To those who read this I want to put down on the table, a call to arms on behalf of all soccer/football lovers in Australia. Whether you are AFL supporters, Rugby followers or even those who just dislike the world game and sport in general, I implore your attention to this message!
I was reminded this morning by my best mate of a motto he found when looking for his family’s coat of arms ‘The true man loves his country’. Is there no understanding that this is OUR country? We all say we are patriotic, but when? When do we truly show our colours? When we are winning? When it suits us? A true patriot will be brave enough to stand against the rest, and be proud to stand alone and do whatever it takes!
Embrace this for what it is, a common vein of passion pulsing throughout the world, 90 minutes of anxiety, pain, tears and joy that unites every man, woman and child, an opportunity to put our spectacular country’s name-sake on the big stage and a chance to be apart of it, together.
The point of this ‘shout out’ to all Australians is not to slag off the other codes of sport we have, nor to provoke the wrath of those who haven’t the time for sport, its not some cheep gimmick to raise viewers for SBS, you won’t win anything, what I ask of you will go completely un-noticed by anyone in the world, except you.
I put to you, a chance to unite and make a difference to the attitude of ‘the average Australian’ break the shackles of the stereotype and become a bigger nation for it.
All that is required of you, all you have to give to this thankless cause. 4:30am this Thursday morning (24th June), turn on the television, and spend 90 minutes along with the rest of your countrymen and women and hope, hope that we can over come adversity, hope other results will go our way, hope we can give this nation a bigger name in the biggest sport, on the biggest stage. Show the true passion that this Nation has to offer the world.
Win, lose or draw, there will be a result and a difference can be made!
Ghost
No doubt you have all seen extensive reports on our unlucky run at the World Cup 2010 in South Africa this year, two best players, two games, two red cards. It has been a horror run, especially after our ‘across the Tasman’ rivals New Zealand having a dream result drawing with Italy (not so much our favourite nation either) this morning. So it’s all coming down to the final game, much like 4 years ago when we had to draw with Croatia, but things are different this time, the pressure is on as a win is required, against a team with a tough defence and managed to upset Germany with a 1-0 win. If matters weren’t difficult enough, we need to rely on other results, either Ghana beating Germany, or Germany beating Ghana at least 3-0 then us beating Serbia 2-0, we need to make up 5 goals after that embarrassing 1st round performance… anyway.
Now I know that most revulsion towards soccer is based on the possibility of a whole game being played and there not being a score, or that players fall over too easily, not enough happens, its not rough enough, players aren’t tough enough and so on, but I promise you, this is all part of the fabric of the game that is so hard for us Australian’s to understand, but somehow is managed to be understood and even adored in every single other country in the world. I would like to take this point to remind everyone that the World cup is watched by nearly three times the audience then the Olympic Games, now surely there is a reason for this? Surely this isn’t just some strange phenomenon… and why do we waste so much time hating something?
This leads me to the next point, being from Melbourne, we hear a lot of criticism from AFL media and representatives, people actually saying on live television, ‘why the hell would I watch that garbage, nothing ever happens’ just to ensure that we watch the footy show, or two and a half men instead of the cup, are you that worried about losing ‘loyal’ viewers?
Reports in papers had a field day when we suffered our worst defeat in World Cup history on our opening night against the Germans; stories were even constructed to imply a downfall of comradeship in our team’s camp. While it’s obvious that in this synical world, everyone wants to read about everyone else’s issues and everyone loves to hate everything, it is made so hard to see any resemblance of a line of decency anymore as I’m sure many people had a smile on their face when they heard of the score.
Now I know that most revulsion towards soccer is based on the possibility of a whole game being played and there not being a score, or that players fall over too easily, not enough happens, its not rough enough, players aren’t tough enough and so on, but I promise you, this is all part of the fabric of the game that is so hard for us Australian’s to understand, but somehow is managed to be understood and even adored in every single other country in the world. I would like to take this point to remind everyone that the World cup is watched by nearly three times the audience then the Olympic Games, now surely there is a reason for this? Surely this isn’t just some strange phenomenon… and why do we waste so much time hating something?
This leads me to the next point, being from Melbourne, we hear a lot of criticism from AFL media and representatives, people actually saying on live television, ‘why the hell would I watch that garbage, nothing ever happens’ just to ensure that we watch the footy show, or two and a half men instead of the cup, are you that worried about losing ‘loyal’ viewers?
Reports in papers had a field day when we suffered our worst defeat in World Cup history on our opening night against the Germans; stories were even constructed to imply a downfall of comradeship in our team’s camp. While it’s obvious that in this synical world, everyone wants to read about everyone else’s issues and everyone loves to hate everything, it is made so hard to see any resemblance of a line of decency anymore as I’m sure many people had a smile on their face when they heard of the score.
I was reminded this morning by my best mate of a motto he found when looking for his family’s coat of arms ‘The true man loves his country’. Is there no understanding that this is OUR country? We all say we are patriotic, but when? When do we truly show our colours? When we are winning? When it suits us? A true patriot will be brave enough to stand against the rest, and be proud to stand alone and do whatever it takes!
This sport, this tournament is bigger than anything else in the world, and we are lucky enough to be apart of it! Its greater then we understand and that’s what is scary. So to every person who won’t make time to understand, I say to you, do not fear this sport because it’s liked by everyone else, or because you think its trying to ‘compete’ with your original preferred code, it isn’t, there is plenty of room in this beautiful country for more then one sport to exist!
Embrace this for what it is, a common vein of passion pulsing throughout the world, 90 minutes of anxiety, pain, tears and joy that unites every man, woman and child, an opportunity to put our spectacular country’s name-sake on the big stage and a chance to be apart of it, together.The point of this ‘shout out’ to all Australians is not to slag off the other codes of sport we have, nor to provoke the wrath of those who haven’t the time for sport, its not some cheep gimmick to raise viewers for SBS, you won’t win anything, what I ask of you will go completely un-noticed by anyone in the world, except you.
I put to you, a chance to unite and make a difference to the attitude of ‘the average Australian’ break the shackles of the stereotype and become a bigger nation for it.
All that is required of you, all you have to give to this thankless cause. 4:30am this Thursday morning (24th June), turn on the television, and spend 90 minutes along with the rest of your countrymen and women and hope, hope that we can over come adversity, hope other results will go our way, hope we can give this nation a bigger name in the biggest sport, on the biggest stage. Show the true passion that this Nation has to offer the world.
Win, lose or draw, there will be a result and a difference can be made!
GO AUSSIE!!
Ghost
1 comment:
Shutup.
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