Adelaide: How to turn city of bad sports into great fans

Seriously, this bloke bruce djite is a park footballer. whats his his top goal tally in a season? no more than 10. and thats in the A-league. cant believe he played for Australia. show how poor our league compared with overseas.

I personally have nothing against Victoria, just pointing out a glaring error in geography

Oddly enough the Crows supporters are considered the Chardonnay set. I do wish everyone would make up their minds as to what category the South Australian supporters fall into. The mixed messages are oh so confusing.

Bangladesh, Bryan, Bangladesh

This piece was not about a code, all I did was use an example. I repeat, this is what I wrote - "Regardless of code … why are they such bad sports?" Special thanks to all the South Australians who agreed with me :)

Brett, As someone who grew up on SA water I can only say you do it a dis-service. Where else can you find water that is both food and drink at the same time? Of course, it can get a little disconcerting when it goes that horrible brown colour but the best thing to do is just shut your eyes and drink. I guess that's why, when I was a kid, everyone had a rain-water tank. I can still remember drinking from that with wrigglers in the water. I suppose, eventually, those things would have become mosquitoes.

Michael, Would that be because Victoria sucks?

As if this only happens in Adelaide. Just one very recent example concerning that gentalman's gme that Australioans worship - cricket. Sri Lankan supporters stoned the West Indian players bus after they had beaten the Sri Lakans in the " World " cup ( I have included the exclamation points as the cricket authorities believe that there are only 14 countries in the world ) This is NOT about a code, nor is it about one particular city. It's about the millions who invesst their emotive selves in their team sport.

Rugby sevens are also completely meaningless, much like the lesser of the Rugby codes upon which it is based. I guess that is why it has never inspired the passion that leads to riots and even wars like the real football.

1. You aren't from Adelaide, so you really aren't qualified to comment on our city and or our fans. We have some of the most loyal fans in the league - even despite finishing last a season before, our crowds were basically the same as this years (give or take) with a much better side. At least we show up every week. 2. Djite was otherwise acting like an idiot throughout the game and held the game numerous times, committed a few niggling professional fouls. So who cares if he was booed? I like Djite and didn't boo him but it was hardly undeserved. When Paul Reid is booed on his return to Adelaide next season it will be richly deserved too. 3. No other fan base has suffered like ours has since the A-League began. No other fan base has had endure crushing defeats like ours has. We've lost two grand finals, one by 6-0, and collapsed in a heap in season 1 after dominating that year. We've lost an Asian Champions League final. We had to put up with three years of losing to a team we all hate. You're right, we are BAYING for success, but that's because we have had to witness defeat after defeat and want to win for once and have our turn. Melbourne fans wouldn't get it, they've never had the frustration and the humiliation we've had. So what if we booed Djite? That's generally how people respond to a loss, standing around golf clapping just shows you don't care enough. 4. Like I said, you just don't get it.

See there you go - like so many non-football people - you confuse the popularity of "The Beautiful Game" with popularity for our 6-year old club competition. It makes me laugh at how silly this comparision is. Football is the most popular team sport played by Australians - clubs actually have to turn people away b/c demand far exceeds available teams. And, to play the Game requires knowledge of the Laws, learning and applying techniques and understanding systems, structures and tactics. By all means, make scathing comments about the popularity of the A-League ... but, come one the sport of Football has never been more popular in Australia.

This will not grow the game in Australia, I'm afraid. Maybe that's the price of true modernity that is losing this true support for the game = true support for my club. I don't mean this to offend as some of the best part of sport is its traditions, but ultimately you're only going to get a situation that gets worse not better if all you have at the game are hardliners.

Coopers Pale Ale, bottle conditioned, for me

There is one point here that I disagree with though, and that is the insinuation that low population correlates with poor sportsmanship. I originally come from the country, indeed my local town was a good 10kms away had a mere 300 people in it, and I had never heard any booing or poor sportsmanship anywhere in the countryside no matter which sport was played. Teams met for beers after games, regardless of the sport, and families from different towns mixed as did the kids. It was only when I went to the city that teams no longer mingled and this tribalism that many abhore raised its head. Where I was from if you wanted to put together a cricket team then the you had to include the kid with the Chinese parents and the kid with the brace on his leg if you were going to get even close to eleven players.

Jaredsbro You've missed my point. I particularly said I would only show my displeasure towards an ex-MVFC player IF he played for the opposition and IF he was instrumental in beating MVFC. I had no trouble politely clapping big Ljubo at the end of his controversial game playing for Newcastle against MVFC at AAMI Park this season because MVFC won and Newcastle lost. But, if it had been Ljubo, who had scored the winner in stoppage time, instead of Robbie K ... well, I'm sure the reaction from the MVFC faithful would have been Incendiary - metaphorically and literally! PS: In my mind there's only one sport worth watching and that's Football. I honestly don't care if you don't like it or the majority of Aussies don't like it. And, as I've matured, apart from drinking beer, there is very little about "popular Australian culture" that I find appealing anymore.

What get's me is that fact that many here are saying the booings worse than the bottle-throwing and others say that this can't be true because they reckon Soccer's always been a game of booing...but it hasn't been a game of throwing stuff on the field. Both arguments are only really touch on half of what's going on here. Basically the two problems are connected to Soccer's unwillingness to hybridise into a truly Australian sport. Sure it's played by oodles of Australians, but maybe it's still to embrace the give every one a fair go ethos. Having said that AFL fans in the city too have problems...so I have another theory. Maybe Adelaiders have yet to fully embrace the New Holland way of doing things...by being modern sporting fans, ie turn up and shout and support, but with enough self-consciousness to make sure you only support it for what it is...a game. Finally it's quite possible this is a Southern issue more generally, as this doesn't happen as riotously in Melbourne as Adelaide, but there is still an underlying obsessiveness which is unbecoming of a modern sports viewing culture.

Goodness me Redb I've told you at least once to stop misappropriating Northern sayings, it's just not becoming of a Southerner ;) Also how fair is it constantly make fun of your most southern brethren.

OK so art are you actually claiming that sex can make a people's moods better, or be able to better manage frustration etc. Geez how did this all get so scientific ;) I'm not sure I totally agree of course...success never seems to come so easily, ie with what you already have in your posession in a given time (actually that came out wrong not being sexist at all :P ). Success usually comes from building for the future and that starts with the present, which at this point is a city renowned for its history. And why is it so hard for a city that was founded entirely on free labour be so down on itself? Population of Adelaide was bigger than Auckland's for ever until recently. Also the best way of having a genuine rivalry with Melbourne is to start taking away some of the cultural events from the Southern Capital..be brazen in your approach...you don't need to be phallic

Yeah it's also the case that one should be proud of one's history if at all possible (both individual and collective) and part of the 'history' of Adelaide sport is its rivalry with Melbourne. It's also the case that Adelaide has other cities that are its rival too...but like with passion (but not excessive) passion there is a case for being proud of your history, ie respecting players...but not necessarily respecting their actions

And its beaches are shallow too of course ;)