why not enjoy both sports for their positives and negatives?
haven't really been able to follow AFL as much as normal this year given the kids soccer commitments each weekend, but try to keep up to date with the happenings
at grassroots level it seems to be changing.. at my son's local primary school here in WA all the kids play soccer at recess and lunch, rarely AFL - this is at a "normal" school, which would have been unheard of when i grew up (it was all AFL and cricket, along with a few other games that probably wouldn't be allowed due to H&S nazis these days).. in addition, there are a few schools nearby that have dedicated soccer academys set up
the local Auskick program set-up seems a lot more informal as well.. no training during the week, every second weekend they play matches and do drills on the other.. my son's U8 soccer team train twice a week with a match each sunday, he also does indoor soccer and a separate academy training session..
this is pretty much locking the kids in to soccer for as long as they want to be involved / get enjoyment out of it.. each year a bunch of new kids register with hardly any dropping out.. will be interesting to see where the trend goes in ~10 years time..
