Post here you bunch of losers!
The Issue of the Fair Weather Fan
Basically I've chosen to rant about an area in which I feel quite passionately and of which I was reminded just last night at Aussie Stadium. I went and saw the South Sydney Rabbitohs at home to the Bulldogs and was dismayed to see that there seas of blue and white where green and red should have dominated. Aussie Stadium is South Sydney's home ground! Where were all the people that marched over the bridge for Souths reinstatement into the NRL? Why did they drag the NRL through the court system if they're not willing to support the club with valuable attendance revenues?
For those of you who are still unsure as to what constitutes a 'Fair Weather Fan' let me give you an example. Yesterday when walking back from the game amongst a small pocket of Bunnies supporters a call from the bus sounded, "Souths take it up the Arse.". Although I was too afraid for my life to respond, "Your Mumma takes it hard and fast", I did begin thinking that that person would definitely be a Fair Weather Fan. As soon as his team stopped winning and therein stopped giving him some sort of self-contrived superiority over Souths fans he would lose interest and no longer attend the games. Although I can admit this is mere speculation for that particular individual, there is enough history of this behaviour for this opinion to be at least an educated guess.
Why cannot every supporter be like those loyalists that inhabit Dairy Farmer Stadium? Of all the clubs that proclaim they have the history, tradition and passionate fervour this is the only club that is convincing me by providing their team with massive crowds each and every week despite lingering at the bottom of the ladder year after year.
Perhaps I dislike fair weather fans so strongly because I am currently discovering how badly in trouble my own club is. The only known forum that is active for the North Sydney Bears is found at www.jumbles.com/bears and it has a dismal 67 registered users! This is a horrible amount of people online who still care enough about the Bears whilst they are at their greatest need.
So basically I say this: when your team loses, don’t start supporting Melbourne, don’t feign disinterest and don’t turn off the television. Get in there and give the players and the club the support they need to get themselves out of the rut and back into the winner’s circle.
David McElroy (Feel-Good Guru)
The Broncos 14 man saga 2 points that should never have been taken
The Brisbane Broncos a few weeks ago were made the scapegoats because of the NRL's ability to run the game and also the referee's incompotince, in particular Shane Hayne who is not even good enough to referee a 2nd grade under 7's game in Melbourne.
The first point is that the Broncos were disadvantaged completely for a filthy tackle from Bryce Gibbs. Shane Webcke was in absolute la la land and time should have been called off so that the Broncos were not with 12 players on the field when they were clearly not in the wrong.
The second point on the referee calling parker back a supposed 3 times. Parker says he only heard it twice and whos to say the ref is not bullshitting to save his own hide on this occasion. Surely all he has to do is look 20 metres up the field where Shane Webcke was in disneyland and had the common sense to let Parker on, so that the Broncos were not disadvantaged.
The third point is even though there was 14 people on the field, where is the advantage to the Tigers advantage in the whole thing when Shane Webcke is getting carted off the field 30metres up by 2 trainers. There is none and it is just the Tigers are pathetic and will try anything to try and help themselves with a win.
It comes down to a few things here, the interchange where another player is on the field before the other one is off happens 1000's of times a year and because the NRL and the referee's are absolutley incompotent the Broncos were made the Scapegoats for there blunder. At very most for the Broncos there should have just been a fine, not 2 points which could be absolutley vital at the Business end of the season. I know it sounds one eyed and just a queensland and broncos fans view, but the League is totally against Brisbane and Queensland in general, in the way that Broncos have lodged many appeals over there years in the comp over different injustices and yet not one of them have gone the Broncos way.
I think that there is no such thing as the NRL and it has gone back to the days of the NSWRL, which in that way is completely one eyed from there side. I think that the NRL's view's need to be looked at more thoroughly and stop making team's the scapegoat for there own incompotence. It is time the NRL wake up and realise that the game is going down the toilet and the way they are going, Rugby Union and AFL will completely take over, which would be an absolute tragedy.
[/B] THE PHONY THREAT OF UNION
Before the Rugby Union World Cup, there was a fear that Union was starting to grab the hearts and minds of the sporting public. The Wallabies drew large crowds to their international mid-year games and tri-series. The Super 12 also experienced record crowds in Australia for 2003. The ARU launched an advertising blitz through various media outlet and schools. I know the Queensland Reds must have covered more miles than the Leyland Brothers last year, trying to promote their product. They would have done more promotion than the Brisbane Lions/Brisbane Broncos combined. The Australian Government places funding into union development and largely ignores league.
The cronies at the ARU bought our "name" players in Wendell Sailor, Lote Tuqiri and Matt Rogers to spark up interest in union. It turned out to be a successful move, in 2003 anyway.
The actual event was a spectacular success. Crowd support was great and the final was a good spectacle. You'd think union would be on top of the world after all that.
WRONG!!!
After that final, interest in union has taken a sharp decline. Juniors in union has NOT increased significantly in 2004. That is a very significant fact. Kids play sports that they are interested in. If they like looking at it, they will like participating. Despite all the moves union have made in 2003, there has been no upsurge in interest in 2004.
There is a simple reason for this. LEAGUE IS A BETTER GAME TO PLAY AND WATCH. I have seen some good games of union, but in the majority, look very messy. Super 12 games absolutely bore me, but I do watch the big international games.
In league, the players are a lot fitter and more skillful. The only reason why some defensive lines hold in union is because there is a 15 man defensive line there. If they reduced union to 13-a-side, most countries would not be able to go close to England, Australia or New Zealand. Players with average fitness can get away with it in union. There is no place to hide in league.
Another reason why some teams are close is because of their stupid 3 points for a penalty kick. Jonny Wilkinson basically won the World Cup for the Poms. I will never forget the WC game with Wales V England. In general play, Wales dominated the game, but they did'nt have a super kicker. Wales scored three tries to England's none, but LOST. That is an absolute traversty of justice. The crazy thing is, this type of result happens often in union. But, I felt truly gutted for Wales.
In league, RARELY does the the better team lose the match.
Union likes to let the world know that the Waratahs/Brumbies draw 20 000+ crowds to each home game. That is because they are the ONLY team in each state. Of course, they should have a 20000+ crowd. If the Sydney Roosters were the ONLY team in NSW, they'd draw 35 000+ crowds in EVERY match. With a 4 million population, I have no doubt they would double the crowd for a Waratahs match.
Union obviously must feel insecure in their own products, as they like to poach league stars. That is a compliment to league's junior structure. They have large funds to buy players, unlike NRL clubs who have to stick to the salary cap. Despite their high profile league recruits, in 2004, they are receiving very little press. Once the Super 12 season finishes, the rest of the year is very quiet for these league recruits.
My advice to the NRL is to stick to their superior product and promote it to its fullest potential. One thing union has over us is superior promotion. We have a better product, so it is up to their marketing department to show the world.
We don't promote our big clubs matches NEARLY as well as the AFL does (Collingwood V Essendon ANZAC day match).
Don't worry about our guys going to union. If the NRL pays guys like Andrew Johns to stay in the code, that is drastically unfair to the NRL clubs who don't gain his services. We will be going down the ARU's desperate path by doing that.
The NRL is lazy and relies on its good product too much. That is not good enough in competing for the sporting dollar of Australians.
Very good article Roger.
If only JD or one of his Union fags was here to see it, sputter uselessly, and then cry.
That said- the NRL really should look at securing regular internationals in the same way the Wallabies do. It just keeps them where they should be, and forces Union to run more fat no-name on in their games.
