Novelist and YouTuber John Green is a fanatical soccer fan. He has devoted YouTube videos, podcast episodes and tremendous time and money into his obsession for both Liverpool and AFC Wimbledon.
He is a sponsor of AFC Wimbledon and his high-profile support of this third-tier English football team surely makes them one of the best-known third-tier sporting teams in the world.
Green’s podcast reviewing penalty shootouts is surprisingly emotional and his passion for his chosen team, as seen in this video is infectious.
What interests me isn’t just that Green is a fan of football. It’s that he can write about his passion so insightfully and critically. In the podcast mentioned above, he distilled sport to its bizarre, inessential essence by admitting that “contemporary humanity has invested a tremendous portion of its limited resources into developing extremely sophisticated strategies for placing a usually round object through a hoop or into a hole or past a line”.
However, Green also offered a humble counterpoint: “Humans need games… more to the point, I think we need communities, which sports are actually pretty good at creating”. It’s this community-focused approach to sport that I find fascinating, especially as a counterpoint to the aggressively competitive and profit-centred focus that can so often preoccupy sports media and fandom.
The origin story of Green’s beloved AFC Wimbledon is a particularly compelling example of a sports community triumph. After the original Wimbledon football club was relocated, disaffected fans formed their own team and kept it within their own neighbourhood. Remarkably, the supporters also own the club through a trust. It’s this captivating fight against corporate greed, with regular folks standing up for what’s right and pure, that attracted Green initially and what makes the Wimbly Womblys such an exciting team to follow.
Which brings me to the Brisbane Broncos.
Growing up, I supported the Brisbane Broncos primarily because they were the family team and the closest NRL team to my home town. However, to be perfectly honest, I am also sure I came to love the Broncos because it was easy.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
They were a successful club. While they only won two premiership in the 2000s, the Broncos were still a powerhouse, littered with Origin and Test representatives. Of course you want to follow the best – a team that might win the competition, the team that has the famous players. Who wants to waste time going for the losers? So here I am, 26 years later, with a team I support minus any deeply deliberated reason.
Having grown a little older and a little wiser, I have to admit there are some aspects of the Broncos and the NRL as a whole that give me pause. I’ve written about this before, and while I have genuine quandaries, I am not yet giving up on the Broncos or indeed rugby league.
The sport has given me endless entertainment, a bond with my father and grandfathers and a sense of belonging to something larger than myself – a community of sorts. Of all the sports, I reckon rugby league is the one to barrack for, with its working-class roots, fascinating history, quirky characters and absorbing State of Origin contest.
Like anything, it has its problems, and there are some aspects I abhor. But nothing perfect exists in this world – you take what you can get and try to improve what you can.
However, as I learn more about the history of the Broncos – especially during the chaotic Super League years, thank you The Rugby League Digest – I wonder if my support for the club is misguided. It is difficult to reconcile the Broncos’ place in the game – the game’s wealthiest club, the top dog intimidator, and lately the aggrieved underachievers – with my own distaste of born-to-rule egoists.
This, coupled with their salary cap finesse and News Limited affiliation, makes the Broncos somewhat problematic to support with a clear conscience, or at least for any other reason than because I used to watch the games with my grandpa.
I naturally gravitate toward the underdog, the little guys who’d rather play fair and lose than win at all costs. Can I really simultaneously love rugby league for its rejection of upper-class superiority while also backing the richest club in the land?
The Broncos are the antithesis of the sort of club I’d choose to support today. With my current disposition, I’d like to think I’d select the AFC Wimbledon-esque team, the scrappy battlers with the heart-warming story, the blokes happy to exist at all and ecstatic to be in the third tier.
Nevertheless, despite my recent reticence, I must admit that I felt proud of the Broncos women’s team in their premiership victory a few weeks ago.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
I was genuinely distressed when James Roberts whacked Corey Oates illegally in Round 23, as if it really mattered to me personally. I was, of course, disappointed when the Broncos went down so feebly in the finals this year. They’re not easy to like, yet I like them anyway. Nostalgia plays a part, sure, but there must be something genuine there, built up over time.
