Kiki and Sassy: Can a girl really love two footy codes?
Lately every sports section we open has one face in it: Kevin Sheedy. Well, either Kevin Sheedy or Tiger Woods. And that got us thinking - even if there's room in Western Sydney for two codes of football, is there room in one person's heart?
We are both firmly team League. Kiki comes from a long line of league fans and players: any other game was never ever an option. League is in her blood, it's her heart and soul and she cannot even fathom following another code.
Opinions are divided on which is the bigger sin in her family: buying a Ford instead of a Holden ... or watching a game of AFL.
Sassy grew up in rugby union heartland, with brothers and mates who all played union, watched union, and probably still head to the Dolphin on Crown Street to watch the Wallabies or the Waratahs play. (Go the Tahs!) Yet somehow she ended up just as loyal to the working class game as Kiki. Between March and October there is no other footy for us but league.
So - once we figured out who the hell this Kevin Sheedy person is - we thought ... meh. Who cares about what AFL is doing? We look forward to paying as little attention to AFL in Sydney's western suburbs as we pay to it in all the other suburbs in which it's played.
But according to Kev and the powers that be in AFL, they are ready and willing to spend $200 million to try and win over the kids of the west to AFL instead of league. $200 million. GODDAMN that's a lot of Sherrins.
And let's face it, winning over kids really isn't that hard. Kids are sporting tarts. They'll play five sports a year if they can. They have heroes from pretty much every sport in existence. It means nothing to them if they watch league, union, soccer and AFL all in one season. The real question is: what happens when they grow up? Kids may love every sport on tv, but you hardly ever meet an adult who does.
Even if there are enough peeps in the west to support another code's team (and if you've ever been to Castle Towers .... it looks like there are), is anyone out there really going to support both the AFL and league teams?
At the risk of getting all Carrie Bradshaw, can a girl really be a fan of two football codes?
All the footy codes are so fundamentally different, and not just in terms of the game rules. They all have different attitudes to violence, different marketing, different atmospheres. How can you love a sport as direct as league, and a sport as ridiculously complicated and rule-laden as union? A sport where you have to haul yourself across the try line and a sport where you're not even meant to tackle? We seriously can't imagine anyone being comfortable with the conservatism of union in Sydney, and also comfortable with the way some AFL supporters see themselves as 'the smarter sports fans', and comfortable with the boundary-pushing physicality of league.
We've thought about it, and while we can totally handle a swearing, angry, sometimes offensive rugby league fan, hearing AFL administrators and fans talk about how their athletes are the most skillful and the best-behaved in sport makes us want to die. If you ask us that kind of arrogance is straight-up unAustralian. And if you ask Kiki, AFL can feel free to die a swift and agonising death in Sydney's west. She wants absolutely no part of any code that isn't league and hopes one day to dance with delight on the grave of the AFL's Western Sydney franchise.
It's like dating: sure you can see a few guys, have a few relationships, test the waters, but eventually if you wanna get knocked up or buy a house, you have to choose the right man and settle down. And - unless you're a mormon- it's going to be just one man. You can choose to say 'I do' to the man in the boat shoes, the man in the league jersey, or the man with the Sydney Swans sticker on his car, but not all three of them. There always has to be one favourite, one winner.
So tell us what you think: can the AFL convince western Sydney to love another code of footy?
And more importantly: can one girl really love more than one type of footy?
Kiki and Sassy xoxo
Fast Fact
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A girl can flirt with other codes, show a passing interest in the results (at least on an international level)...oh wait...that excludes AFL completely doesn't it? So no, you can like, maybe even appreciate the skill but you can only truly have one love, one game that sets your pulse racing. It's league all the way.
obviously you have not been to my home town. Sure you'll flirt with the man in the boat shoes, the man in the league jersey and the man with the Swans sticker. But chances are you wont remember which one knocked you up.
League in the Winter. Cricket in the Summer. End of Story.
As a huge fan of both, I have to disagree with the 'get married and knocked up' analogy.
I love both AFL & League (and attend as many home Tahs games a I can) and I wouldn't give up watching one or the other for anything.
They both invoke the same amount of passion in me and I can honestly say I don't love one more than that other.
I can divide up things I prefer over the other, for both sides of the argument, but the list of pros and cons will end up being equal in length.
The only thing is living in NSW we hardly hear any AFL news and this obviously is the same for VIC and RL, so sometimes I feel like I KNOW more about Rugby League, but this doesn't make it any better in my eyes.