The Weekender: Code Wars by Russ Gibbs

The Weekender: This week Russ Gibbs gives his thought on the "Code Wars" in operation in Australia.

Anyone can write The Weekender, we talk football, in its broadest sense. The aim is to provide Canberra readers with guaranteed football coverage on the Weekend.

CODE WARS

By Russ Gibbs

It’s only a personal opinion, but I simply cannot fathom the undisguised ‘hatred’ of the differing forms of football that we see in this country.

CODE WARS

By Russ Gibbs

It’s only a personal opinion, but I simply cannot fathom the undisguised ‘hatred’ of the differing forms of football that we see in this country.

With the emergence of football, and I’m talking the round ball game here of course, we have had hundreds of column inches dedicated to how the other codes are seeking to undermine football and how football can get one up on the other codes.

What’s this all about? Surely there is room in this country for all football codes, be it union, league, football or that other hybrid of all of them, AFL (see got me started on it all now!).

Having been brought up in the UK, only moving here in the last four years or so, I was regularly served a dish of rugby union as well as football. Indeed, five years of my life were spent watching union and commentating on the game. In no way did this deter me from my love of football.

I never really watched league until I came here, but have since come to enjoy the big hits of that version of the game.

Each game has its own unique appeal and is loved by different cross-sections of society. No one game is ‘better’ than the other. Watching top-level performers doing what they do best is a rarefied sight in any sport.

I, and many of my football playing and supporting mates, enjoy watching union and league as much as football. And I am sure there are hundreds, if not thousands, more around Australia who would feel the same way.

So for all of you out there who like to spend hours despoiling the name of one sport in favour of another – suck it in – if you don’t like union, don’t watch it.

If you don’t like league, don’t watch it. If you don’t like AFL, don’t watch it and if you don’t like football, don’t watch it. It’s quite simple. But please don’t try and spend your time justifying your ‘chosen’ sport over mine or anyone else’s. It usually is puerile and pointless and doesn’t help any code in the long run.