Speak to an Englishman and football can only mean soccer. An American immediately dreams of the pigskin and the glory of the Super Bowl. For a Kiwi, of course, it's the scream of the Haka and the mighty All Blacks of Rugby Union fame. But to an Australian sports fan, the word can mean only one thing — Australian Rules.
In Japan this game is so poorly understood that the name has been abridged to "AussieBall."
And it's not only among the Japanese that the misconceptions flourish. Most foreigners here have a similarly poor understanding of the game that inspires near-religious fervor among its converts.
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