The Roar
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Code wars: let's just get along?

Roar Rookie
17th November, 2011
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Roar Rookie
17th November, 2011
30
1087 Reads

I don’t know about the rest of The Roar readers but the continual code warring has me bored out of my skull.

Of course we are all biased to the sport we grew up following. Generally it involves the sport and team that your father or family followed, and you grow close to them. You sit on the couch with your family and friends and cheer for every weekend of the season for many years.

So, when someone tells you your code is crap and poorly managed they may as well be insulting your mother or culture – and it gets your back up. You may defend it passionately, sometimes blindly, without necessarily knowing the true facts, or you may be a heavy researcher and back all your statements up with statistics.

However, either way you choose the statistics that support your case, so you are still biased even if you are trying to be objective. Of course as soon as you form an opinion on any subject you become biased and it’s very hard to see both sides of the coin.

Yes, I used to be a code warrior, and it still annoys me when something is said that is an outright mistruth, I have to try (sometimes I fail) to not bite back as I don’t want the event to spiral into a code war argument.

It’s kind of funny really because sport is meant to be one of the safe fall-back subjects to chat about, but I know not to bring it up with certain extended family members. Some are very stubborn code warriors who will not let the subject drop. I’m sure most readers know one of these people.

As I am originally from Western Australia, I supported AFL and rugby union. Once I moved to New South Wales I realised that it was all about NRL, and when talking sport it was mostly NRL-related.

When offered to go to a few games I jumped on board and found it a good social outlet. So I now follow NRL as well, and it was kind of fun to select a team to support and discover a whole new game to follow. Once I made that step it was an even easier step to start following the A-League.

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I largely did this because I enjoy live sport and I wanted it all year round, so with the A-League starting after the AFL and NRL seasons it fitted very well. So far it has been a great move and I am thoroughly entertained.

The catalyst for me being able to follow and accept other codes was moving to an area dominated by another code. Thus my circle of friends changed and my interest joined with theirs, and from this it was my love of live sport which further flowed on.

I now follow all codes and believe I am richer for it, as well as having a more balanced opinion. Instead of seeing it as a competition, I try not to compare the codes. I believe this is pointless. They are different codes, they have different support bases, and each has their own rich history and culture.

I try to see the good and bad within each code instead. I think if you do this, you will realise all codes have their place and we can stop arguing, which is better.

At the end of the day none of them are perfect, none of them are better, they are just different. We just like to think our chosen one is better because it is ours. All of them are trying to grow and discover new markets and why not, it is human nature to want to improve yourself and be bigger and better and have more security.

We are a great big sports-loving nation with room for all codes. So can’t we all just get along.

More sport, more entertainment and more diversity can’t be a bad thing.

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