Appeal in soccer vs appeal in your fav sport

[Bruticus]

hey I've got a sense this is a predominantly Aussie forum, if not entirely Aussie. Anyways, I don't get to talk to 'Oceanians' in my daily life at all so this is actually a pretty good platform to ask:
as individuals in a culture that somehow survived the "SOCCER!!!" epidemic, and prob if you like sports you're an Aussie Rule, Rugby league, or Rugby fan ? ...a growing no. of NBA fans down there these days too... anyways as a fan of *that sport,
how do you tackle the question of the appeal for soccer ? What bothers you in it as an outsider, what's a fundamental thing that lacks besides the obvious (not physical enough, they're pussies, no respect for the ref...) that your sport does supply ?

 

[Slammed]

WTF you on 'bout? All Aussies? We are fucking good and our presence is overwhelming but as far as I'm aware we do not have massive numbers on this forum.

After that comment you said something about sport and I just turned off completely.

 

[CiG]

Site is definitely not even close to majority Aussie. Sort yourself out mate.

 

[jimmy101]

As the third Aussie in a row to post here, let just reiterate that the forum here seems to be mostly yanks.

As for soccer/football, it actually has a healthy following down here. We have a national league & even participated at the most recent World Cup. I would also say that basketball is very popular here too.

 

[Slammed]

Stop talking about exercise related stuff, you're wearing me out!
We worked hard to be the fattest nation in the world let us be!

 

[Bloopy]

I watch a bit of soccer at World Cup time and it seems to have improved since they brought in the VAR thing. Dodgy ref decisions are an annoying thing in many sports though. The main thing I dislike about soccer specifically is that it's childish brats tugging at each other's shirts and crap like that. Being just the right amount of asshole gains your team an advantage.

The only sport I have time to follow regularly is touring car racing (Supercars). Very different of course... a few of the drivers can be assholes but it immediately reflects poorly on themselves or their team and sponsors.

 

[Slammed]

The only sport I have time to follow regularly is touring car racing (Supercars). Very different of course... a few of the drivers can be assholes but it immediately reflects poorly on themselves or their team and sponsors.

Aussie taxi racing?

 

[Bloopy]

Yep, must say I'm a little disturbed that 5 door liftbacks and 2 door cars are getting in on it now. At least the Nissans are still flying the flag for my spirit animal the 4 door sedan.

 

[Slammed]

It's been hard to keep up with that in this country the last few years since the governing body decided to remove most races from Free To Air TV. The sport lost a lot of appeal from me when the rules changed and they went from the "race on Sunday, sell on Monday" mantra to cars that barely resembled what the average Joe could buy. But in recent years it's become a bit of a joke of itself. Not sure if you get the same dickhead commentators over there that we do but if you get Skaife and Crompton telling you how good they once were instead of what's happening on the track then we really do owe you an apology.

However I found it hard to support the sport the day Murphy got dragged into the pits at Bathurst on the dumbest penalty they could come up with and he had so much time to spend stopped that he was able to go out the back to the transporter and have a piss before they let him go again.

 

[Bruticus]

I watch a bit of soccer at World Cup time and it seems to have improved since they brought in the VAR thing. Dodgy ref decisions are an annoying thing in many sports though. The main thing I dislike about soccer specifically is that it's childish brats tugging at each other's shirts and crap like that. Being just the right amount of asshole gains your team an advantage.

The only sport I have time to follow regularly is touring car racing (Supercars). Very different of course... a few of the drivers can be assholes but it immediately reflects poorly on themselves or their team and sponsors.

Ooh, forgot I posted about that...
ah well ain't that oh so true of scrumhalves at Rugby though !

Too bad you guys are all the nerdy fat fk types of metalheads, I reckoned maybe you were the outgoing Rugby loving ones. Tsk tsk.

 

[Bloopy]

Too bad you guys are all the nerdy fat fk types of metalheads, I reckoned maybe you were the outgoing Rugby loving ones. Tsk tsk.

Well, I was usually one of the last ones to finish when they made us run at school. But it's because major allergies burn most of my energy, reacting to dust etc. I'm a 132 lb walking power plant, warm to touch. I go out for music more than people so I guess that doesn't count as outgoing.

Liking good music and loving rugby are 90% mutually exclusive in NZ. I still watch it sometimes. Most recently a bit of the Women's RWC as a former work colleague of mine captained the US team. Scrums are just a silly display so nobody really cares, but it's the ref's fault if he doesn't watch the ball being fed in.

 

[Bruticus]

Well, I was usually one of the last ones to finish when they made us run at school. But it's because major allergies burn most of my energy, reacting to dust etc. I'm a 132 lb walking power plant, warm to touch. I go out for music more than people so I guess that doesn't count as outgoing.

Liking good music and loving rugby are 90% mutually exclusive in NZ. I still watch it sometimes. Most recently a bit of the Women's RWC as a former work colleague of mine captained the US team. Scrums are just a silly display so nobody really cares, but it's the ref's fault if he doesn't watch the ball being fed in.

haha yeah I figured. Know what you mean.

 

[jimmy101]

However I found it hard to support the sport the day Murphy got dragged into the pits at Bathurst on the dumbest penalty they could come up with and he had so much time to spend stopped that he was able to go out the back to the transporter and have a piss before they let him go again.

Haha yeah I remember that. Worst penalty ever, wasn't it like 5 minutes or something?

Fuck, Murph was so pissed off about that. I still remember watching him slam the toilet door behind him.

 

[Slammed]

Yeah it was something like 5 minutes at a complete stop, no work was to be done on the car and he was suppose to sit in the car the whole time. The only reason he got away with a piss was that they can't stop a driver having a relief break, if he just wanted to go out the back and punch a wall he wouldn't have been allowed. Most ridiculous rule the officials every brought down. It could have been a black flag, it could have been a time penalty added at the end of the race it could have been a lot of things but 5 minutes stopped was stupid and the fuck wits in race control never did have to justify it. If it had been any race other than Bathurst the penalty would have been fairer.

 

[jimmy101]

Either way, 5 minutes at a complete stop is a ruined race no matter how many laps there are. And yeah, I can't recall there ever being proper clarification on why the penalty was dished out. Something about a pit lane infringement. Probably something to do with safety, hence the severity of it.

 

[Slammed]

It was a pit lane infringement, he drove off while the car was being refuelled. But the problem with the penalty was that no other team had been stung as harshly for the same infringement in the history of the sport.
Rules can change race to race, rules do change year to year, the drivers meetings at the start of every weekend discuss the track specific rules and the changes to long term rules for the event, yet there had not been any mention of a rule change relating to what Murph did.

The year after (2003) was the year that Murph did "the laps of the gods" in qualifying setting a record that stayed until only a few years ago when they resealed the track giving it a shitload more grip.

 

[jimmy101]

Yep, that's right. I remember seeing many pitlane fuckups like that and no-one had ever been stung as hard as Murph was that day. Made no sense then & makes no sense now.

 

[Slammed]

They are just lucky they picked on the calm and ever cool Kiwi to give the penalty too