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During my time with The Roar, I’ve been amazed at just how articulate, intelligent, and insightful Roarers are.
Rest assured, this website is generally no place for trollers, who are quickly found out and admonished. No, this site is for intelligent sports fans with intelligent thoughts, comments and opinions.
That is, until it comes to comparing the football codes. Then, for whatever reason, intelligence goes out the window.
Take, for example, a very good friend of mine who would label himself a “rugby man”. He’s played rugby union all his life, and loves the sport. While he’s not above calling the modern game “pretty boring at times”, he remains intensely passionate about the code.
However, he’s also a massive South Sydney fan, and attends three to four National Rugby League games a year. He never misses a Rabbitohs game on TV, and sulks for two hours should the Bunnies lose. Sounds like a fairly devout rugby league man, right?
Well, try gently criticising rugby union in front of him.
Even if you don’t mention rugby league, he’ll immediately go into rugby-defence mode, and will rant about how predictable league is, how dumb league fans and players are, how localised the sport league is (i.e. not as international as union) and how he absolutely can’t stand the game.
All whilst wearing his Souths scarf proudly around his neck.
What turns such a rational and intelligent man, and obvious admirer of rugby league, into such a vocal critic of the same sport in the blink of an eye?
It’s bewildering, yet The Roar provides an even more robust sample size that clearly highlights that he is not alone in being overly sensitive about his chosen code. We’ve all read the stereotypical comments when fans defend their own code, and bash another.
“League is just five hit-ups and kick, five hit-ups and kick, five hit-ups and kick. It’s boring.”
“Union is a joke. Even the referees and players don’t understand the rules, and everyone just kicks the ball away. It’s boring.”
“AFL is just aerial ping pong. It looks like seagulls fighting over a chip. It’s boring.”
“Soccer is for drama students: it’s all diving and faked injuries. And a 1-0 score line? That’s boring.”
Such comments are opinions, and therefore cannot be deemed right or wrong. But I’d love to know how many AFL fans have been converted to rugby league fans off the back of a comment they read on The Roar. I think we all know what that figure would be.
Why can’t we just let our fellow man enjoy whatever sport they choose? Why do we have to mock our non-favourite sports? And do we honestly have to pick just one?
I’ve spent a lot of time in New York over the years, and I’ve always found it fantastic that New Yorkers do not follow individual sports. They follow their teams.
Ask a New Yorker who they support, and they’ll reply “Knicks, Yankees, Rangers and Giants”. Or, “Nets, Mets, Devils and Jets”. Or some other combination of the eight, depending on whether they like underdog teams, or are actually from New Jersey.
The point is, they don’t answer “Basketball; the rest are boring.”
They support their teams. Period.
And it’s far from just a New York thing. A good friend of mine recently moved to Australia from Chicago. When I asked him what his favourite sporting team was, he replied “Bulls, Blackhawks, Bears, and White Sox.”
Granted, the American examples are all different sports, not different football codes. But I still feel that universal appreciation for sports should be the way for Australian’s, who love to proclaim themselves as the world’s biggest sports fans.
Yet, after reading some comments from Roarers, you could be forgiven for thinking that most readers only have enough love in their heart for one code, and hate all others. Many show their insecurities by openly deriding, teasing and mocking the codes they don’t consider their personal number one or absolute favourite.
And before you know it, a code war has erupted.
Early on in my time writing for The Roar, I fell prey to the trick of inciting a code war. It’s an easy way of generating comments and I freely admit I was seduced by the allure of doing so. But, in all honesty, it leaves you incredibly hollow afterwards.
It’s kind of like drunkenly hooking up with an ex-girlfriend. Sure, you picked up, but does it really count?
The comments that are written during a code war don’t really add much value. And I don’t think such comments are an accurate representation of Australian sports fans.
There is no doubt that The Roar has grown in stature, not to mention respect, in recent times. Articles by John O’Neill, David Gallop, James Sutherland, David Campese, Clyde Rathbone, Murray Mexted, Paul Cully, etc. have added immense credibility to the site and provide evidence of how seriously it is now taken.
It’s now an incredibly respected sports site, filled with the opinion of intelligent writers and fans.
However, each time we descend into a ridiculous code war debate, we devalue the site, our individual codes, and our own intelligence.
But allow me to play devil’s advocate for a minute.
What’s the difference between arguing which code is better, and arguing who should captain Australia’s one day cricket side? Aren’t both debates purely subjective with no definitive right or wrong answer?
So why am I getting on my high horse and inferring that a debate about which football code is better is silly, yet debating about who’s a better full-forward is insightful? What’s the difference?
It’s a difficult question to answer. Opinions are opinions, regardless of the subject matter, and opinions are the currency of this website. For evidence, just look at the tag-line under The Roar logo.
But code wars?
I just believe that we’re collectively better than that.