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Tom Carter is the Waratah who couldn't

8th March, 2011
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8th March, 2011
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Waratahs Tom Carter is tackled by Crusaders Andy Ellis (left) and Matt Berquist. AAP Image/NZPA, Wayne Drought

Waratahs Tom Carter is tackled by Crusaders. AAP Image/NZPA, Wayne Drought

Tom Carter. The name strikes fear into the hearts of opposing back-lines this year. No, not quite, but some people think he’s been particularly good this year. That wouldn’t be hard – he hadn’t exactly set the benchmark remarkably high.

Other people think he is just the same ol’ Tommy Carter: just a slow, slightly chubby inside centre who tackles a bit and isn’t afraid to be a battering ram.

Hardly a high quality professional rugby player, is he?

You see, Tom Carter is one of those players that people love to Crusaderise* to the nth degree. Some people love him, but most people hate him and therefore love to barrack AGAINST him.

See I like the Waratahs and cheer for them to win on the weekend – but at the same time I want Carter to get smashed, throw a few errant passes and get chased down on a break to the try-line.

I’d be willing to bet that I’m not the only rugby follower in this boat. It actually gets tricky sometimes, wishing the Waratahs home, while not wanting Carter to be apart of the good!

I can admire his selfless ability to throw himself into a defensive line at top speed – well his top speed – just to set up a quality ruck. I can see he makes a good tackle or two, but still I love to hate him.

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Someone on The Roar raised Carter in a discussion the other day, said he had performed quite well this year. This was after round 2. After round 3, and a loss to the Crusaders, Spiro Zavos wrote a piece and included criticism of Carter.

A few people jumped on board the bagging bandwagon, including me.

Before long there was an annoying contrary individual who wanted to point out that, in fact, Carter was probably one of our better players because he scored a try and actually made a lot of tackles, missing none.

Well, we can’t let anyone cheer on the guy we love to hate can we? No, sir! So all of us Crusaderisers (wow, the vocabulary on here is spectacular!) thought of a number of reasons why those facts don’t count:

“I didn’t see his tackles, therefore they weren’t important.”

“He is still remarkably slow.”

“No, that try was basically a walk over because of Tatafu Polota-Nau’s great run and off-load.”

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“Even after the great set up he still made the try seem in doubt enough to warrant a TMO looking at it.”

“Was Tom Carter on the field? Oh, sorry I didn’t even realise.”

“It’s the players around him, they make him look better. See what happens when he doesn’t have world class Berrick Barnes inside him and Kurtley Beale outside him sometime.”

Ok, I’ll admit that some of those responses were just me and were never written on a message board, but everyone was thinking along the same lines. Spiro even came back on to emphasise his point again.

I say all that to say this – people love to hate big Tommy Carter. It’s never going to change.

He could be the last man picked for the Wallabies World Cup squad, have four inside centres play and get injured before him, run on for the final, score 3 tries, make 20 tackles and kick the winning field goal, but we would still find a reason to say he’s not really that good.

Of course, that will never happen, because he’s not that good. But you get the point.

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There is more evidence, look at the man himself. Watch his celebrations when he scores a try, or sets one up. He goes off his nut!

But not in a Drew Mitchell I-do-this-all-the-time-it-shows-how-good-I’ve-become way, its much more than that. He celebrates like he knows everyone watching him didn’t think he could do it.

If only I could not Crusaderise him for a few minutes.

I’d probably be able to admire a man that has risen to what is really quite a high level of professional athleticism. I might be able to consider the fact he has done this with what is probably considered less talent than others in the game.

He isn’t as naturally as silky smooth Kurtley Beale or Quade Cooper. He wasn’t created as powerfully as Digby Ioane. I might really applaud him because he is still making the most of what he has. But I can’t NOT Crusaderise.

At one point here I was considering using a bit of a statistical table to analyse how he ranks among the other Super 15 regular inside centres so far.

But that isn’t the point, is it?

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It’s not about statistics. We can twist them, turn them round and still want to cheer against him and that’s ok, its sport.

Even if the stats were to clearly point out that, so far this season (I have to put qualifiers on the slightest possible compliment!), he has been one of the best in his position I would still call him things like useless, slow, the worst Waratah ever signed and one-dimensional when he plays.

Although, in actual fact, there are many worse Waratahs and some of them have even less dimensions than him. Dean Mumm for example, I don’t think he even has ONE dimension. But Carter is the one I choose to Crusaderise.

I think it’s healthy, it’s what makes being a fan special; we can decide we don’t like a team/person. We don’t have to hate them as people but on a sports field it’s different, I can actually respect them as a team and acknowledge their abilities but still want to cheer heavily against them. It goes further than that. There is the constant dissecting of the game.

When we Crusaderise someone, or a team, we can’t believe that they were really that good even when they were. Sure the Crusaders beat the Waratahs, but the ref was on their side, and besides, it was only an intercept try that got them going. See? It’s easy.

It’s fun.

*To Crusaderise is the fans ability to cheer or barrack against a team or person just for the sake of it. Clearly the Crusaders have been a great rugby team for a number or years, have had some quality success and play some quality football. But there are thousands of rugby fans out there who look past all that just to cheer against a successful team they love to hate.

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