The Reality of things

This will be an ongoing subject I suggest, and just to warm ourselves up a bit I couldn't resist a link to this little snippet of wisdom. Something that is easily forgotten, and for me being away from Southern and Western States for 10 years, is that Rugby League does not even register on the radar of sports fans down there. Aussie Rules, while not the no.1, is on the radar in NSW and Qld. We will discuss this at length I suggest.........

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...016360,00.html

Lull Before the Storm

This week I'm sick. Crook as a dog. S@#tting through the eye of a needle. Energy down for meaningful posts. When searching for what caused it, I look no further than Wednesday night 7:30pm. Absolute crap and its not totally passed yet..............

Be back when I'm right again. The cats are on tonight so that should see me through.............

Bum Sniffers V Aerial Ping Pong: 'BEST'

Bum Sniffers V Aerial Ping Pong: 'BEST'

'BEST'

Why the hell do you need to pick four or five 'Best' players at the end of every match? In following on from my previous post, in which I drew attention to the excess size of the AFL field, I would like to put forward the following notion:

The reason why the AFL - apart from in the Grand Final - cannot pick one 'Best' player is simply because the ground is too large. As the evidence begins to mount, it would surely be only the most stubborn ping pong supporter who would deny this.

Come on, really, if you can't pick just one player for best on ground because you couldn't see the other half of the field... What point is there of continuing this debacle.

Commentator 1: "Boys who do we think was best out there tonight for the Lions?"
Commentator 2: "Well I could only see 35% of the field from where I was sitting, and even then I could only make out the runners (waterboys for league supporters) as they were wearing fluoro shirts. I guess I'd have to give it to Power, and maybe Black, oh and Bradshaw he was good as well, headed up the clangers and he grabbed a few hard balls, and oh, his 'passing' (for the uninitiated, in AFL, a pass can be a kick as well....) was great out there today. Oh yeah, I forgot, the ruckman, whats his name, I forget, you know the one who only ever goes up for the tipoff, like in basketball, except in basketball they actually do something after the tipoff? He was good too"
Commentator 1: "So should I draw a line through a couple and let's just say, the whole team was best? "
Commentator 2: "Well yeah, that's how we normally do it don't we?"

So, just to rehash;

1. Crowd all listen to radios so they can keep up with happenings in the other, not visible, part of the field.

2. Best on Ground is given to multitudes of players. Seriously, they can't ALL be best.

3. Substitutions - unlimited. Did I hear somewhere that 92 interchanges/subs/whatever you call them was the record? 92??? If that isn't an indicator that the field is too large then I don't know what is.

So in conclusion; If the halfwits that run the AFL can't even get the field size right, what possible hope is there for the game.....?

Necks on the chopping block......?

Goodness gracious me. Bless your cotton socks young fella.

I once saw an interview on that teeny bopper 'Channel V' with Bernard Fanning. For those of you that don't know, he is the lead singer of powderfinger. Anyway, the interview happened just after the classic album 'Vulture Street' was released and went something like this:
Interviewer - "So Bernard, I have heard your album and it sounds really rock and roll really heavy, almost violent compared to your previous albums"
Bernard - "Thanks man, we really had a great time making the album"
Interviewer - "How can you make such a heavy, issue-laden record when you have done nothing but kick back and bask happily in the glow and commercial success of your previous albums?"
Bernard - "Well actually it hasn't been all basking and happiness dude, my brother died last year, so I went through the deepest, darkest period of my life in the making of this album.."
Interviewer - "Ohh....Right. I am.. umm...sorry to hear...umm...about that..."

Might I suggest ye AFL fans take note of this story. Do your research before you put your necks on the chopping block.

I respectfully beg to differ fine sir on your points about league fans (9/10 no less) caring more about State of Origin then their club team. Oh, yes, I can see how people who only tune in for State of Origin three times a year could be counted in these 'figures', however, are these really fans of rugby league? Your answer: NO. These are fans of State of Origin. They are fans of the spectacle. Fans of the hype. Fans of an excuse for a pissup. They may even just be people who exhibit an extreme disliking of anyone South or North of their respective border. These are not true rugby league fans in the same way that once a year Melbourne Cup punters are not true equine junkies. Let's add a little cross code perspective here. I wonder whether fans who only came out to watch Victoria v South Australia in the old days of Aussie Rules State of Origin would be called true fans by our esteemed colleagues? I would doubt this very much.

No, the real rugby league fan would never swap a State of Origin victory for a grand final appearance. There is something special about a team that plays together for 30 weeks to get to that final day in September. Something inherently primal. It's an investment in your teams very existence.

