News late last week that the A-League’s new team from Townsville will be known as North Queensland Fury prompted all sorts of response – good and bad – and generally, got people thinking, yet again, about the best and worst sporting team names kicking around.
For starters: kids, can you draw me a Fury? No? Don’t worry, neither can I.
Names, logos and mascots of sporting teams are always a great source of discussion, because obviously everyone has an opinion on what’s good and what’s less than good. One man’s Penrith Panthers is another man’s South Queensland Crushers.
Where once upon a time the norm was to use an aggressive beast, being or object. There’s been a definite move in recent years – especially in the national competitions – to move to mascots without legs, wheels or wings.
There wouldn’t be too many comps in Australia that don’t feature lions and tigers and bears (oh my …) Or magpies, come to think of it.
But these seem to be dying off, becoming extinct, if you will, in favour of Aces, Diamonds, or Thunder. Spirit seems to be everywhere, and obviously we now have Fury too.
Is this the future of naming teams? Will new clubs just watch re-runs of “Gladiators” and pick one at random?
In the A-League alone, Glory, Victory and Roar compete against Jets, Mariners, and FC, and a string of Uniteds.
How can different teams all be United?
The NRL and AFL teams aren’t too bad, I guess. Port Adelaide Power was and still is a little weird, and I used to think the same of the Melbourne Storm, until I read a Melbourne weather forecast.
In the Super 14, a Waratah hardly evokes fear, and similarly, the Western Force would still appear to have some work to do to live up to their name. Queensland’s Reds are fine, except that they play in maroon.
In fact, just to highlight this confusion, the Reds once played the Auckland Blues on a hot Brisbane day, and so we had the Reds, wearing maroon, playing the Blues, who wore white!
Hello!?
I’ve never come across anyone that can explain to me what a 36er, 49er, or 76er is, either.
Over the ditch, who knows how much lateral thinking and imagination went into All Blacks and Black Caps? And there goes my New Zealand readership again.
It seems that the best imaginations are outside our national competitions.
Growing up in country New South Wales, some cracking names immediately spring to mind: Parkes Spacemen, Junee Diesels, Young Cherrypickers, West Wyalong Mallee Men, Hay Cutters, Leeton Phantoms, and Bungendore Mudchooks.
Forbes Platypi, Orange Emus, and the Bathurst Penguins soon follow.
Fans of Rampaging Roy Slaven would be well aware of the Lithgow Shamrocks. That’s just from my immediate area: I’m sure there’s thousands more out there.
And who knows what those wacky Queenslanders have used over time?
Lovers of Hunter Valley wine would agree that there wouldn’t be too many more aptly named rugby teams floating around than the Pokolbin Reds.
So if country and district teams can embrace a local landmarks and industry for their teams, why must our national entities go for something so “out there” just to ensure marketing individuality? Is something like Fury really the foundation on which to “build the brand?”
And more’s the point, given that everyone really does have an opinion on what’s good and what’s shockingly bad, why don’t new teams ask their potential supporters whether they’d prefer to support a Tiger or a Glory?
North Queensland Fury. Was that the best they could come up with?
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