Okay gang ... a little argument was started in the Olypmic thread about which football code is the best. So throw your two cents worth in here, be it about soccer (football for the Brits), Rugby League (football for the NSW and QLDer's), Aussie Rules (football for the rest of Australia) Gridiron (football for the Americans) Rugby Union (football for the private school ra-ra set) or any other code that I've forgotten.

Personally, as you may have guessed, I'm with Rugby League and even though my team can't win a game and is, lately, continually caught up in controversy, I shall defend them to my grave.

Just to spark up the debate ...
Gridiron ... helmets??? Sheesh
Soccer .... I wonder if they take acting courses?
Aussie Rules ... aerial ping pong (that was predictable wasn't it, Quogequox ?)
Union ...would be my second pick (if that's any consolation Templar) but still can't see the point of rucks, just pass the bloody thing!!

Rucks and mauls sets the men out from the namby-pamby's or aka "those who choose to play league".

Oh my sweet heavenly Gods, Rugby truly is the sports of gods, men and heroes!! (Although I have to say that our club's women's team has consistently kicked arse-nic for the last four seasons now!)

The sheer brilliance of the individual play, the test of strength in the push, a glorious display of heroics in the tackle and a sense of one among many as fifteen pure hearts strive to score and sweat, bleed and give it all for their brothers.

The one sport where win or lose, if you give your all you shall be justly rewarded.

I'm with Templar on this one. I played RU for more years than I should (you don't bounce back quite so quickly from injury past 40) and now coach a junior side. Rugby League has its pluses - but now Union is taking the good points e.g. better coaching for defensive play and is a better game for it. A few years ago Union players left the sport to play League, the main reason being that Union was amateur and they they got paid to play League. Now Union is professional the move is the other way - Paul Henry and Jason Robinson both now playing Union for England. The other great import from League to Union is 'The Video Ref!'
Oh and Copago - I didn't go to a ra-ra public school (to explain to anyone who doesn't understand our education system a public school is in fact a private fee-paying school - confusing eh?

[ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: monkeycouzin ]

[ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: monkeycouzin ]

It's happening here too, Monkey, a couple of high profile League players have switched over to Union this year with varying results. The Video Ref was one of the better things that happened to either sport, there's nothing worse than when your team is denied a try by a bad decision.

I'm not saying that union isn't tough, just that a couple of aspects I don't get. The private school comment I stand by (I never said namby pamby!), it's just that's how it was divided here between the sports. League was the 'working man's' game and Union mostly for the 'upper classes' (for want of a better word.) That's changing now, Union is certainly getting more popular here in Australia.

Sorry Copago - I had changed namby pamby to ra ra but our posts must have crossed. I just got carried away.

NEED I SAY MORE?????

(shut up!!)

anything you can do ....

[ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: monkeycouzin ]

[ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: monkeycouzin ]

Look, let's be realistic, despite being a fantastical creature, my dragon would obviously poo-poo all over your tiger, much the same way that rugby union players poo-poo all over league players.

Define football??????

A ball that is played with the foot

Not a bunch of guys throwing an egg to each other

Try as I might I can get a St George's Cross to appear here...

[ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: monkeycouzin ]

Actually, no!

football (n) 1 any of a number of forms of team game involving kicking a ball, in particular (in the UK) soccer or (in the US) American football. 2 a large inflated ball used in such a game. 3 a topical issue that arouses controversy: the use of education as a political football
- DERIVATIVES footballer n. footballing adj.

All of the sports listed by our nancy-girl wuss-loving friend Copago ( ) include some kicking of a ball, hence they fall under the OED definition.

Rugby Union being the supreme sport out of all of them, of course!

[ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: TemplarLLM ]

Just for monkeycouzin, even though I'm gagging as I do it .... phew ... can get rid of it now
Oh Templar ... you crack me up!

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nancy-girl wuss-loving friend

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at least I can use the good old "I'm only a girl" defence when things hot up!!

[ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: Copago ]

Thanx Copago. I really must learn how to do that.

Hey Templar, I may agree with you about Rugby Union but Wales...........???????

Wow that truly was a sporting gesture Copago.

Copago - many thanks for the lesson. I have now managed to insert a St George's Cross in one of my earlier posts so you can quit gagging and remove said flag from yours. You are a very nice Aussie

Land of My Fathers!! <deep sighs and slight tear in his eye>

Oh my sweet green hills of home, my mountainous crags and sweeping slopes, your battered shores and windswept moors. Your hardy castles and cozy fires, your tales of yore, your poems of legendary heroes, speak to me of your Princes and Queens, your fabled creatures and home of my heart!

Oooooeeeer, I'm feeling a moment!!!

If you want to know why union is the best game ever, get a hold of a video tape of the opening moments of Rugby Wales from the early 90's and you'll fall in love with the game. It was a montage of amazing moments from the weeks before accompanied by the build-up segment of "Where The Streets Have No Name" by U2. Oh, my heart, my poor heart.

Ahhh, I can't wait to go home in just over a month for three weeks.

I can't even type in bold or italics let alone import images.

Will somebody tell me the magic words please!!

awww shucks ... now if only I could get you to convert to League ...

Now, off to edit my post

(Qwizz ... check your PM's)

[ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: Copago ]

I suppose Wales did beat Italy but then again they do have the handicap of Max Boyce! How can they ever overcome that? I'll admit that Wales did produce JPR & JJ Williams and Gareth Edwards who are amongst the greats. But will they recapture those glory days of the 70s and 80s??

An oddity here. An Aussie Rules fanatic in rugby league (and Union)- mad Sydney. I support St. Kilda, in Melbourne, and can still remember their one and only premiership in 1966!

I agree with sparky about the definition of FOOTball, but obviously for different reasons, and I regard both rugby codes as something akin to mobile wrestling. (I do confess to watching them, but that is only because I am a sports-mad couch potato).

Just a quick update, Copago.. your team ceased to exist a couple of years ago; it is terrible that no-one told you!

Soccer- how can you have a round of 10 games, with a total aggregate score of 3 goals?? No wonder there are so many soccer riots!

Gridiron.. hmmm.. where 5 minutes of a game can occupy an hour, they change teams everytime someone touches the ball, helmets (only used by motor-cyclist, surely?), referees playing 'drop-the-hanky'.. all too wierd for me.

I was just thinking that now would be a good time to mask my email.. I think I have just alienated myself from 99% of people around the world, hehe.

Cheers from ozzz

[ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: ozzz2002 ]

Of course, I could discuss this forever, but it's tough when I have soccer in a little over an hour, pick-up football (US) on Saturday morning and my rugger team's first training session for the upcoming season on Sunday!!!

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Just a quick update, Copago.. your team ceased to exist a couple of years ago; it is terrible that no-one told you!

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Good on ya, Ozzz, I knew someone would bring it up ... I'm in denial. For those who don't know, Balmain merged a couple years back with Wests and are now the Wests Tigers ... I will always say that I'm a Balmain fan first and foremost (and they still exist ... just don't play in the first grade, or whatever they're are calling it this year) but I am a Tigers fan still, jsut don't like saying the Wests part of it . May Rupert Murdoch be hung drawn and quartered for what he did. Off to find Ozzz's email.

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(I do confess to watching them, but that is only because I am a sports-mad couch potato).

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Despite your mobile wrestling comment, we;re going to get along very well!!

...I don't know why I'm here. I'm going to put a vote in for Aussie Rules, for the simple reason that it's the only one I understand! Gridion is just seems a little too pansy, and the others just seem a little too rough !

But I don't really watch Aussie Rules anymore, anyway. I used to barrack for Fitzroy (RIP) !!

mmm, interesting, are no Americans coming in to defend their code?

And I thought of another football game ... Gaelic Football.