sport just like the NFL in America so no matter how brilliant the competitors are in those sports, the lack of international recognition and/or interest will always prevent them from being held in the same regard asthe Jordans and the Warnes of this world.

 

[.::Stevo::.]

Where in the thread does anyone say that Buddy Franklin is one of the best sportsmen there is??? Any Australian would understand the thread.

Maybe i should go into the soccer forum and spam every thread dissing it since i don't know what there about.

 

[King Pietersen]

Erm, I think you'll find that the title of the thread hints at this. There is no way on gods earth that Lance Franklin can be compared to Michael Jordan, Shane Warne, or David Beckham, who for some reason wasn't mentioned in the title or thread, even though he's the biggest sportsman on the globe. Everyone's heard of David Beckham, he's not only a fantastic sportsman, but he's a fantastic role model, and puts alot of effort into helping the younger generations develop in sport by building his Soccer Schools. Beckham's a far bigger star than Jordan, Warne or Franklin.

 

[aussie_ben91]

It's such a shame that soccer is advertised so much worldwide because the only reason it is more popular is because it is generally a non contact sport and most parents generally guide their children to soccer over sports like AFL or Rugby because of it and they end up growing up brainwashed.

In general, soccer has got to be the most overrated sport in the world. It is boring to watch, reasonably boring to play and the game is so one-dimensational and lacks variation. Who wants to watch a game that spans over 90 minutes with the possibility of the game of it finishing 0-0?

The English Premier League (or whatever they call the English soccer league) is flawed anyway because I've heard that it doesn't have a salary cap and hence why 3 or 4 teams always dominate and why there are so many minnow English soccer teams. I've even been told that Everton is a hogwash football club who always gets mauled by Liverpool FC, or so someone at my school says so.

The only major basketball league throughout the world is the NBA and if it wasn't based in America then hardly anyone would know about it.

AFL has the highest crowd attendance rate on average in the world and that's quite a relevant statistic considering that countries like the United Kingdom & America have bigger populations then what we do.

 

[King Pietersen]

Sorry, but can you provide me with these statistics? I did a search for it yesterday, and all I found was that the AFL grand final was the sporting event with the highest attendance in 2008.

Also, I've not tried to claim that AFL is a woeful sport, because I've got very limited knowledge on the sport, so I'd be idiotic to try and say it's one dimensional or boring, as I have no knowledge on it, so the same should be said about you Ben. You've clearly never watched a game of proper football in your life. It's massively complex if you go into detail, the amount of tactics that go into a 90 minute game of football is amazing. There are thousands of different formations and ways to win. You have teams who just pump the ball up to the tall, powerful strikers, you then have teams that play a skillful passing game, with quick feet and pace. Anyone who claims football's a one dimensional sport is completely ignorant.

My point regarding AFL has always stayed consistent. If it was such an amazing sport, how come it's not been brought to England, America, the rest of Europe, Asia, and why's it not big in those countries? People have been visiting Australia for centuries, the sports been running since 1877, and if it was such an amazing sport it would have been brought across by people who had seen it abroad and been enthralled by it. I've never seen a non Aussie claiming the sports brilliant.....coincidence? I think not.

As for the Everton being a "ogwash football club who always gets mauled by Liverpool FC" comment, just purely ludicrous. It was only 3-4 seasons ago that Everton finished above Liverpool in the league. Don't try and make stuff up if you've got no knowledge on the subject, just makes you look like a muppet.

 

[Dez]

Franklin is great but by no means is he better than "The King", Carey was, Carey is and Carey most likely will be "The King".

To say Franklin is better than Carey is extremely stupid, especially at this stage of his career.

 

[aussie_ben91]

You moron, my mate told me about that Everton statistic, I CLEARLY noted that in my post. :

AFL averages 37,133 to an AFL game (2008).
Association Football (Soccer) in Germany averages 20,096 to a Soccer game.
Association Football (Soccer) in England averages 13,960 to a Soccer game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Australian_football_code_crowds

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sports_attendance_figures

aussie_ben91 added 1 Minutes and 17 Seconds later...

