…or at least not barracking for “your team”.
A lifelong Doggies fan, ex-player, sauntered in to our group last Sunday morning.
“Watch the game?”, I tentatively inquired (WB v WC)
“Yeah”, he began, surprisingly upbeat, “and I had Cox as my Supercoach captain!”.
This bugged me.
Soon after some swimming was on the TV screens. The Aussies won and gloated. I was disappointed. I just can’t cop them.
Loyalties can be tested for a range of reasons these days.
When have/do you barrack against “your” team?
Barracked against your own team? MMalthouse, EMaguire – late rounds 2005. DBailey, JStynes – late rounds 2008/9. Carna mighty draft picks. Sorry thought I had stumbled onto the tanking thread reincarnated. JBCummings – anything carrying a potential weight penalty heading into the Cups.
Hard to have some of those joyless, ruthless Australian cricket teams.
Always hoping Mundine gets knocked out – even if he’s fighting a foreigner.
LLLLLeyton….
I have never barracked against Collingwood, but like JTH I have at times had trouble convincing myself that the Australian Test Team was my team.
One of the reasons that I don’t like Dream Team and Supercoach competitions is that inevitably you find yourself barracking against some of your own players.
My mate who is a Cats fan has, over the past 4 seasons, taken to putting $10 on against the Cats each week. He says that way, he’s always happy.
Pete, i remember a kid at school trying that theory. My brother accommodated him weekly (it was probably 20c or so). It was 1973. Glenelg only lost one game – i think that was during the holidays!
Dave,
There’s a groundswell arguing that only when the Aussie cricketers are belted will we be able to see real change. It, however, might not be poss to barrack for Sri Lanka!
Have tipped against the Dogs a number of times this year, which is about the extent of it.
Never, but it depends on how you define ‘your team’. Hawthorn will have my support no matter what. No matter how bad it hurts my tips or fantasy team, Lleyton Hewitt – Never been a fan, so I have no qualms barracking against him (unless he’s playing someone who annoys me more).
This raises the bigger social question. Must you always support the Australian? Is it ever acceptable to support another country or does nationalistic pride muddy the waters?
I’ve always been a fan of Adam Scott but will find allegiance murky now that his “super-caddy” is going to take the credit for any wins from here on.
Can’t cheer for a broomsticker.
Did he broomstick all weekend? I thought I saw him with a normal putter, or was the belly part camouflaged?
Was at the Hewitt-Federer semi-final at Wimbledon in 2005 and supported Federer as:
a) Federer is a class act,
b) Hewitt is not, and
c) The Fanatics were carrying on like a bunch of f*ckwits
On that last point, if the Fanatics are out in force at any major sporting event, I find myself willing against whoever it is they are supporting. Every time someone cocksmack in a yellow T-shirt yells “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi” I want to smack them repeatedly in the head with a basketball.
Was at the Hewitt-Federer semi-final at Wimbledon in 2005 and supported Federer as:
a) Federer is a class act,
b) Hewitt is not, and
c) The Fanatics were carrying on like a bunch of f*ckwits
On that last point, if the Fanatics are out in force at any major sporting event, I find myself willing against whoever it is they are supporting. Every time some cocksmack in a yellow T-shirt yells “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi” I want to smack them repeatedly in the head with a basketball.
That’s unaustralian Litza….use a footy or a cricket bat to jam their mouths.
Good point well made, Crio
Litza, you left a word out: a fossilised basketball.
Crio, can footy as a whole be considered a team?
If so then my allegiance to it is being sorely tested. The AFL’s cynical attitude to the tanking issue at Melbourne and the GWS player poaching nonsense, the greed of all involved in the game, in relation to the TV rights deal, at the expense of the fan, the endless hype, the joke that is the draw… it’s getting to me. No that’s not right. It’s GOT to me.
‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!’ to misquote the late Peter finch.
I don’t love the game as it is these days. I can’t buy the sentimental hackneyed myths about loyalty and tradition surrounding the fair dinkum ripper blokey dinky di ‘great men’ who played the game and how this all points to a supposed Aussie exceptionalism.
Phew, that was a bit of a mouthful.
I still enjoy reading about the game as a concept and discussing it, but I can’t stand the actuality of it. Not that there’s an alternative. I think the same malaise affects all major professional sport in this country: soccer,the rugbies, basketball and cricket.
God I sound like a whinger, but there you go. You asked the question.
JTH
If by fossilised rock you mean dirty big rock, you’re spot on.
John, i try not to get caught up in the politicking. I still like footy. I might go to the MCG Sunday. footy is a game. The AFL is an industry/competition. The AFL believe that their fans will “stick” regardless; thus the push north towards the barbarians , rather than a team in Tassie. How about the fantastic response to Phil Davis’ poaching?…wrong on all counts, they responded by releasing a message that clubs were showing renewed interest in State of Origin for next year!!!…the old red herring.
… and when talk on tanking gets a bit hot, the AFL trot out the “mid-season draft'”.
I swear, PRing for the AFL is one of the easiest gigs around – as soon as you get in a bit of shit, just shoot out another issue as a circuit breaker and the footy media go off chasing it like a subservient labrador.
Being a Washington Redskins fan has been really tough for over a decade. Dan Snyder bought the team in 99 and treated it like his own Fantasy Football team, he is also an evil man who treats the Public Trust which even an NFL franshise really is, as his own personal plaything. But lately to go with the awful owner we have hired the most arrogant coach in memory and I am really considering switching teams, I have no affiliation to Washington at all and the only reason I chose the team is I read the Washington Post alot for their Poilitics pages and flicked to the sports seciton online occasionally. but still I cant bring myself to dump them. Fandom is a weird thing, I have dumped women for a lot loss.
Ozsportsdude,
Changing teams is hard core. My brother got jack of Collingwood in the 80s (not on his own there), wrote them a bitching letter and said he was off to Hawthorn. He lasted 2 seasons and was back at Pie land. You gotta be dedicated, or have seriously good reasons.