The Hall of Fame match: “passion deficit”

 

Roar Pro

By Best Clubman, 17 May 2008 The Crowd is a Roar Pro

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The football industry has spat out many new slang words and terms that border on the ridiculous in an attempt to ensure footballer’s and coach’s comments are as insightful and hard hitting as a Zoot Review commercial.

“Zoning off” is used now when a player refuses to man up; “accountable football” is used when a team follows the evolutionary concept of actually manning up the opponent rather than “flooding”; and “fat side of the ground” refers apparently to the half of the ground that Stuart Dew is in.

After the debacle that was the Hall of Fame Tribute Match, you can add a new word to the football lexicon: “passion deficit”. Not that the game wasn’t highly skilled and enjoyable, but at the end of the day the match was a heartless contest that left the crowd thoroughly bored.

In much the same way as Best Clubman’s paramour nodding off for a kip during “freaky time” in the bedroom suggests an audience that isn’t as entertained as it could be, having the crowd perform the Mexican wave deep in the final quarter with the game in the balance indicates that the match didn’t pull at the heartstrings and invoke the spirit once associated with State Of Origin.

But that’s not what the players who were privileged enough to play in the game would have us believe. Adelaide’s Brett Burton went on the record that there was no “passion deficit” among the Dream team squad due to their mutual hatred of anything associated with Victoria.

History shows us that while hate is a powerful unifier amongst men, the efforts of those who continue their campaigns as a manifestation of their hatred for another person or group of people does not always lead to good things when you consider the actions of the Nazi party, the Ku Klux Klan and a post-Roger Waters Pink Floyd.

In the wake of Victoria’s win in the big game, commentators have speculated that the difference between the team’s was a so-called “passion deficit” whereby Victoria were able to unite behind the idea of wearing the Big V and representing their home state, whereas the Dream Team had as much in common as David Duke and Louis Farrakhan.

But Burton was having none of that and hypothesised that there was a more rudimentary difference between the two sides; making the most of opportunities. “It’s a fair comment (that the Vics were more passionate) but I wouldn’t read into the fact they won the game as passion.

You saw how we started, the third quarter we kicked seven goals, we had our chances in the last quarter and just didn’t nail our goals. That was pretty much the difference in the end,” Burton said in a statement that overlooked the most obvious explanation for Victoria’s win; Leon Davis and Matthew Stokes played for the Dream Team.

All that Saturday night’s game proved was that annual representative matches in AFL will never work or capture the public’s imagination. And, just like instances of Best Clubman enjoying “freaky time” in the bedroom with a potential paramour, perhaps they should be limited to once every four years.

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