I prefer ruby league over the aerial ping pong of AFL. And prefer a fast free flowing game with lots of tactical passing, first one way then the other to open up gaps in the opposition's defense. Forwards do go forward and use shoulders rather than heads as the so-called battering rams.

Pasing to open up gaps is a tactical game to reiterate, to then send a player in on an angle to score a try. As the big boppers fall over themselves trying to fill the gaps created by superior tactics. Forwards go forward sometimes to draw the opposition defense in and help to create said gaps.

Ruby league can be played the world over, whereas catch and kick, aerial ping pong is virtually limited to Victoria, South and Western Australia. And in my view, is a much less scientific (brutal contact) game with far more injuries and head trauma.
Alan B.

Alan,
Don’t forget Gaelic football as played in Ireland, about the only difference between it and AFL is that the Irish use a round ball.

I.M. They also play hurling that is singularly, Irish. You don't have to mad to play it, but it surely must help.

Gaelic football seems to be a combination of soccer and AFL

To be sure, it'd be a beautiful fine warm day in Dublin, if it wasn't for all the wind, rain, snow and ice.
Alan.

To each his own, of course.
Of the three codes mentioned, soccer (or football) is easily the most universally popular, followed by Rugby League and then AFL. The Rugby League World Cup starts next week in the UK with 16 teams entered. The Soccer World Cup is even bigger, and the sums of money involved in the game dwarf the others.
AFL is unable to compete on the world stage. My opinion is that it is too one dimensional basically, kick and catch, and attempts to puff it up with military analogies are meaningless. Basically, it is a Victorian tribal ritual, but none the less because of that.

How is it then that teams from Victoria can play against teams from Ireland, 12,000 miles away?
It defies imagination that the two games are not linked, AFL as it is now called was sometimes known as Gaelic Football played under the Australian Rules.