I don't talk much about this on 442, because I have a lot of face to face contact offline, and, interaction with mates face to face, but I'm a dedicated political activist.

In Hobart I've just attended two big demonstrations  in the last few weeks - Unions' Australia Change The Rules and anti Cable Car on Kunyani in Hobart.

In the Murdoch press, even though both rallies numbered 4 - 7 000, which per capita head of population in this state, and,  the biggest demos held for years, both were relegated to page 5 in the local Murdoch tabloid.

A few spectators having some biffo at AFL games took precedence on the  front page, as well as former AFL coaches saying Tasmania deserves an AFL team. These two stories aren't even worth reporting, let alone creating front page headlines!

In general I think the Australian media is shocking, parochial, very conservative, heliocentric  (inward looking) and right wing. The media in England is far better. The notable exceptions in Australia are The Guardian, which is left of centre, and the  moderate The Saturday Paper, SBS and ABC.

I see an extrapolation of anti - football sentiment and poor media coverage to political issues.

The big issue here is that so many define Australian football by what occurs in England.

I feel like we have to add the word "sexy" in there somewhere regarding our EPL players.

Mooy, Ryan and Rogic aren't exactly the same type of Bonds model as Cahill and Kewell were.

I think it is a question of perception.

12 years ago, Euroroos had an aura about them. When we revisit their games on video, they , like our current players, had plenty of weaknesses - as well as strengths.

Suggestions for 'must read' websites O/S for world cup news?

BBC Sport. For the hype that the English team will get only to see them crash out shortly after :)

I suspect they will make it past the group stages and then it will go into overdrive about going all the way.

I can't see England losing, unless Russia poisons them

And I've never understood the love affair with the football league of our colonial masters and the utter hatred for local football, the game, the culture and the people who play it and this was happening well before the EPL.  The only thing I can explain it with is pure racism.

So what's the go with this thread?

This somebody's first year following the game in this country?
Is there a genuine belief that this is the year, of all years, that things finally change?

The most exposure the world cup will get is every time an AFL player kicks the ball off the ground. Expect to hear plenty of "soccer" and "world cup" references

Always glad to hear that you have mates and lots of "face to face" contact, decentric... really good to know.

pretty sure the game v france @ 8pm on a saturday night will be highest rating sports match of all time.. we haven't had a world cup timezone like this ever.

It SHOULD be the highest rated football match in this country by a comfortable margin, but it wont surpass other sports ratings I reckon. There will be AFL, NRL, and a Wallabies game all on at the same time which will split the ratings. Obviously Australia vs France is the most significant and most meaningful (as well as potentially a once in a lifetime opportunity) game on that night, but that will go over the heads of many Australians. I think much of this country is too parochial and insular to be aware of how significant the match will be, and they wont give a damn. Would be happy to be proven wrong though.

Wallabies will outrate the Roos as much as it pains me to say it.

Agree. The Australian media is obscenely inadequate. That's one of the reasons behind the terrible standard of political dialogue here, and it certainly extends to football coverage. Not sure if it's just old-school jingoism to support 'our' native sport, or because Murdoch's got his fingers deep in the AFL pie. Perhaps both.

I don’t know anyone that follows the wallabies I think people will watch the France match until they score

theres been optus billboards advertising the world cup in melbourne CBD and on bus stops.

I doubt if there are more than 50 people in South Australia who follow the Wallabies.

Might be able to get that number to 100 if you include Victoria too.

Yeah but there’s 11 million in NSW and Qld and it’s League first and everything after that.

Pretty sure I saw the Ireland game as a sell out. They're on tour so maybe it's not the one that clashes. 

Maybe so but of the eleven OzTAM & RegionalTAM media markets, Adelaide is the eighth largest.

Are you guys joking? I can 100% guarantee that the Wallabies will not outrate the Socceroos at the World Cup. It won't even be close. 

I highly doubt that.

I wish you marketing students wouldn't spoil my pre-conceived beliefs with boring old stats!

We're not in New Zealand. Union is in terminal decline here and consistently rates poorly in all states. There is literally zero danger of the Wallabies stealing the Socceroos' thunder during the world cup. 

Union is dead in Australia. I still think this time around there is a lack of coverage. There is literally only one (optus sport) network at Socceroos training at the moment and the reach they have is even smaller than foxsports.

The All Blacks will definitely out rate the All Whites this year, but it won't be the same story over here.

This is some good news.

The reason for starting this thread is that the interest in the WC seems to have diminished in Australia from 12 years ago.

It seems that most Aussies who don't follow football, and the mainstream media, probably think WC qualification is similar in ease to automatic participation at the Olympics. The biggest event for the mainstream media in football is when European teams come out here to play friendlies in the off season, which is strange.

I'd surmise in the other 31 WC countries playing in Russia, quite a number I've travelled to, there are stories everywhere in the media about their country's WC participation.

Not only are there many outside football in Oz who are indifferent to the code, or overtly hate football, there are  so many within supposed football supporters, who  despise  football in their country of residence. It is a perplexing and bizarre scenario.