Being an American who ranks Australian sports from best to worst, I bring a totally neutral view to this debate. I didn’t grow up with any of these, nor did I play them. My only goal is to watch entertaining games wherever I can find them in the world.
And trust me, I’m not afraid to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find watchable sporting events. I’ve watched all three arena football leagues this year. That’s right. There are three separate arena football organizations playing in America. And you can watch them all for free on YouTube.
Which brings me to Australia. The land down under has a great sporting tradition that is in many ways quite similar to the US. However, the sports those Foster’s drinking, boomerang loving folks watch are very different to what we love stateside.
Quick sidebar, no one in Australia actually drinks Foster’s. Most people in Oz have never even heard of the beer. If you ever come across an Aussie in the wild and ask them about it, they will look at you like you’re stupid.
With that out of the way, here is how an American view on Australian sports from best to worst.
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Australian sports ranked best to worst
1) NRL
An American that ranks Australian (or any) sports from best to worst will almost always want something that closely resembles the NFL. And the National Rugby League (NRL) is just about as close as you can get to American football. The tackling is legit. The pace of the game is fast. The players are extremely athletic.
Look, there is no forward passing which is a dealbreaker for some. But if you give the NRL a chance, it will grow on you. Plus, it is not all that hard to follow and most of the rules are fairly intuitive.
The NRL also has a pretty deep lineup of teams with cool nicknames and colors so finding one for you isn’t that difficult. There is just so much to like about the entire package.
2) Super Rugby
Super Rugby isn’t exclusively Australian, but it has a distinctly Aussie feel to it. In terms of play, it feels much more superior than any other club rugby union league in the world. The action is steady and physical in spurts although most games do feature way too many scrums that end up collapsing. Seriously, rugby scrums are stupid. Why bother with something that’s doomed to end in a penalty like 80 percent of the time?
Apart from the scrums, this is an entertaining product overall. That being said, Super Rugby has suffered from a rotating lineup of teams and general disorganization. Japan and Argentina had teams only for them to contract a few seasons later. The South African teams just withdrew from the competition which will undoubtedly hurt the quality of play. As a casual fan, there is something off-putting about the instability.
3) Australian Rules Football
Australian Rules Football feels like an Aussie went to America, watched a bunch of sports and then determined the most exciting plays were:
- Punting and field punts
- Jump balls in basketball
- Anything involving a referee
Australian Rules Football is basically an amalgamation of these three activities. Sure, there is some tackling and those weird fist passes. But mostly the sport is punting, jump balls and referees.
Also, there are like 50 guys on the field at any given moment which makes Australian Rules Football even more convoluted. Does there really need to be so many active players? There are a lot of dudes loitering around just in case something happens.
4) Cricket/A-League/Everything else
The A-League is basically a lesser version of the MLS. It’s not bad, but it is hardly the most exciting thing happening in the country. Speaking of not exciting things, cricket. That is all.
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