What's happening in your world?

[Farseer]

But it is the biggest sport here (in the states that matter anyway, hi Farseer! hehehehehe nah)

Of all the cheek...I'll get you back when you least expect it, Nuytsia !

Actually, while rugby league is "the greatest game of all", I don't mind Aussie Rules. It was one of the reasons we thought Tassie would be a good place to live...we could see the Hawks/Lions play in a ground that was close to everything!

Australian Rules has definitely increased in intensity over the years, up here in Queensland, particularly with the success of the merger club, the Brisbane Lions (made up of the old Fitzroy Lions and the not-particularly-thrilling old Brisbane Bears clubs).

Funnily enough, up here in Queensland, 'footy' is the name most often given to the game of rugby league; 'union' is rugby union, though some people further south tend to also call it 'rugby', along with the rest of the world eg Wales; 'soccer', as Nuytisa has already mentioned, is what we call the game with the round ball, that the rest of the world calls football and Australian Rules is 'Australian Rules', 'Aussie Rules' or just 'AFL' (for Australian Football League).

As for the rules themselves, I think they are a hodge-podge of a lot of sports, even cricket, and the game itself makes me think of basketball more than any other sport. The contesting of the ball is a lot scrappier than what happens in rugby league and probably more like union in that regard. Lots of people I know call it 'aerial ping-pong' , though this tends to mostly be used as a derogatory term by non-fans.

I would agree with Nuytsia in that there is a lot more room for legal physical 'harassing' in AFL than any other sport outside of ice hockey eg an elbow in the eye in Aussie Rules is able to be overlooked (depending on the circumstance though!) but a similar incident would immediately draw a penalty in league, union or basketball.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football has the details/rules of the game, and some info on the origins of the game as well, for anyone interested.

As far as I know, the name 'Australian Rules' came about simply to identify it as an 'Australian-originated' game (its our game, our rules), and also to identify it as being a different code of football from league and union. League split from union, and changed rules from there, however Australian Rules was 'its own game'. For myself, I find it a lot harder to follow AFL than league but then it is a game I have had to 'learn', not 'grown up with', so that could be the telling factor!