Despite football fans rarely agreeing upon anything, there is one belief that we all hold – Australian Rules Football is the greatest sport on earth.
With its laws forged from the Anglo-Celtic ethos of a fair go and its expansiveness born from the indigenous game of Marngrook, our game is more than simply entertainment – it is a true expression of identity.
It is quintessentially Australian, so why wouldn't we want to share it?
Due to this common agreement of sporting superiority and in an effort to spread the good word, we have seen our code exported to various far-flung locations around the globe.
Although these excursions may have ultimately proven futile, it is worth remembering the endeavors all the same.
As none of us will be able to jet off internationally any time in the foreseeable future, here is a list you can live vicariously through, comprised of the eleven countries Aussie Rules has officially been played in.
6.
Japan
Following previous Asian adventures in India and Singapore, the code returned to the continent in 1986.
Billed as the ‘Aussie Bowl', the 1986 VFL Grand Finalists Hawthorn and Carlton flew to Japan just over a month after the Premiership decider.
In front of a more than healthy crowd of 25,000 – no doubt aided by it being a public holiday – at Yokohama's Baseball Stadium, the Hawks again beat the Blues by the healthy margin of 53 points.
Due to the synthetic grass surface, players wore knee and elbow pads to avoid injury. On-field rosters were also cut from 18 to 15 to befit the size of the ground.
So successful was the jaunt, the VFL repeated the dosage twelve months later, with Essendon pitted against the Hawks.
The Dons may have been crushed by Hawthorn, but that didn't stop a beaming Justin Madden claiming an eye-catching ride home.
With the crowd dropping from 25,000 to 13,000 in the space of a year, it was clear that VFL CEO Ross Oakley had seen enough and ended the experiment.
Although there was talk of a post-season Aussie Bowl reprisal in 2006, all we were left with was this naff Kevin Sheedy snap.
