David EdwardsBattle of the footy codes: fighting over Terra Nullius
September 29th 2008 00:19
Two codes do battle with each other over the disputed sporting heartland of Australia, like 17th Century explorers on a conquest to plant their flag deep in its earth. Somehow, both codes exist, yet are divided somewhat between the different regions of Australia. The sectarian nature of Victoria is that it is a purely focused on AFL, similarly, are South and Western Australia. The upper eastern states, NSW and QLD, are supposedly rugby league "heartlands", yet, these states are considered to be viable land for AFL expansion. Andrew Demetriou is looking over the region like a gun-toting British explorer, gun in hand, of the opinion that these north eastern states are nothing more than Terra Nullius in nature.
Once Demetriou enforces his doctrine of AFL in these states, then rugby league will suffer a fate worse than the Aboriginal people did at the hands of expansion-thirsty British adventurers. Rugby League was once a thriving sport that was played all over the land, but soon the numbers will be reduced so severely that the game will only be played in certain Sydney suburbs, such as Redfern.
Rugby League players are already being snatched from their rightful code, from under the motherly eye of the nuturing David Gallop, and instead placed in Rugby Union institutions, to be raised by Rugby Union elitists. This stolen generation of rugby league players forget their roots in this dastardly act of superiority, and are forced to play rugby union for Australia, for exorbitant amounts of money. Only in some cases will the "stolen" league player ever find his way back to where he was raised, for example Mat Rogers and Wendell Sailor. They were lured away from their mother and instructed to "act union" even though they were inherently "league". After years of struggling with their identity they returned to their native land to play the sport they grew up playing, the sport that is truly in their blood.
Forcing rugby league supporters to speak AFL could also prove a denial of human rights, much like the suppression of Tibetan culture by the Chinese. Common rugby league phrases: play the ball, 40/20, forward pass and 5th tackle - could all soon be as dead as Latin, instead usurped by a strange dialect consisting of odd colloquial jargon. Inside 50's, soft-ball 'gets', hard-bodied midfielders, small 'crumbers', 'spekky', et al, are common AFL phrases, but to the common league supporter they will be unpronouncable.
This unstoppable juggernaut (that is the the AFL) will eventually conquer the land. This is the desire of the expansion-crazy executives, however, the common AFL people are steadfastly against interstate expansion. The thing with Victorian AFL supporters is that they are happy with their sectarian sport to be just that, a game played in Victoria, by Victorians. We can see that firstly through the evolution of the AFL language. Much like the Spanish Basque dialect, the evolution of AFL language is as puzzling as it is insular. Secondly, Victorians have little respect for the game of rugby league and its supposed superfluous brawn to brains ratio, and thus wish to keep AFL as their own little pet project. The All-Australian concept team is an example of this unrepentant desire to not care about anyone but themselves. Like impetuous schoolboys whiling away the hours before lunchtime, the AFL devises a team of their own, who will never play against anyone, but are simply a neurotic homage to the game itself. "Oooh, lets put Nick Riewoldt at Half-forward this year, he had a really good season!" they say, high-fiving each other with relish.
The 2008 AFL season has come and gone with Hawthorn taking the cake from Geelong - in what was both a tremendous upset and a brilliant spectacle. Now the NRL final looms this Sunday as a rematch of 2007: Manly v Melbourne. Let us appreciate rugby league but also recognise that it may not be long before the game is nothing but a distant memory, invoking nothing but an impending apology by the 2050 Prime Minister on behalf of the insatiable AFL - which by then will have cornered the sporting market completely.
-SportingMind
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