Is Wagga an Aussie rules or rugby league city? Dr Hunter Fujak says new data shows that Aussie rules has made big moves

The so-called Barassi Line, coined in 1978 by historian Ian Turner, split the nation in two based on preferred football codes and it placed Wagga below the line, in the rules camp.

But the Riverina has long been a contested region and many argue that it leans more towards the NSW influence and rugby league.

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Now, using new data that updates the Barassi Line, published by Wikidata, one academic argues that Aussie rules could now lay claim to the title of Wagga's favourite code.

Dr Hunter Fujak, a lecturer in sport management at Deakin University, has worked extensively on the subject and published a book on the nation's great divide, Code Wars.

Areas closer to the Victorian border, and more culturally aligned to Victoria, tend to be rules towns, he said

"But what is more of a surprise ... is the Riverina region, which has been a contested hot zone, a real battlefront of the Barassi Line, is a real encroachment by the Australian rules side into the Riverina," he said.

Former sports editor at The Daily Advertiser Les Muir has seen the pendulum swing towards Aussie rules over the last 30 years and thinks the slide started when the Wagga Leagues Club folded.

"It was a defining moment, it rocked rugby league because it lost its home base," he said.

"Maybe twenty years ago I'd have said more of a rugby league town, but I'd say especially the last decade it's swung the other way."

Mr Muir said during the proceeding period the AFL were smart with their marketing in the area, appealing to the juniors with clinics and AusKick, and despite league's popularity at a national level, it doesn't garner the same local interest.

"My heart would say it's a rugby league town, but I don't think it stands up anymore," he said.

Dr Fujak said that the question of Wagga's code allegiance is "complex" as you can measure popularity in different ways.

"If you look at the mapping, it certainly looks like Australian rules certainly has more clubs. And research shows that the best way to develop new fans is to have them play your sport at a junior level," he said.

Dr Fujak took a survey of 27,000 people's sport preferences, and while league came top in the Riverina with 50 per cent of the population interested, it was followed closely by Australian rules at 38 per cent. A gap he considers to be "statistically very small".

And adding that to the surge in junior clubs, Dr Fujak said rules could be edging rugby league in Wagga.

"But actually when you consider that [Wagga] is in NSW, then AFL is disproportionately popular," he said.

Dual-code Wagga footballer and rugby league scion Ned Mortimer said that he was, for obvious reasons, a big league fan growing up.

He enjoyed the social side of playing for Aussie rules clubs in the area, but always "took more satisfaction" playing league.

Aussie rules has become popular in the area, but rugby league has made "a fight back" at a junior level, he said. As to which code rules, he said it is a family matter.

"You're either brought up to like the great things that rugby league can bring or you like what AFL is," he said.

Where the Barassi Line sits has a wider cultural significance, according to Dr Fujak.

Australians are unique in that our love of a sport is geographically linked, due to the odd way that many regions were settled as colonies, each with its own unique culture that's reflected in its attachment to a football code.

Broken Hill for example is a NSW town that observes SA time, reads SA papers and was connected by transport to Adelaide sooner than it was to Sydney. As such, it's culturally aligned to SA and is a rules town.

This line also mirrors the Sydney-Melbourne rivalry which defines Australia, and Wagga is very much at the centre of it all.

"What really makes the Barassi Line unique is that it more or less splits the country 50-50 in terms of population," he said.

"And when you look at the popularity of the codes, it comes pretty close to 50-50. I think the data tells a clear story of [Wagga] being at the precipice of the battlefront [of the code wars]," he said.

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