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Over the weekend I was afforded a rare opportunity to study an exotic and threatened creature at close quarters: a Cronulla Sharks fan.
Out of his natural element and floundering in the tropical, if heavily polluted, surroundings of a Queensland bucks weekend, it wasn’t just last night’s poor man’s passion pop that had Mr Sharky green around the gills.
As the bad news rolled in about Cronulla and the worst horse-related jokes since those Broncos Diamond jerseys gave way to stony silence with the increasing severity of the situation, I could not help but relive a few bittersweet memories with my bitter.
As a Steelers fan who for too long lived in rugby league’s unofficial relegation zone, I knew the bumpy boat trip that comes with backing a ‘lovable loser.’
I won’t have to go into detail about this for any Annandale, University, Newtown, North Sydney or South Sydney fan.
The stolen juniors, wild celebration of first-week finals appearances and hair-brained schemes to save your club from financial meltdown.
Aside from the heady days of ‘Sharks International’ during Super League, the Cronulla Shark has more or less made Struggle Street its natural habitat off the paddock.
But all this was going to change with their new development deal (Bulldogs and Bears fans laugh bitterly here) and the future would be as bright as the morning Mooloolaba sun when nursing a two-day-old hangover.
Suddenly though there’s trouble in Sharkadise.
From their ivory lifeguard tower, the NRL’s Mitch Buchanan has spied the usually harmless and docile Shark whipping itself into a feeding frenzy, before swimming aimlessly around in circles and floating like an un-flushable floater to the top of the sea.
The question here is whether the bloke in the budgie smugglers calls Sea World to tell them that this battered and tough old girl needs a helping hand, or just look the other way to check out the talent?
The NRL will never, ever again wind up an NRL club, it is simply too unpopular.
But would they let one just drift meekly, without dignity, into the horizon to be torn apart by a million marauding minnows?
The fact is there are other jawed fish in the sea for the NRL, with an exotic species tally around two countries all begging to be released into the big time.
I’m not saying there’s a conspiracy plan to bone the Sharks, as some out there might.
But I’m pretty sure there isn’t a plan to save them either.
And hey, maybe this is just how things are going to roll from here on in, and Darwinism has returned to the game.
To think as a fan though, that your team, your club, your passion isn’t likely to be afforded the assistance that others might is harder for a fan to swallow than any creatively put together cocktail concoction.
Because after having a good look at the Cronulla Sharks fan up close, it may not be a creature that’s particularly easy to love or understand.
But that doesn’t mean I want to see it drown slowly before my eyes.
Follow Chris on Twitter @Vic_Arious
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