I raise this thread in response to some of the other posts, where the AFL crowd. eg. Mike Sheehan laid into football when he described the first leg of the Intercontinental playoff between Australia v Hondouras, as "rubbish".

As much as I would like to see football become  Australia's number one sport (at all levels, not just the amateur participant numbers), realistically it's not going to happen in the near future, and most likely not in our lifetimes.

In terms of TV rights, corporate sponsorship, media coverage, and average crowds, AFL reigns supreme, with NRL second, football third, and Rugby Union last (Rugby Union is a mostly elitist sport confined to snotty nosed private schools).

After Australia had  successfully qualified for the 2006 World Cup, Mike Hill wrote an excellent article called, "can you smell the fear?", which was in response to the AFL/NRL crowd rubbishing football, which seems to happen quite frequently around important World Cup qualifiers, and when the World Cup starts.

My view is that the AFL and NRL don't really fear football, as they have most of the mainstream media behind them, plus the lions share of corporate sponsorship and bigger crowds, however with NRL, the rapidly declining junior participant numbers must be concerning the NRL hierarchy. In all probability both the AFL and NRL, see football as a nuisance, competing for corporate dollar, but not a real threat.

What's your view?