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Like most here on The Roar, I love sport. While cricket is my true passion, I admire, appreciate and enjoy other sports and the big games. What I get miffed about are people that cannot allow others to enjoy said sports without an unnecessarily negative comparison to another said sport.
The pre-match banter on ABC radio ahead of Friday night’s Western Bulldogs-Adelaide Crows match centred primarily on the recent press stories about a supposed potential players’ strike and other AFL finance matters.
The two presenters made a perfectly sane point – that the AFL as an organisation is in an unusual position, as both the runner of the top-flight domestic competition and custodian of the laws and development of the entire sport.
They contrasted this with English football, saying the “double FA” (er, no, it’s just the FA – a bit of sporting knowledge would work wonders there) were the custodians, while the Premiership runs as a separate competition. True. Interesting little factoid it was, too.
However, it then all took a strangely usual turn to the dull, as the presenters aired the oft-noted grievance associated with the EPL – they were glad that the AFL has so much control over the sport in Australia because at least it makes everything fair, unlike in England.
The complaint? How on Earth can a top domestic competition be considered exciting and worth watching when only four clubs can win it every season?
At least the AFL was fair, apparently.
What tosh. The presenters went further, citing “these foreign, international sports that think they can take over our Australian culture” etc… You can guess the rest.
There are two flaws here with this approach to what Australia calls fair and foreign.
So it’s un-Australian to be the best? Fairness in Aussie sport seemingly has become a sort of catch-phrase for “interesting”.
Witness the touring car championship. Two identical types of car, aside form the badges on the front, to ensure close races and fair results, yet Holden win most of the time anyway. Why? Maybe they’re just better-equipped? With better drivers? Better technical staff?
The same came to apply in Formula One competition when Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello kept thrashing everyone in their Ferraris – let’s change the rules to ensure everyone has a chance at winning.
Er, as an old uni mate of mine used to point out, that’s not the point of a real competition. Competitive sport is about being the best, and having to beat the best to do it. Can’t win a car race? Build a faster car!
Similarly, would (say) Collingwood fans – if given the option of celebrating a winning streak akin to Manchester United – complain that they were being too “un-Australian” and apologise to the AFL for being so successful that they’d made the sport itself a bore to watch? Heck no!
The AFL, in theory, claims that every team starts each season with an entirely equal chance to win the premiership. Or at least – averaging out a competition – once every 18 years (as of 2012). Tell that to long-suffering Melbourne Demons and St Kilda fans.
Fair? HA! The fixture list alone… Fair? HA! But the principle holds true – can’t win a footy title? Build a better roster of players!
And now the “foreign” bit… Australians at times seem intent on pumping themselves up in the most unusual ways.
We call Russell Crowe an Aussie when he wins a movie award. He’s from New Zealand.
When Crowded House won an ARIA, they were hailed as a great Aussie export. They’re Kiwis.
It’s as if we cannot be proud of anything that’s simply home-grown and enjoyed at home for its own sake.
Our great “Aussie” acts like Kylie Minogue and AC/DC – both spending most of their time living in London for the past two
decades…
Why can’t sports pundits equally spend more time expressing the positive aspects of the things they like and leave their favourite event to stand and/or fall on merit in the eyes of the public, instead of resorting to poorly-worded comparisons every time?
Because I think it’s those poorly-worded and un-necessarily negative comparisons, like the one heard on the ABC on Friday night, that should really be classed as unfair – and un-Australian.
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