Front pages like the incendiary, end-of-days stuff on football fans with flares trotted out last Wednesday morning are perfect bait for those who splash in the shallows.
The paradox is that while it appeals to those with an IQ resembling room temperature, it is kind of reassuring that things here in Australia mustn’t be too bad if this is the best they can dish up.
The usual keyboard warriors take their hands from out of their mouths and, with true, blind, nationalistic fervour, told all fans who dared turn up going for Greece to bugger off home, while others trotted out cookie cutter hate about football. Certainly not a wide repertoire.
And in the red corner, we have the flare merchants themselves, man-children who, for various reasons, confuse sporting enthusiasm with cocking a snoot at authority and emulating fellow ghouls they’ve never met in Europe, all the while fully aware of the transgression.
The argument that flares are part of the passion of football doesn’t wash.
Not every football match in Europe is punctuated by flares being ripped, and here – where the game is trying to appeal to all ages and demographics – flares are not only dangerous but a repellent.
What both the above groups share is cowardly anonymity and the frustrating deafness to, well, anyone else’s views.
What detractors of football persistently forget is that many in Australia follow two, if not three codes. It’s interesting that a country so young can engender nationalism so feral. But that’s not going to change. You can blame the media for their selective reportage all you like, but that’s not going to change either.
Thugs brandishing flares do so with a distorted agenda of being the centre of attention and puffing themselves up as a threat rather than supporting their team. While Spencer Street wasn’t ‘on fire’ as SEN’s Mark Allen incredulously claimed ad infinitum, there is no justification for flares outside of a boat. None.
Football haters should be treated with the silence they deserve. ‘Fans’ ripping flares should be prosecuted in both a civil and football sense to remove them from the game and send a message to other wannabes. I am dubious about clubs being hit by bans when they exert little influence over the minority of idiots who will come into a match with a flare knowing full well their actions will cost their club dearly.
The smaller the irregular margins become the better.
pauly
Guest
yeah Fuss is an adult. Are you bored again? Footy Show not amusing enough for ya?
harry houdini
Roar Rookie
Fuss is an adult ?, i thought he was a 10 year old boy.
Post_hoc
Guest
Why are you lot engaging with the"true blue"
Kasey
Roar Pro
Its clearly satire. nobody could be that openly lacking in rational thought for real.
Kasey
Roar Pro
yeah flares are illegal. adults like Fuss and myself can grasp it, but how exactly would you suggest football get that through to the me-first narcissists that think they're bigger and more important than the game?
Kasey
Roar Pro
That Herald Scum Opinion piece is so bad it must have been written by the Work Experience kid. When I first read it I thought..this HAS to be a joke right? I mean the author refers to tier gas for crying out loud. It did achieve its obvious aim, allowing the bogan xenophobes to sprout off on the evil sokkah online and the Scum got its click count up as football fans once again came flooding to the defence of our beloved sport. Sadly there are plenty of people that read it and ate it up completely. These people will never even be able to even 'not hate' football. Just the very existence of our sport is like a red rag to a bull:(
Ian
Guest
Are you a real Australian or just a member of the Australian Patriot Party?
Ian
Guest
Kasey – Casper thinks he is rational and accepting but is highly intolerant of others i.e. ‘non -true blues’. There are hundreds of thousands of Australians who support another country as well as Australia. In fact quite recently when I reminded Casper, as others have, of atrocious comments he made about Johnny Warren dying, his reply to me was ‘Had I heard of JW before I immigrated to Australia?’ Casper also stated ‘Ian is Anglo Saxon so it’s ok’. (to assume he is an immigrant). I'm guessing Casper thinks I must be from overseas if I am Anglo Saxon and enjoy football. That is the mentality you are dealing with.
Casper
Guest
These sporting contests are one way to find out exactly how committed people are to the country. Are they real Australians, or do they just live here?
marron
Guest
Are you saying that the word larrikin has changed its meaning over time and I am using it in the wrong context? Oh dear. Larrikin of course, actually meaning something very similar to h*oligan, has the stamp of approval, the little made in Australia sticker. It’s practically a term of endearment, left over from the days when Australians used to like a bit of anti authoritarianism (and let’s forget about the sometimes brutal criminality). But I note that the Herald sun yesterday has moved beyond any definition of “h*oligan”, because apparently football fans in Australia represent a bigger threat than j*hadis. Another interesting thing about the original larrikins was that they were very often the children of migrants. Ring any bells.... ?
Kasey
Roar Pro
The Barmy Army would be fine because everyone loves a drunk pommy larrikin, the swarmi Armi would likely raise the ire of our xenophobic media because they are the wrong 'shade' :( It would probably grind the gears of the Caspers of the world if he found out that there were Indian-Australians in the Swarmi's that day.
marron
Guest
Are you saying that the word larrikin has changed its meaning over time and I am using it in the wrong context? Oh dear. Larrikin of course, actually meaning something very similar to hooligan, has the stamp of approval, the little made in Australia sticker. It's practically a term of endearment, left over from the days when Australians used to like a bit of anti authoritarianism (and let's forget about the sometimes brutal criminality). But I note that the Herald sun yesterday has moved beyond any definition of "hooligan", because apparently football fans in Australia represent a bigger threat than jihadis.
Bob Brown
Roar Guru
Why do new south welshmen support the maroons?
rasty
Guest
Yeah the Russian soccer fans are larrikins Marron.
rasty
Guest
In the right setting it dampens and reduces.
AR
Guest
This article seems to condemn flare use, and reporting of flare use, in equal measure. That is a huge part of the problem in my view. Flares are designed to attract attention. So it seems a tad incongruous that when they achieve their desired purpose (attention) people complain "why is the media anti-football??" It's such a juvenile and pointless response. No illegal flares, no problem.
marron
Guest
If you move across town Caspar do you change your football team? Perhaps it's difficult for you to understand but in many parts of the world the national team is an extension of identity. It's your culture writ large in uniform on the pitch out there. Your identity doesn't disappear when you migrate. I'll bet the vast majority of Greek supporters will back Australia in any other match.
marron
Guest
If you are talking hooliganism in the context of football, it usually denotes a level of organization with violent intent. so when someone rips a flare or sings a naughty song, it's a problem to label it hooliganism because in this context it's not. And people who don't really know much about the context conflate it all. When Joe Bloggs does this it's one thing but when police commissioners or politicians or even journalists do it it's a problem in my book. Interestingly, the word hooligan originated in London in the late 19th century to describe rowdy young gangs of men causing trouble and/or involved in petty crime. We had the same problem in our large cities but we invented our own word. So, really, if you're right and these people at our football matches are the definition of hooligans, I insist that we use a good Australian term and call them what they really are. Larrikins. These people are larrikins.
marron
Guest
Fascists really. Especially in the case of Russia who appear to have the backing of their authorities.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Andrew Bolt never got into multiples of me