Brett Coster wrote: > > Traditionally, here it is footy, or hockey in winter for boys, and hockey > for girls. While in summer it is cricket or tennis for boys and netball or > tennis for girls. Swimming, naturally, is also a major sport that is > nowadays pretty much all year round. Basketball and volleyball have also > picked up a lot over the last few years. >
I guess you'd have to divide 'footy' up into three different codes here in Australia ... Aussie Rules, Soccer & Rugby (League and Union) (i suppose that actually makes four different codes!) Soccer has become a summer sport in Australia BTW, to prevent it from 'competing' with the winter football sports, and to match up with the European soccer season as well i suppose. It has the highest participation rates of any sport in Australia - i guess because of its popularity amongst both males and females, across all of Australia (Rugby tends to be confined to NE Aust., and Aussie Rules is more Southern Aust.) Hopefully we can turn soccer's increasing popularity into success at the World Cup finals next year! I'd regard success for Aust. as simply making it BTW - no way could we actually win ... although, if there's ever going to be an upset winner of the World Cup, next year will be it - some pretty big names in soccer are either missing or underperforming ... i wont mention any names - they know who they are! :-) I started seriously watching soccer during the last W.C. in '98, and have been hooked ever since ... tis a truly wonderful game to watch, even if it does lack the constant excitement and high scoring nature of Aussie Rules. Aussie Rules is of course the most popular spectator sport in Aust. ... in terms of crowds at games, and TV ratings etc. Mark.
