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Cut Johns some slack for being a typical Aussie bloke

15th June, 2010
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Roar Guru
15th June, 2010
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4870 Reads
Australian Rugby League player Andrew Johns, right, is handed off by Leeds Rhinos' Danny Ward. AP Photo/Paul Ellis

Australian Rugby League player Andrew Johns, right, is handed off by Leeds Rhinos' Danny Ward. AP Photo/Paul Ellis

So, onto Origin Two: an already awesome Queensland team against a NSW side which looked like a better unit before it completely collapsed into a farce. Can they recover? Unlikely. Would it have made a difference? Probably not.

There is something distinctly depressing about sitting down to write a match preview and the issue staring at you is the ugly face of racism.

I know the State of Origin often brings about battle heavy language, but a race war? Fair dinkum.

Who is organising these Blues training camps? BP?

These camps seem to be a string of disasters ever since we turfed them out of the pubs and made them visit schools. Maybe we should blame the school kids.

Thankfully we can all agree that what Andrew Johns said was wrong. We may differ in whether we agree with what Timana Tahu did, but I applaud his actions.

If he was that offended with what Johns said, then I say, well done for making a stand and bringing the issue to a head. Tahu did what so many of us haven’t done in Australian society.

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I don’t think Andrew Johns is a racist.

I also don’t think he’s likely to have his MENSA membership approved anytime soon. I’m going to give Johns the benefit of the doubt and say that I feel he was probably try to get a group of men fired up, and thought dropping a few expletives would do the trick.

The last thing he probably thought was that he’d end up down a winger from the session.

What I find a bit weird about the whole thing is that, from my understanding, Tahu and Johns are great mates. They won a premiership together in 2000, and when Johns commentates on Parramatta games, it is usually doubles as a sitting of the Timana Tahu appreciation society.

I’m a little stunned that if Johns was a serial dropper of the racist remarks, this wouldn’t have come to a head earlier – that Tahu wouldn’t have made his grievances known and perhaps even confronted Johns at some stage, seeing they have known each other for over a decade.

I’m not suggesting that Tahu’s actions weren’t sincere, or that he should have dealt with it privately. But rather that it’s part of the equation for me that doesn’t make sense.

Perhaps it’s a sign of the importance of the issue that almost instantly Johns and Tahu were referring to each other like they were complete strangers.

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At least the wind came quickly out of the sails of Anthony Mundine’s call for an Origin boycott, with Tahu then saying he was hoping to return for game three.

Some people will probably assume I’m defending Andrew Johns because he comes from the rugby league camp and in their simplistic minds my job is to wave the rugby league flag and blindly support the code against others on this site.

Those people are wrong.

I’m forgiving Andrew Johns because he is an Australian male and there are many males in Australia that will say something within their group in an attempt of humour, to bignote themselves, or to make a point that they’d be horrified if it was broadcast to a nation.

Johns clearly should have known better, but as his record suggests, he is not a fast learner in that regard.

I have a colleague (whom I’m confident won’t be reading this) who expressed Grade A outrage at Johns, yet from the same office chair weeks earlier, had declared that he would never pick Souths or the Warriors again because they were full of “Abo’s and Coconuts”.

He wouldn’t call himself a racist. Maybe he’s just a c***.

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