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Here are the five signs that you are a sad rugby league fan. Not sad as in depressed, or as in hopelessly obsessed with the greatest game on earth. More like a bit clueless.
One: you use the term ‘over-rated’ to describe a player.
This is a meaningless word which can be applied to any player by someone who doesn’t appreciate their talents or personality. The term is a woeful short-cut to thinking, and the least constructive criticism available.
I’ve heard people describe Darren Lockyer, Wally Lewis and Andrew Johns as over-rated. Why? Because they don’t like them. Not liking a player for whatever reason is quite common (although you need to remember you are talking about a complete stranger. But ‘over-rated’ is for those with nothing relevant or insightful to say.
Two: you describe the likes of Benji Marshall, Jarryd Hayne and Billy Slater as ‘show-ponies’.
Damn those superstar players! They aren’t supposed to stand out, they’re supposed to blend in with the crowd like everyone else. Forget the fact that it is their ability to stand out from the crowd that brings fans in through the gates, lifts them out of their seats whenever they touch the ball, and leaves them highly entertained.
No, they must be criticised for daring to be better at something than us.
This isn’t an election, where you vote for the guy you want to have a beer with. The point of going to the football is seeing guys who are much more talented than you, doing things that you only wish you could do. Lets face it, would you turn up to watch yourself play?
There are superstars in all sports of course. While displaying a cocky attitude and receiving a large amount of attention from the media is accepted on the basketball court, baseball pitch or boxing ring, a rugby league player can’t achieve superstar status without a proportion of the Australian populace thinking it’s their duty to cut the tall-poppy down.
I shudder to think how show-ponies like Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth would be received if they played rugby league here in Australia with their unholy “I’m good at what I do” attitudes.
From personal experience, a large number of the users of this term are middle-aged, heavily bearded types with massive beer guts and little to look forward to in life.
The kind of yob who used to pay for a ticket to watch the Cronulla Sharks play and then spend eighty minutes shouting “PRETTY BOY!” at Andrew Ettingshausen.
Three: you blame one player for an entire team’s poor form.
The Wests Tigers lost the other night: Benji Marshall’s ego is running wild! The Parramatta Eels are struggling to win: the Hayne Plane must have crashed! The Sydney Roosters lost the 2010 grand final: Mitchell Pearce is over-rated! (See sign No. 1.)
No matter how good one player is, if his team aren’t all striving to achieve the same goal, said team will falter. Blaming one player, usually one of those dreaded show-ponies from sign No. 2, is about as dumb as throwing a dummy in a game of one-on-one. Not even Andrew Johns or Peter Sterling won a premiership on their own.
Four: you rejoice when a rival player gets injured.
It is quite common and acceptable to breath a sigh of relief if injury prevents an opposing team’s most dangerous player from facing up to your beloved club’s squad in their next game.
However, vindictively mocking a player’s misfortune and the hardship of long-term injury rehab is rather poor form. This is where sad rugby league fans turns into sadistic ones.
I’ve heard fans yell out “Sucked in!” and “Serves you right!” as opposing players are being carried off the field on a stretcher in a clearly agonised state. I’m all for passion, but this literal insult to injury scenario is just plain boneheaded.
Five: you blame one questionable call from a referee for your team losing a game.
Those men in pink. Those men we love to hate. Yes, they sometimes screw up, and it can be to the temporary detriment of a team’s progress in the course of game. But I’ve yet to see an entire game of rugby league decided by one questionable call from a referee. Many will disagree, but I tell you this: a bad refereeing call can decide the fate of about one minute of a game.
What about the other seventy-nine minutes? A ref didn’t call held when a player was clearly tackled at the 37th minute? A ref wrongly calls one pass forward at the 64th minute? Frustrating, yes. But it happens. And these things happen in all team sports.
You deal with it, and if your team is good enough both defensively and offensively, you will still go on to win the game.
Instead of blaming a bad referee call at the 25th minute for your team losing, maybe you should blame the fact that your team simply weren’t good enough on the day to score another try at the 73rd minute when they gave away possession in an attacking situation.
Maybe, just maybe, they should have taken their opportunity to win instead of dropping the ball.
And maybe this kind of fan could try to avoid dropping the ball so much themselves.
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