And as to your experience at the rugby league game, I would love to bet that the crowd was a whole lot louder than that miserable rabble you call an AFL 'crowd'. I mean seriously, how passionate can you be with a radio stuck in your ear the whole game. I have witnessed this phenomenon first hand (at a Cats game no less) and it was the most boring, dreary crowd atmosphere I have ever seen at a sports game. I mean, really if you wanted to sit down the whole game and listen to the radio so you didn't 'miss anything' (and there's a clue for you, if the ground is so large that you can't catch everything that is happening, maybe the AFL should consider shortening the field so you can actually see something) then surely you could get the same atmosphere sitting in your lounge room with your TV dinner. I remember getting to my feet to shout support for a J Brown special and I got a polite, "please sit down sir, you are blocking my view..". Where was I, at the cinema watching Bridget Jones' diary, or at the FOOTY....?

So next time Mr. Scooter, I would spend less time focussing on body parts (seems to be a recurring theme of your posts) and more time talking with real Australians. Yes, we of the no neck variety. Rugby League Fans.

Passion

The very mention of this will get the hairs standing up on the back of all rugby league fans necks. Actually, that is an oxymoron because we all know rugby players have no necks so by reason then rubgy league fans probably have no necks. Well, it gets the hair standing up on the back of their hands then. Passion. It is the reason that this blog was started. It is the reason we bother to turn on the tele on the weekends hoping to catch a bit of footy between the Antique Roadshow and Funniest Home Idiots. Its the sort of thing that drives non-footy people mad, but is the reason that the AFL can consider a night grand final and be secure in the knowledge that 100k people will still turn up and every sane man and his kids will tune in. Utter passion and football in the same breath and people north east of Canberra will tell you State of Origin. They live for it. They breathe it. Every spare section of the Courier Mail year round is full of it. Between balls in the first over of the first test in Brisbane the bloke on the radio brings it up. Will Lockyer be fit? Will they pick Matty Bowen? How lame are NSW supporters? Little do they realise how futile all this is. They just don't see that they are actually playing the ultimate villain to the few amongst them that understand passion. That understand football. You see, ask a rugby league fan what they treasure most, State of Origin or grand final victories and 9/10 will respond "State of Origin mate, its all that matters eh". The other 1/10 are NSW supporters and who knows what they think! I'll tell you what passion is. Passion is when you are born and bred to live and breathe the colours and song and names of the team that your parents and grandparents and great grandparents barracked for and loved. That every person that you knew as a child followed either your team or a rival and every morning of every day of your life growing up you spoke football and argued as to why yours was better than the others. Every new person you meet you greet with the question, "Who do you barrack for?", and you and they know if the answer is Collingwood you either love them or hate them. Passion is beating Collingwood and packing a dead magpie in a box and posting it to a Pies fan that you know. (OK that might be madness). Passion is getting wheeled out in your coffin to the sounds of your club song with the badges of your favourite players pinned to your chest. (Both these last two incidents were perpetrated by my Grandma and I now concede she may have been mad). ( But passionate.) Passion is standing 10 deep in the outer on a milk crate to see over the head of the drunk Collingwood fan throwing empty VB cans over his head and swearing at Peter Featherby. Passion is every weekend of the footy season for every Aussie Rules fan, not just AFL fan (I'll save this point of nomenclature for a later argument), who hangs on every news item to see the score of ANY game that is on at the time. It all impacts on the prospects of their team, the reports, the injuries the scores the maybes and not quites. I could go on........
I took my wife and daughter to a game of rugby league last year, just cos we could. I could not remember being in an environment with less passion and meaning and involvement from the fans since last time I watched Uzbekistan play the Eskimos in a game of scrabble. It was dead. Their idea of passion was about the equivalent of what I demonstrated when I realised you could buy Bundy instead of Fourex. Enough.
Passion is every day for an aussie rules fan. Rugby league fans are seasonal. Clubs come second. It does not compare.
Bring on the retort..........

So...by that logic?

Well well well. Seems like we have a politician in our midst. What a great way to spin that angle on toughness. I would, however, like to point out the obvious fatal flaw in the AFL argument by asking a few questions:

Q: Were Muhammad Ali, Jeff Fenech, Joe Frazier, Mike Tyson (I'm not touching Choc Mundine..) and Roy Jones Jr considered tough?

Q: Aussie diggers from WW1.... tough?

Q: Did these men know what was coming to them each time they stepped into the ring, or onto the battlefield?

