Football in Australia: Spoiled for Choice

Having been raised in Canada, where football is solely the term for gridiron (American football), arriving in Australia to five different codes of football was a tad confusing.?And getting my head around the term ‘footy’, well that still trips me up as to which code it refers.?Needless to say, Australia loves its football which includes Australian rules football, rugby league, rugby union, soccer, and gridiron (American football).?In this article I will explore participation data (source: AusPlay) across the five football codes.?

Battle for the Feet

Across the total Australian population, soccer has the highest participation at 1,978,900 compared to the other football codes, with Australian rules football a distant second at 1,039,200 and rugby league third with 350,700 participating in the 2021/22 financial year.?Gridiron has the lowest participation at 15,400 participants.?However, at the state and territory level, Australian rules football has the highest participation in Victoria and South Australia, whereas soccer leads in all others.??

Below I will look at each of the football codes with respect to participation trends as well as discuss the demographics and other possible influences impacting changes.

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Soccer

Across most states and territories (excluding Victoria and South Australia), Soccer is the leading football sport.?Several factors likely contribute to this dominance, including accessibility and physical safety, as it’s non-contact whereas all other football codes are contact.?Over the five years to the 2021/22FY, soccer participation has increased nationally by over 200,000 participants.?Except for Western Australia, soccer participation has grown across the states and territories, especially in New South Wales.?Females, those aged 25 to 54 years and from New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (QLD) have been driving the growth of soccer.?Even through COVID participation grew, predominantly adults who likely played recreationally, whereas child participation fell during this period.?Growth will likely continue this year with the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup being held in Australia and New Zealand.

Australian Rules Football

Nationally, Australian (or Aussie) Rules participation is a distant second to soccer, however in Victoria and South Australia it reigns number one.?A large portion (over 40%) of national participants are from Victoria, where it originated back in the 1850s.?Across Australia, participation grew to 2018/19, driven by the younger age groups, particularly 12 to 24 years, females, as well as growth across New South Wales (NSW), Queensland (QLD), South Australia (SA) and Tasmania (TAS).?However, growth fell during the two COVID impacted periods before rebounding in 2021/2022.?It will be interesting to see if Australian Rules continues its growth outside of Victoria, with the risk of injury, especially concussions, hanging over children’s participation in this sport.

Rugby League

Rugby League participation trended downwards nationally to 2018/19 before recovering at 2021/22.?The recovery came from children and teenagers up to 17 years old, those living in New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia.?Over three quarters of participants live in New South Wales or Queensland, where NRL is most popular.

Rugby Union

Participation in Rugby Union grew nationally up until 2018/19 and remained steady through to 2021/22.?The early growth of the sport came from New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland as well as children and teens up to 17 years old across both males and females.?Australia’s hosting of the Rugby World Cup 2027 (Men’s) and Rugby World Cup 2029 (Women’s) will provide an opportunity to market this football code and inspire participation growth across the country.

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Gridiron

Due to annual estimates being based off a low sample, and therefore having a high margin of error, I decided not to show the year-on-year trends.?However, when comparing multiple years, 2016-19 versus 2019-22, there is an upward trend in participation.?Although Gridiron participation is not likely to grow significantly to overtake the other football codes in Australia, don’t be surprised to see it continue to increase its numbers.?The NFL (world’s largest sports league) marketing and televising games, including the Super Bowl, in Australia, US college scholarships, and Australian NFL players such as Jordan Mailata will likely inspire participation growth.?

As sport continues to rebound following COVID, it will be interesting to see which football codes will grow with respect to participation.?Will women continue to drive growth in soccer and Aussie rules or other codes??Will gridiron take off in Australia? Will having both Men’s and Women’s Rugby World Cup inspire rugby union growth??Factors such as football code strategies, media, professional and international matches will certainly impact participation.?The participation battle of the football codes is on, let’s go!

Looking for actionable insights and opportunities on how to inspire participation growth across your sport or business??Contact Vamos Strategy, [email protected] or visit www.vamosstrategy.com

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David McLeod is Founder of Vamos Strategy, a strategic market research consultancy that delivers actionable insights and solutions for its clients to encourage growth and inspire fandom.?As well as being passionate about market research and strategy, David is enthusiastic about sports, fitness, and wellbeing, and an avid participant and fan across several sports.

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