2014 has been a year of record-breaking games. Some of the longest and most painful droughts in Australian sporting history were broken.
I was fortunate enough to be present when the NSW Waratahs won their first title since the conception of Super Rugby 19 years ago. I was also never going to miss being at the ground when the mighty Rabbitohs broke their 43-year premiership drought. NSW also broke Queensland’s 8-year dynasty, finally claiming the State of Origin series.
Amongst these amazing stories, enduring images of sportsmen were captured. Who could forget Jarryd Hayne running into the crowd of Blatchy’s Blues and standing before them triumphant? Or the post match interview, when Hayne cried into the camera, squeaking out the words “It’s been a long time”?
Who could forget Sam Burgess crouching down, tears rolling down his busted face? Or the tears in the eyes of Greg Inglis, who realised that he, finally, delivered himself and South Sydney supporters a premiership.
These images of grown, strong men reduced to tears are ones that stick in your mind, and will be used in promotional material for decades to come.
Even though we know it is just a game, what makes sportspeople and their fans burst into tears? Why can sport have such a profound effect on people?
Firstly, the fans. The long suffering, dedicated people who often pay large amounts of money to see their team play. I always watched sport as a release, a distraction from the day-to-day life we all live. When I was a high school student, I couldn’t wait until Friday afternoon, when I knew the school week was over and the big match of the weekend would be played.
Likewise, Sunday afternoon signalled my last bit of joy before the grind of next week. No matter what had happened during the week, or was going to happen next, I always watched that Friday night game. It was my method of not worrying about anything for 80 minutes, except the result.
You can understand then, that defeat can cause emotion at times among the fans. My father and I always said that an entire week could be ruined when Souths lost. We suffered many ruined weeks as a result. When you spend money and look forward to your team playing, a loss is always a disappointing result.
You only need to look toward the reaction of the crowd during Brazil’s 7-1 loss to Germany. After billions of dollars worth of building, planning and 50 years of expectation, the tears flooded with each goal conceded.
The reason our sporting stars burst into tears is similar.
The opportunities to win world cups, premierships, Origin series or Test matches are rare, and the effort put in by the players to train culminate for years. For Hayne, Paul Gallen, Inglis and Burgess, tears of joy are shed when years worth of effort finally pay off. For the Brazilian football players, that effort is painfully wasted.
The players that pull on the jerseys are representing years of history and a legacy. They are the leaders of a team that thousands of people identify with. How often do you say ‘we’ beat so and so, instead of ‘they’ when describing your team?
I wonder how much the expectation of 43 years had to do with the emotion showed by the South Sydney players. It seems impossible for grounded sportspeople not to realise that their actions on the biggest stage influence hundreds of thousands of people. I think the world would be a far better place if our politicians took that amount of consideration when representing their people.
When Cathy Freeman waved both the Aboriginal and Australian flags in 2000, she produced one the most amazing Australian sporting memories. When John Aloisi slammed home that final penalty in 2005, he sent the hopes of a nation into overdrive.
He singled handedly took Australia to a world cup, in that one moment. Take a moment to watch these moments and see the crowd’s reaction.
In those moments, the result moved far beyond ‘winning’. These moments represented a sporting nation proving itself once again on the biggest stage, with the fans cheering them with admiration, as if the fans had competed themselves.
At times, sport seems more than just a pastime. Sport pins hopes, sport allows us to feel the highest joys and the lowest lows. What moments in sporting history do you believe prove that sport is more than sport?
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