{"id":877456,"date":"2026-09-02T13:20:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T13:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/877456\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T13:20:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T13:20:23","slug":"australia-road-warriors-49ers-fans-poised-to-make-a-splash-in-football-mad-melbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/877456\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia road warriors: 49ers fans poised to make a splash in football-mad Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Rams might have avoided the annual migration of San Francisco 49ers fans to SoFi Stadium this year, but they\u2019ll still be seeing red \u2014 a lot of it \u2014 at next week\u2019s season opener in Australia, the NFL\u2019s first game on the continent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because not only are 49ers fans the most well-traveled<\/a> in the league, but there are already plenty of them Down Under. According to the NFL, the 49ers are the league\u2019s most popular team in Australia, even though they aren\u2019t one of the four teams \u2014 the Rams, Philadelphia Eagles, Las Vegas Raiders and Seattle Seahawks \u2014 with marketing rights in the country.<\/p>\n

The 49ers leave for Melbourne on Wednesday night and arrive Friday morning. The Rams aren\u2019t expected in until the day before the game, which kicks off locally at 10:35 a.m. on Sept. 11 (or 8:35 p.m. ET on Sept. 10).<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that comes from being one of the top teams in the \u201980s, when a lot of people here consumed the NFL,\u201d NFL Australia and New Zealand general manager Charlotte Offord said of the 49ers\u2019 popularity. \u201cAnd a lot of people continued to follow those top teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Moss, 50, will be among those wearing a 49ers jersey at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which can host up to 100,024, next week. The Brisbane resident said his NFL introduction came in the early 1990s via the \u201cJohn Madden American Football\u201d video game he played on Sega Mega Drive, the Aussie equivalent of the Sega Genesis. The 49ers were winning Super Bowls, Joe Montana was a global figure and San Francisco became Moss\u2019 team.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The front and back covers of \u201cJohn Madden American Football,\u201d which introduced Steve Moss to the NFL in the early 1990s. (Courtesy of Steve Moss)<\/p>\n

He said he drifted away from the sport over the next two decades as the 49ers slipped from their throne. But he came rushing back in 2015 when Jarryd Hayne, a star in the National Rugby League, won a roster spot with the 49ers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was such an amazing Rugby League player,\u201d Moss said. \u201cIt was a really huge story for him to make the roster. And so that\u2019s when I really re-engaged with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This time, Moss was hooked for good.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an adult, I could see the choreography and the work that goes into plays,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s such a different style of football from the Australian code. But I found it fascinating. I paraphrase it like this: \u2018I came back for Jarryd Hayne, and I stayed for Joe Staley.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

For Australian fans like him, the NFL is a tangle of familiarity and foreignness.<\/p>\n

The country already has its own brand of football, Australian rules football, a four-quarter game with hard hits, an oblong ball and uprights. The Australian Football League is the country\u2019s most popular spectator sport, and half its 18 teams are based in Melbourne, one reason the city was tapped to host the 49ers and Rams. The AFL, in fact, will be in the midst of its postseason when the NFL comes to town.<\/p>\n

Then again, concepts like a forward pass, polycarbonate helmets and the stop-and-start style of play are strange to Australian viewers. So is the sight of a player celebrating after nearly every play.<\/p>\n

\u201cA defensive guy gets a sack, and to us, he\u2019s jumping around like he\u2019s won the Super Bowl,\u201d Moss said. \u201cEvery touchdown is a massive celebration. Even when teams are losing and they\u2019ll score, they\u2019ll celebrate. And that\u2019s not what\u2019s done over here. If you\u2019re scoring, if you\u2019re making good tackles, you\u2019re just doing your job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Punter Jack Bouwmeester said Aussies call that \u201ctall poppy syndrome.\u201d Bouwmeester, a Bendigo, Australia, native who spent the offseason with the 49ers and is currently on the Rams\u2019 practice squad, explained that in Australia, the poppy that strains for sunlight and rises above its mates is the one that gets lopped off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anyone does anything good, they\u2019ll cut you down for it,\u201d he said. \u201cAustralia\u2019s real humble. You\u2019ve got to be humble \u2014 thank the team and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the NFL goes international, what are the challenges?<\/p>\n

Jayna Bardahl<\/p>\n

Said Moss: \u201cThe Australian reaction for someone who\u2019s showboating too much is, \u2018Oh, pull your head in, mate.\u2019 I think it epitomizes the tall poppy syndrome \u2014 you\u2019re sticking your head out too far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Bouwmeester said that\u2019s why some Australians are drawn to the NFL \u2014 because the Joe Staley<\/a>\u2013 and George Kittle-sized<\/a> personalities are so uncommon in their sports culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn America you can kind of be yourself or puff your chest out a little bit,\u201d said Bouwmeester, who played collegiately at Michigan State, Utah and Texas. \u201cThey like how people get in the postgame press conference and are like, \u2018Oh, I dominated today.\u2019 If you said that in Australia, it wouldn\u2019t go down well.\u201d<\/p>\n

And plenty of Australians have been tuning in to the NFL over the past five years, which is why the league decided to hold a Week 1 game there. In 2022, the league had 5.7 million followers in Australia, Offord said. Last year, that number was 8.8 million \u2014 out of a population of roughly 28 million.<\/p>\n

The league is actively marketing the sport in Australia (the Rams since 2021); flag football clinics and leagues have become popular; and fantasy football has caught on in a big way.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in this market love gambling on sports,\u201d Offord said. \u201cSo I think there\u2019s a correlation between those two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Bouwmeester: \u201cAll my closest friends do fantasy football. There\u2019s also a lot more podcasts, a lot more people talking about it now than when I started punting (in 2018). Once they learn the game \u2014 and it was the same with Mom and Dad \u2014 it becomes a lot more enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another reason the NFL has been able to catch on is that there isn\u2019t much overlap between its season and the local rugby and football seasons. The AFL finishes in late September, and the NRL wraps up in October, around Week 5 of the NFL season. At that point, the NFL sees an uptick in Aussie interest that rises over the next three months, culminating with the Super Bowl. That game airs at 9:30 a.m. on a Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few years ago, really diehard fans might watch it on their phone at work,\u201d Moss said. \u201cNow, people take the day off, there are watch parties, hotels get special licenses to be able to serve alcohol earlier in the morning. So, it\u2019s definitely become a bigger thing over the last five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moss has been one of those diehards for the past decade or so, though he admits he\u2019s usually at work when the 49ers are playing, and that when he watches the replays, he\u2019ll fast-forward through stoppages and advertisements.<\/p>\n

Next week\u2019s game will be his first to watch in person. He\u2019s looking forward to the strategy, the drama, the intensity and all the things that intrigue him about the NFL. But he\u2019s not sure how his wife will react.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she will love the atmosphere,\u201d he said. \u201cShe won\u2019t have a clue what\u2019s going on as far as the intricacies of the match. But it\u2019s gonna be such a great event. It seems like they\u2019re putting in a lot of work for it, and Melbourne does events really well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Rams might have avoided the annual migration of San Francisco 49ers fans to SoFi Stadium…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,2331,593,1262,85,3276],"class_list":["post-877456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-culture","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-sports","tag-sports-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}