I guess this is a lot of words to say my passion for the Broncos has been altered – challenged, if not quashed. It would be dishonest to not confront the unpleasant aspects of my interest in rugby league and my uneasiness with aspects of my team. The alternative, I believe, is zealotry – disingenuous support where improvement is impossible.
I really hope that rugby league might one day be free of the taint of gambling and alcohol. My issues with the Broncos are harder to solve – but the way they’ve been playing, they’ll certainly be underdogs for a while.
In the meantime, I have a solution. I completely recognise that most of my problems with the Broncos – overt affluence, superiority, Rupert Murdoch – all disappear in the third division. Less money, less moral ambiguity.
So, I turn to the wisdom of The Roar. As John Green points out: “billions of people offer gobs of their attention to watching and discussing and arguing over [sports]” – usually for no reason other than it gives us something to be a part of. Let’s make John Green proud.
Tell me: which second- or third-tier team should I support? Who are the most lovable battlers in rugby league’s lower divisions? The team with the most compelling underdog story? I genuinely want to know your thoughts.
The Liverpools of this world don’t need any more fans. The AFC Wimbledons do.
Max
Guest
We can't have clubs whilever there is a salary cap. The cap means each entity is a souless franchise and not a unique football club with its own characteristics. All the NRL has is 16 franchise outlets with different branding colours and name.
Lonnie Gilroy
Roar Rookie
True, we could all support the Titans a bit more. It's a nice train ride down to Robina from Brisbane actually. Might do it again soon. Thanks for reading.
Lonnie Gilroy
Roar Rookie
I hope to get over and experience the Super League up close sometime - I'll give Salford a go! Thank you
Lonnie Gilroy
Roar Rookie
Fair enough. I guess there is 'community' in the sense of the people in the physical location and 'community' in terms of supporters and fans who may be from all over and from all walks of life but come together for the team. Both are important for sure.
Lonnie Gilroy
Roar Rookie
Hi Nat. Thanks for your thoughtful response! That is a very interesting perspective re Brisbane v the NSWRL. As you've said, rugby league is a complicated business which I guess is my overall point. If I stick around in Brisbane next year Valleys would likely be my team of choice. Might see you there.
Ben Costelloe
Guest
Great article. Try the Salford Reds, an underdog in an underdog competition, Super League.
Andrew
Guest
Before giving my thoughts - I lived in Wimbledon for 3 years. Walked the high street every day, caught the tube from Wimbledon. Walked around Tooting, Morden, Reynes Park... Never heard, read or saw anything relating to AFC Wimbeldon. I am not sure how connected they are with the entire community - maybe the older members who supported the old club, and maybe there are some families through the junior system, but I don't think it is as big a apart of the community as Mr Green would have you believe. And while they are a poor man when you compare them to Man U and Liverpool, I think they are thought of differently among the lower tiers. I am all for supporting a club based on the scrappy, hard working nature of the club, vs just going to the glamour club, but the condundrum may come for you if that club is successful and makes it to the top of the mountain. Take Boston as an example. A true sports town in the US with its history of blue collar dock workers and the harsh winters, they have a lot of tough sports fans. Prior to 2002 they had not had a lot to cheer about. Their most recent success was 16 years ago when they had some success in the mid 80's with the Celtics (who had last won in 86). The Bruins (ice hockey) had not won since 1972, The Red Sox had not won since 1918 and the Patriots had never won. Since 2002 the Celtics and Bruins both won titles (08 and 09), the Red Sox have won 4 titles and the Patriots have won 6 titles. To the national sports fans, Boston went for the poor loveable loser, always getting bested by the big money team from New York, to the sports town the rest of the nation likes to see lose. I don't know that there is a second tier club that stands out in Australia because they are all amateur clubs and they don't really have a pathway to grow into a professional, elite club in our structures. And if you want to follow them, you are probably going to need to be a member of that community to have that connection. My best suggestion would be to find a city/town you like in the US or Europe, one that as a strong sports culture but with limited success and get behind all their local teams.
Andrew
Guest
Do they? I think you are ignoring that no one under the age of 40 remembers Newton, and plenty of people didn't like them before that. I don't have a soft spot for them.
Billo
Guest
Your question is easily answered, and you don't even need to drop to the second or third tier. The Gold Coast Titans are the team for you.