I will explain in simple terms for you Port Adelaide supporters:

Just Because you know what is coming to you, doesn't make you less tough. In fact I would think it is obvious that the tougher person is the person who knows he is going to get bashed senseless or may be fatally injured, but goes out and does it anyway.

And cutting an appendage off for your sport. That's just plain silly.

Right back at ya

Craig Hutchison
June 08, 2008 12:00am
FORMER West Coast premiership star Daniel Chick has backed Chad Cornes's decision to consider amputating his finger.

Amazingly, Chick said this week amputating his finger had been the best football choice he had made.

"It's the best thing I ever did because it kept me playing and all the pain and agony was gone," Chick said.

"If it's affecting his football, and if there are no other options, then he should look at it.

"It has meant that I was able to play on and maybe I wouldn't have been . . . I was back training in three days."

Chick said he had a little trouble picking up coins or small objects, but few other dramas.

He is still playing great football at Subiaco.

"It doesn't really affect the functioning of the hand when it's not the outside finger," Chick said.


The toughness argument is an interesting one as I truly believe that rugby league fans and players think that their game is tough and requires a brand of toughness. I suppose I can warm to this, as a brand of toughness. As we know, in life there are many brands of everything. Take toilet paper. I did an experiment in year 12 physics that looked at toilet paper. Actually I was supposed to test the theory of relativity or something else but took my time deliberating on which handy piece of lab equipment I would use and so I was left with the machine that tested the tensile strength of things. What to test the strength of? What else but good old poo tickets. So I bought a bunch of bog roll over the road from school, and rocked up into the last week of prac time with about half a dozen packets, varying in everything from number of sheets per roll, size of the sheets, how many ply, texture, of course price, and the most significant tensile strength, or toughness. From memory homebrand, while the cheapest and possibly widely used, and with claims of strength to boot,came a resounding last once placed on the tensiometre or whatever it was. Sorbent I think, without any proclamations of strength, came out the toughest. Which brings me to rugby league. Rugby league gives the impression of toughness. Blokes smashing into each other over and over again may look tough at times. But the thing is, these blokes know what is coming. It is predictable. It is repetitive. It is downright boring. There is nothing tough about smashing into someone. you just do it. Yep, if you don't do it properly you might get hurt, nocked around and lose some claret. Yep the crowds that know no better love it. Aussie rules is as unpredictable as a pregnant wife in her 3rd timester, harder to pick than a broken nose. The hits can come from anywhere at any time. You have to run with the ball against the play. Think about that for a minute. Imagine running headfirst into Jonathan Brown or Mal Michael or those blokes, while you are looking the other way. Thats tough.
Yes folks, as you can also garner from the little snippet above about Daniel Chick and his pesky redundant digit, aussie rues players are tough. Tougher in fact than rugby league players. The players know it, the fans know it, I know it and you know it. Rugby league is the homebrand dunny paper, The paper you buy in good faith only to have your fingers go straight through it when you least expect it. Looks can be deceiving. Quality is priceless. In fact if Rugby league toughness is homebrand bog roll, then the game of rugby league itself is whats left under your finger nails after you've tried using the toilet paper. Stinky, brown S@#t. Wipe your a%se on that rugby league fans.

Hard Man cont'd......

Couldn't help adding this little piece on AFL Melee's. Or should that be Ballet's? Don't miss the great commentary by renowned 'Hard Man' Jacko. Watch him DOMINATE his opponents and generally talk the toughness up. Take particular note at 1:32 where you see NRL Board member Gorden Tallis lacing an opponent. Now that is a 'melee' worth watching. And yes, that is how rugby league treats it's hard men. They make them Board Members.
Sort of puts things in perspective following on from the Meninga nightmare video below doesn't it?

Game Over

Folks at the risk of sounding arrogant, what transpires at 2:51 in this clip proves that this is game over. If you look closely, you can see Jacko trying to head butt Big Mal's fist on numerous occasions. Correct me if I'm wrong but Jacko was known as a 'Hard Man' in AFL circles. Mal Meninga has NEVER been classed as a hard man. Big maybe, but definitely no hard man. Next topic please Mr. Speaker.

Tough

A well contstructed piece by Spook there to get the blood simmering amongst us fans of the courageous game. In leiu of entering into a long and protracted diatribe to counter this, I point you all to the video clips shown in the window here, and to the short story below which I lifted from a Ricmond Football Club fan site. I suggest you sit back and enjoy the "softness" of our game, and contemplate the simple message in the following story. An Aussie Rules legend, "Captain Blood", the epitome of the game. (Aussie Rules legend "Captain Blood" vs Rugby League legend "Dick Tosser", Mmmmm.. ...say no more......[yes thats controversial I know, sincere appologies to family and friends, this is a war.]).

