Vote Compass: How do fans of your AFL team lean politically?

Updated

There is some validity in the stereotypes often attributed to the supporters of AFL clubs, results from the Vote Compass survey indicate.

Collingwood, Richmond and Western Bulldogs fans were found to be more likely to vote Labor, while Demons, Hawks and Cats supporters were more likely to back the Coalition.

Collingwood, Richmond and Western Bulldogs are clubs widely perceived to have working class roots.

But apart from the Bulldogs, the difference in voter intention of supporters is minimal.

About 40 per cent of Western Bulldogs supporters identified as Labor voters, compared to 27 per cent who said they would vote for the Coalition

Collingwood fans favoured Labor 39 to 35 per cent, while Richmond supporters were similar with 39 to 34 per cent.



Melbourne, Hawthorn and Geelong supporters are often stereotyped as conservative and Vote Compass found their fans were slightly more likely to vote for the Coalition.

Hawthorn supporters favoured the Coalition (41 per cent) over Labor (35 per cent), Melbourne fans 39 to 34 per cent and Geelong supporters 37 to 35 per cent.

Carlton is a club generally seen with a very mixed supporter base.

It derives much of its support from the traditionally working-class northern suburbs of Melbourne, but the club is also seen as being closely aligned with the top end of Melbourne's business community.

The club had former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser as a supporter and former Liberal Party president John Elliott was a long-serving Carlton president.

Vote Compass revealed political support amongst Blues fans was evenly divided, with 37 per cent supporting the Coalition and 36 per cent the ALP.

St Kilda is a club that appeared to buck the stereotypes.

Where the club's former Moorabbin home was seen as an intimidating working-class suburban venue for opposition supporters, 40 per cent of Saints fans now identify as Coalition voters compared to 37 per cent for Labor.

More Essendon supporters completed the Vote Compass survey than fans of any other club, with Collingwood second, Geelong third and Hawthorn fourth.

Surprisingly, in a state where the AFL is often referred to as a religion, 32 per cent of the 71,639 people surveyed said they did not support an AFL team.

Those who do not support an AFL team were nearly twice as likely to vote Greens than football followers.

FAQ

What is this?

The ABC launched Vote Compass Victoria on Sunday, November 2, in the lead-up to the state election.

It is a tool that allows voters to see how their views compare to the parties' policies.

The data was weighted across a range of demographic factors using the latest population estimates to be a true representation of opinion at the time of the field.

The findings are based on more than 70,000 respondents to Vote Compass from November 2 to November 24, 2014.

Vote Compass is not a random sample. Why are the results being represented as though it is a poll?

Vote Compass is not a poll. It is fundamentally an educational tool intended to promote electoral literacy and stimulate public engagement in the policy aspect of election campaigns.

That said, respondents' views as expressed through Vote Compass can add a meaningful dimension to our understanding of public attitudes and an innovative new medium for self-expression.

Ensuring that the public has a decipherable voice in the affairs of government is a critical function of a robust democracy.

Online surveys are inherently prone to selection bias but statisticians have long been able to correct for this (given the availability of certain variables) by drawing on population estimates such as Census micro-data.

The ABC applies sophisticated weighting techniques to the data to control for the selection effects of the sample, enabling us to make statistical inferences about the Australian population with a high degree of confidence.

How can you stop people from trying to game the system?

There are multiple safeguards in place to ensure the authenticity of each record in the dataset.

Vote Compass does not make its protocols in this regard public so as not to aid those that might attempt to exploit the system, but among standard safeguards such as IP address logging and cookie tracking, it also uses time codes and a series of other measures to prevent users from gaming the system.

Topics: states-and-territories, state-parliament, elections, australian-football-league, vic, melbourne-3000

First posted