28 October 2022
IPA Poll: Australians Believe Politics Is Out Of Bounds On the Sporting Field
“Sport is a defining component of the Australian way of life, where we all can play and cheer together, and the message from mainstream Australians is clear: play the ball and not the man,” said Daniel Wild, Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs. A poll undertaken in October, by marketing research firm Dynata, asked 1,000 Australians to
6 October 2022
Thorburn’s Cancelling Shows Politics Is Now Football’s Main Game
This article was originally published in The Australian Financial Review on or about 6 October 2022 and was written by the author in their capacity as a contributor for that publication. It has been republished on the IPA website with permission. The views expressed are those of the author alone. The AFL prides itself on being a cultural and workplace leader – and
15 September 2022
AFLW Disrespect A Towering Female Role Model
This article was originally published in The Spectator Australia on or about 15 September 2022 and was written by the author in their capacity as a contributor for that publication. It has been republished on the IPA website with permission. The views expressed are those of the author alone. The AFL decision to renege on its commitment last weekend to observe a minute’s
7 December 2021
Long Game Can Turn Underdog To Premier
As a lifelong Saints fan I was struck by former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas’ recent reflection on the club now holding the unfortunate record of longest premiership drought after Melbourne’s grand final win. He said “there are two types of teams in the competition – one that’s in the premiership business and the others that are sort of playing AFL.”
14 July 2020
Sport Should Unite Us, So Why Are Its Pampered Pooh-Bahs Using It As A Tool Of Division?
Australians go to the footy to get away from politics and watch and enjoy the footy. Elitist sports administrators would rather abuse their positions as custodians of our favourite games to grandstand about their own divisive beliefs and undermine the unifying force of sport in Australia. In June in the AFL and the NRL, following the restart of their coronavirus-delayed
8 July 2020
Poll: Australians Say Footy Has Become Too Politically Correct
“Australians have had a gutful of their favourite past-times being dominated by the narrow obsessions of Australia’s sporting elite,” said Morgan Begg, research fellow at free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. A poll of 1,011 Australians was commissioned by the IPA and undertaken by marketing research firm Dynata between 19-23 December 2019. It asked Australians to agree
30 June 2020
Memo AFL: Do You Play Footy – Or Politics?
Australia is not a racist country and the Australian Football League should know better than to give its support to a movement that says that it is. Before round two kicked off on 11 June, players from Collingwood and Richmond announced they would “take a knee” in support of Black Lives Matter, the international protest movement which claims to oppose police violence against black people. By the end of the round, all players at every match had
21 June 2019
Intrusions That Just Drive Us Crazy
Maybe ASIC is trying to do to big public companies what the AFL is well on the way to doing to the game of Australian football. Numerous and never-ending changes to the rules, ever-shifting interpretations of those rules by an ever-increasing number of umpires and tribunals, and now the introduction of ”Behavioural Awareness Officers” patrolling through the crowd is a
16 April 2018
AFL Acts As Cheerleaders For Labor’s Left Agenda
The decision by the Victorian Government to spend $225 million of taxpayers’ money on renovating Etihad Stadium is corporate cronyism of the highest order, and inseparable from the AFL’s recent lamentable Left-wing turn. The government and the AFL announced the funding as part of a package that will also see tens of millions of dollars directed to the improvement of Ikon
