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Irregularity at the margins shouldn't be football's narrative

Australian Football needs to tell it's own story, because the one others tell isn't good enough (AAP Image/David Crosling)
Roar Rookie
14th June, 2016
46

Front pages like the incendiary, end-of-days stuff on football fans with flares trotted out last Wednesday morning are perfect bait for those who splash in the shallows.

The paradox is that while it appeals to those with an IQ resembling room temperature, it is kind of reassuring that things here in Australia mustn’t be too bad if this is the best they can dish up.

The usual keyboard warriors take their hands from out of their mouths and, with true, blind, nationalistic fervour, told all fans who dared turn up going for Greece to bugger off home, while others trotted out cookie cutter hate about football. Certainly not a wide repertoire.

And in the red corner, we have the flare merchants themselves, man-children who, for various reasons, confuse sporting enthusiasm with cocking a snoot at authority and emulating fellow ghouls they’ve never met in Europe, all the while fully aware of the transgression.

The argument that flares are part of the passion of football doesn’t wash.

Not every football match in Europe is punctuated by flares being ripped, and here – where the game is trying to appeal to all ages and demographics – flares are not only dangerous but a repellent.

What both the above groups share is cowardly anonymity and the frustrating deafness to, well, anyone else’s views.

What detractors of football persistently forget is that many in Australia follow two, if not three codes. It’s interesting that a country so young can engender nationalism so feral. But that’s not going to change. You can blame the media for their selective reportage all you like, but that’s not going to change either.

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Thugs brandishing flares do so with a distorted agenda of being the centre of attention and puffing themselves up as a threat rather than supporting their team. While Spencer Street wasn’t ‘on fire’ as SEN’s Mark Allen incredulously claimed ad infinitum, there is no justification for flares outside of a boat. None.

Football haters should be treated with the silence they deserve. ‘Fans’ ripping flares should be prosecuted in both a civil and football sense to remove them from the game and send a message to other wannabes. I am dubious about clubs being hit by bans when they exert little influence over the minority of idiots who will come into a match with a flare knowing full well their actions will cost their club dearly.

The smaller the irregular margins become the better.

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