Franklin is great but by no means is he better than "The King", Carey was, Carey is and Carey most likely will be "The King".

To say Franklin is better than Carey is extremely stupid, especially at this stage of his career.

Watch clips of them on youtube. There is absolutely no difference between them.

Carey never won a Norm Smith, Coleman or Brownlow medal.

Buddy's already won a Coleman.

 

[King Pietersen]

Yeh, but my point is still relevant. You know nothing about the subject, so don't include an ignorant friends comment in a post. You'd go mental if I included the following in my post:

"My mate was talking to me about AFL, said it was absoloute tripe, boring as sin, the players are about as athletic as dart players, as for that Buddy fella, worst sportsman I've ever seen."

Also, as for the AFL attendances being higher than English Football, the reason could be that there are over 90 Football Clubs in the UK, compared with 16 AFL teams. Obviously the average attendance is going to be higher. You should have compared the English Premier League average attendances for a proper comparison.

 

[Deleted member 13648]

Real Football > any Aussie sport.

 

[aussie_ben91]

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/stats/attendance?league=eng.1&year=2008&cc=3436

English Premier League - Unofficial Average Attendance: 34,870

Australian Rules Football - Unofficial Average Attendance: 37,133

aussie_ben91 added 3 Minutes and 28 Seconds later...

Real Football > any Aussie sport.

Real footballers don't take dives.

 

[King Pietersen]

Still isn't really a fair comparison though, and Wikipedia has the attendance at 36,076. You look at the AFL, there are 16 teams, but only 185 games played. The Premier League has 20 teams, but 380 games in a season. Then you need to look at the size of stadiums in the AFL. Every single team according to Wikipedia has a stadium that they play at with a maximum attendance of 50'000+. Alot of teams play at massive stadiums like the MCG, Telstra Dome and the ANZ stadium. None of the teams sell those stadiums out regularly though. The champions of the AFL, who you'd expect to have the highest attendance only have 41'436 Season members.

This compares with the premier league, where the biggest stadiums in the league, Arsenal's Emirates and Manchester Uniteds Old Trafford. Man Utd's average attendance so far this season is 75498, when you consider the capacity of the stadium is 76212 it's pretty unbelievable. Then you look at Arsenal, average attendance of 60058, capacity of 60432. Here's the stats for you to look at, you'll notice that the team with the lowest stadium fill percentage is Blackburn Rovers, and even they manage to fill their stadium 70%.

If we in England had the space to build stadiums the size of the MCG, Telstra Dome and the ANZ stadium then the teams would fill them. There just isn't the space for every Premier League team to build a stadium of that size, and the cost in the UK would be far too high, especially considering the current Credit Crunch. You have to look beyond the basic average attendance stats.

 

[aussie_ben91]

You'd imagine that if Australia had a population as big as England's then they'd fill the stadium anyways. Considering we have 21 million Australian citizens and you have over 50 million?

If you click on 2007/08 then yes it is 36,000 but I'm predicting that's after finals have been played? If that is the case then after the finals series the AFL's average attendance rate goes above 38,000 and pushing 39,000.

 

[King Pietersen]

There's no finals in the English Premier League. It's just a league, and the team that finishes top of the said league after 38 games wins the trophy. Then there are various cup competitions outside the league, the main one, which you've probably heard of, the FA Cup. Possibly the biggest cup final in the world, not in terms of attendance, but in terms of global showings. It's transmittted across the globe, and although the attendance at Wembley wasn't as large as the AFL Grand Final, a game between Portsmouth (mid-table Premier League) against Cardiff (mid-table in the division below) had an attendance of 89,874.

And yeh, we have 60million people living in the UK. It's a far, far, far smaller place though, and planning permission is incredibly difficult to get for a massive stadium. The price for a new stadium is also massive, with the New Wembley costing over ?800million. If we had the space and the finance to build MCG-esque stadiums then the attendances would be massive, and the grounds would sell out every week, this is proven by teams like Newcastle, who have been incredibly poor, with massive hate for the new Owner and the director of football having an average attendance of 47,629, filling over 90% of the stadium.