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Anzac Day a reminder of the hyperbole in sport

23rd April, 2014
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Expert
23rd April, 2014
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Prior to many sporting events this long weekend, teams and officials will gather together along with spectators, stand in silence and reflect on the ultimate sacrifice paid by those who gave their life for this country in various conflicts.

Each of those one-minute silences will be bracketed by the eerie and stirring lone bugler playing The Last Post and Reveille, followed by the playing and singing of the national anthem.

It will once again stir the blood and amplify the pride we all share for this nation.

No sporting venue will provide a more powerful poignancy than the 90,000-strong crowd at the MCG for the Collingwood-Essendon Anzac Day match.

For many, it will be day of heroes – past and present.

So many sports fans see the people they follow as heroes, and according to the dictionary definition, they are.

The Australian Oxford Dictionary states that a hero is “a person, typically male, noted or admired for nobility, courage, outstanding achievements, etc”.

The majority of those who run out onto the field to play Australian football, rugby league and union this weekend can be thus defined.

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However, make no mistake, the deeds and actions of those involved in any sport pales in significance to the true wartime heroes who are rightly honoured and revered on Anzac Day.

While the relevance of the term ‘hero’ to sportspeople is often debated, other words used in sporting circles are simply hyperbole.

‘Courage’ and ‘bravery’ are two such cases.

Both qualities will be oft displayed at the likes of the MCG and Suncorp Stadium tomorrow. But how often do we hear them applied to those who come from two sets down to claim a tennis match, or birdie the last three holes for victory at a golf tournament?

Honestly, unless said golfer lost a leg to an alligator while recovering his ball from a lake on the fifteenth of a Florida golf course, it is hard to assign the epithet ‘bravery’ to his effort.

Similarly, every elite sportsman nowadays seems to be a ‘great’, a ‘star’ or a ‘champion’. The terms are ridiculously attached to what former Richmond captain Jack Dyer would have described as “good, ordinary footballers”.

Another case is the description of a setback or unexpected failure. Losing a match unexpectedly or being disqualified does not really qualify as a ‘disaster’ or ‘tragedy’.

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There are tragic events in sport – Ayrton Senna’s death at San Marino or the injury that recently beset Alex McKinnon are two – but to apply it broadly and freely is to deny the true meaning of the word.

Then there is the word ‘carnage’. Such terminology should never be assigned to a sporting contest.

It is the preserve of warfare and barbaric butchery that results in an extreme number of dead, not the likes of a pile-up in the peloton at the Tour de France.

Sport is a vehicle that captures most of life’s emotions. It is rightly described as a microcosm of life.

If you watch sport you will likely experience, along with the competitors, the human emotions of joy, despair, anticipation, frustration, annoyance, anger and elation.

These are all commonplace during sporting contests, and drive us to dedicate so much of our time to it, whether as participants or spectators.

There are words to aptly tell the story of what we are watching and experiencing without delving into the world of hyperbole to describe it.

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Here endeth the lesson.

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