Big Daddy
Guest
No matter who you follow every one south of the border has a soft spot for Newtown. With the commercialization of league a lot of historic lower tier teams have either dissolved or been eaten up.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
In the early 80's Manly went too far in my opinion buying players and won the minor premiership by 10 points one year but were well beaten by Parra in the GF . Any title wins would have been fairly hollow anyway to me. The only Manly teams I can recall having upset wins in finals games or exceeding expectations have been since the Super League era and that includes this season. The team spirit is much greater.
Nat
Roar Guru
Hi Lonnie. I guess it is fair and wise to question your own thought process at times and try to understand one's own patterns of behaviors. Where you land isn't always rational as, in this case, sport holds far more emotional aspects than can be justified. However, you are on the right path. Rugby League stretches far beyond NRL and if you have a passion for the game it is still a great day to go to your local ground and get behind the 3rd tier comps and teams. If you're not familiar with any of the clubs, you would be welcomed by the club just for being local, buying a beer and a raffle ticket or go one step further and volunteer - they can all use the help. I'm a Broncos man myself but otherwise I go to Valleys quite often. A iconic BRL team but had their struggles in recent decades. Sure the quality is not NRL level but it's not supposed to be but it's still good to watch. Any other Saturday I can get 2-3 games for $5 entry fee. $5 beers, raffles and good banter to the fellow patrons and the ref. I don't really have an ISP team. There are teams I like to watch and teams I don't like (ahem, Redcliffe). I'm saving my spot for the mighty Diehards promotion (may be a while but I got patience). Again as a Broncos man, I can understand your frustration with the club. It becomes easier to recognise the failures when the team has performed well below par but when it follows the whole saga between the board, the papers and the coach last season, we can suddenly see in our club what we've seen at many smaller clubs. It was messy. there were leaks to the press, ol' coach hiding away in mates utes and toilet blocks. That simply doesn't happen in Brisbane. We are the Premier club - just short a recent premiership. To come back to point one, sometimes our decisions are emotive not rational and our support is for the club colours and the people who move in and out of the club are but bit-players. However, I don't do the Tall Poppy thing. The advantage Brisbane has over the southern clubs is what you lean away from. The Broncos were set up as a business by successful businessmen but also passionate rugby league supporters. It was built from the top down only serving the best interests of the club and it's fans. The 'Broncos' all but destroyed the BRL so there are many who care little for the Broncos at all in Brisbane. But these guys wanted success and went to great lengths to get it. Do yourself a favour and read about the lengths they went to sign Bennett in the first place. The consortium were supposed to get an exclusive Qld license for 4(?) years but NSWRL gave the Gold Coast one for the same year. Right there is a chalk and cheese comparison of a club set up right while the other just took a chance. Sure Brisbane was loaded with Qld rep stars. Qld have a population of half NSW at the time and about 1/3 of that lived 2000km up north. A one-team-town battling the whole of NSW and their overlord NSWRL. With only 2 imports from NSW in that team, we the fans, had to identify with the team and players to get any coverage. Then, through proper leadership and young recruitment we become successful on the field as a club and a brand. Like you say, it's far easier to follow a winning club when it's all smiles. NSW hated us for it and we returned serve and that still exists today. It's been bumpy the last few years but there are clubs who'd give anything to achieve our mediocrity so you can be proud of that. Sure, go for the underdog that's an easy position but take nothing away from the work it entails to get something right. Those guys built something that killed the local footy comp and took us into a league very much unwanted but built it into what it is today. They knew Qlders are passionate footy fans and we've proven it repeatedly over the next 3 decades. What we share, is what they cannot comprehend: State first, club 2nd, Qld club 3rd, Daylight so far we don't care - Qlders first!
Lonnie Gilroy
Roar Rookie
Interesting. I hasn’t considered one club’s fortunes swaying like that. Always sweeter to win against the odds
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
I've followed two clubs in my time watching the NRL. One had all the money and advantage and at one stage had current Australian reps in reserve grade and the other was poor and bordering on a sad demise. They're both Manly but one was pre Super League and the other was after the circus. Following the impoverished version of the Eagles who's major signing's these days are from reserve grade at other clubs instead of the Kangaroos is a bit tougher but the rewards are much richer when the come.
max power
Guest
nice effort