In remembering Dyer, Kevin Bartlett recalled the first time he met Jack after he had been injured during an under-19s game at the MCG in 1963.The match had started early in the morning and Bartlett's parents hadn't arrived at the ground in time to see him carried off.Dyer made his way to the changerooms to console the youngster, telling him he'd soon be feeling "as good as gold" and would be out of hospital the following day.Years later, Bartlett told Dyer he had spent more than two weeks in hospital. "And he said to me: `I didn't know much about hips – I only knew about collarbones'," Bartlett said. Dyer was reputed to have broken the collarbones of 64 opponents.

That good looking kid at school....

Great opening Scooter. I see we are in agreeance about the importance of the issue at hand (which is scary seeing as it is only the 3rd post of this thing..).

Anyways, I would like to regale you with a story about a boy. A fairly good looking boy. Actually, a really good looking boy. One of those boys at school that would be looking into the window of the classroom to see his own reflection without realising that the whole class was looking at him and pissing themselves. This fact however didn't stop the girls from throwing their pussies at him Eddie Murphy style. The blokes wouldn't admit it, but they were secretly envious.

This boy was a great athlete and had good size about him. In fact he was probably the best built bloke in the school at age 16. And you know when you're 16 there's a lot of blokes who haven't filled out properly yet, which really accentuated his size difference.

Now this bloke happened to be an AFL player in a school mad for rugby league. He was always travelling away to Brisbane for statewide competitions and by all reports went well as he made all the rep sides. Apparently he had earned the reputation of a hard man in AFL circles. I'm talking THE hard man in QUEENSLAND for under 16's.

I could never understand how this bloke could be such a freaking limp wristed weakling when it came to dealing with us rugby league types on the field. I am talking all sports that you play through school, like basketball, soccer, touch football and yes, rugby league. I mean here was a guy that was supposedly hard, had the physique of Ian Roberts in grade 11 and would shy away from contact in all sports and would never, ever under any circumstances, be able to take a decent hit to the body without whinging like he was trying out for the sequel to Deliverance.

Then it hit me.

He was like a living, breathing metaphor for the game of AFL. Flashy, well-toned, looked great, liked the look of himself, had many female fans, was labelled as tough by people in AFL circles only. Yet when push came to shove he was weak as piss, couldn't handle real physical confrontations and just lacked that manliness you need when you are in a balls to the wall contest.

And right there you have the fundamental difference between AFL and Rugby League. AFL is pseudo-hard.

Welcome

Well here we are. the battle begins. I say battle because as we will find this is but one front on a war larger than any of us understand. A war that divides a nation, divides households and gives me something to think about every waking moment. It is polarising. It has destroyed lives and busted up marriages. It will continue to do so. As the posts on the forums here show (http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=447526)
http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/showthread.php?t=200838

...this is no trifle matter. I recommend some sustained browsing of the environment we operate in (eg the forums above) to ascertain an understanding of what entering into such a battle really means. This could be the end for rugby league. I read some posts on Rugby League unlimited and I could not believe my eyes. Who writes on that forum anyway, have you read some of the crap that appears?
I say game on, slip on the tighter than normal shorts, the short sleeved lace up guernsy, rub on some goanna oil, lace up the boots and run through the banner that reads "Aussie Rules: No.1 4 eva". Lets bring some culture to the masses north of Canberra. Lets indoctrinate the hordes of the North east on what is a real game, a real sport with skill, courage and physical demands like no other. Lets teach them the culture of a game that not only entertains but infact helps the world go round, brings light to the day, and gives people soemthing to set their watches to. It is this nation. It is our blood. It is our fathers, our grandfathers and our great great grandfathers. It is the postage stamp on the postpak of life. It is the sound of the magpie in the morning and the smell of meat pies and dim sims on a frosty Saturday afternoon. It is the sound of leather on leather and the beeping of car horns around a paddock that houses cattle by weekday, and warriors over the weekend.........

This is serious.

Scoot, what you reckon mate?

Thought I'd have a crack at it mate, been talking about it for a while.

Also am confident I've got more than enough ammunition to take you gayfl fairies down a notch or two....'National competition' meh.. Come back to me when Demetriou issues an apology to the indigenous peoples of Australia for stealing their idea. What a marn crook he is hehe.