Australian Rules Football is a better sport than American Football

I will begin this argument by combating cons list of, "things American Football has that Australian football doesnt have." 1) Catches (called marks in Australian Football) are an essential, exciting part of Australian Football and the most spectacular ones pale the amazing catches made in the NFL. See Video 1. 2) AFL is played without padding, making the hits harder on the body and therefor more brutal. 3) While there are more players on an AFL field, the field is significantly bigger so it balances out. 4) All players are far from exactly the same, this claim is pure blasphemy! Aaron Sandilands is the current tallest player at 211cm, 125kg [1] while Robin Nahas stands at 176cm, 76kg [2]. Players can be found ranging everywhere in between. 5) There are no touchdowns in Australian Football 6) Kicks, Handballs, Marks, Contested Possessions, Clearances, Smothers and Disposal Efficiency are just some of the stats found in Australian Football 7) AFL moves to quickly for this to happen, although it is a good rule. 8) See 2 9) See 1 10) There's more people and cities in America, of course there will be more teams, this doesn’t actually add to the quality of the sport 11) Actually 99,537 fans attended the 2011 AFL Grand Final. The highest ever attendance is 121,696, more than the highest superbowl attendance.[3][4] 12) I don't see how this point makes the sport better, it's just a fact. 13) Actually the AFL has two drafts and up and coming players are tracked through u18 competitions. 14) No fat people play AFL so this is probably true. 15) While this is true, AFL games are often decided by a goal or two, and with the high scoring nature, teams can rapidly come from behind to win. See Video 2 16) How is it exciting if no team scores, that's just a walkover (which con actually critised AFL for) 17) See 15. I also need to correct cons, "things that you don’t know about Aussie football' 1) This is not stupid, it actually takes a lot of skill to bounce the ball while running flat out and in no way dimishes from the spectacle of the sport. If anything, it adds to it. 2) I think con is referring the 'holding the ball' rule. If you are tackled correctly and either do not dispose of the ball legally or don't get rid of it and have had prior opportunity to do so then a free kick is awarded to the tackler. The purpose of this is twofold. 1, it promotes fast movement of the ball, 2, it rewards the efforts of the tackler. 3) In Australian football tripping is dangerous both to the tackler and the ball carrier due mainly to the lack of padding so this rule is to protect players. 4) This comment makes so sense. See video's 3 & 4. 5) A goal in AFL football must be kicked because it is a game of football. Goals can be scored from and angle and if you are open you can run in to celebrate a goal. Also see video 3. 6) I concede this point, it is irritating. However this is only a small part of the sport as a whole. Furthermore con has stated that: "Defense also needs to know to recognize if its a run or a pass, a trick play, cover people going out for a pass, know where the first down marker is, know how to play zone coverage or man coverage...." No matter what the play is the defensive tackles will still charge at people with their head, be it the running back or the quarterback. "a team could gain 30, 40 even 50 yards on a play regularly which makes it far more exciting then the Aussie football." In Australian football, most, not some kicks will travel 30 or 40 meters and these do not come after half a minute of no action. In video's 3 & 4 we see the ball kicked to the centre of the ground and constantly witness plays that go for over 100m. This statement from con is clearly incorrect. I will acknowledge that I was not aware that running backs would also double as wide receivers. However this still does not bring them anywhere near the base skill level of your average AFL midfielder. Take Trent Cotchin for example, one of the favorites for the Brownlow Medal (AFL MVP). He starts the game in the midfield, where he must be able to shake a defender and gather the ball in traffic before disposing of it accurately on either of his hands or either foot. Around the ground he must position himself to either receive the ball from teammates or win it himself. When he gets it he must then assess which of his 17 other teammates (a quarterback has a maximum of 11 and this is rare) to give it to while under pressure from the other team. Then, Trent will often push into the forward line for a rest where he must be able to outmark opponents and kick goals, while performing the aforementioned skills. This is not just the capability of one player alone. Teams will often have 7-8 players who can rotate through the midfield that must be skilled in all these areas. The player on an Australian Football team that requires the least amount of skill is the 200cm+ ruckman. A ruckmans job is hard to describe so it would be best just to watch video 5. Basically they are responsible for tapping the ball to the other players in the team as well as being a marking target because of their height and athleticism. While Nic Naitanui is one of the best tap ruckmen in the league, he couples this with stunning athletic ability to be one of the sports elite players. Compare this to the defensive tackle on an NFL team and their skill set is nothing in comparison. My arguments stand, Australian Football requires much greater skill to play than American Football and the video's I have supplied as evidence, plus my rebuttals of cons points to the contrary demonstrate that it is a much more exciting sport as well. I'm out of space, sources are provided in the comments :) http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com...; http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com...http://www.youtube.com...