Anzacday
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Interesting perspective from journalist David Penberthy…
I grew up in an Aussie Rules state and still follow the game. But the older and more politically incorrect I get, the more I find myself being drawn to the bogan authenticity of the NRL.
Unlike the AFL, the NRL has not confused itself with being a preachy vehicle for social change. The NRL knows it is a football code and acts accordingly.
While the NRL focuses on playing footy the way it has always been played, the AFL busies itself thinking of new ways to change the rules of the game and new ways to change society.
NRL Vegas round is a stellar example of a brand that knows what it is and is really leaning into it.
This is the sporting equivalent of those genuinely excellent “I Don’t Care” KFC advertisements, proudly selling a salty, fatty product as an illicit thrill on the grounds that life’s short and you might as well have some fun while it lasts, even if a regular three-piece feed hastens your meeting with your maker.
The AFL in contrast has been overrun by worriers and straighteners. In trying to render the world a perfect place it also invites accusations of hypocrisy.
Under the AFL’s bizarre illicit drug rules every player at the Greater Western Sydney Football Club could have gone on a 15-day cocaine bender and none of us would be any the wiser.
In contrast, GWS has been thrust into the headlines over a ribald party which was probably as offensive as those bad taste parties many of us attended in the 1980s and 1990s.
An important caveat here.
What some of those GWS players did was not just dopey, but really quite appalling.
It was especially appalling given that GWS had taken the commendable step early this year of staging an in-house presentation by the important organisation Our Watch to make them aware of issues surrounding violence against women and how such violence cannot be trivialised.
Against that backdrop, the club itself (which staged the private event) was right to haul them up over their conduct, which I am sure they all now regret deeply and sincerely.
But here’s where things get weird. With typical self-importance the AFL comes charging in on its white steed and turns the whole thing into some tiered fines fiasco, as per a melee on match day, meting out punishments which invite ridicule.
Blokes being tut-tutted for making gallows humour gags about September 11 (whatever) and Toby Greene being punished for (shock horror) going dressed as the hapless hip-hopper RayGun, as if this was some moral breach in his role as captain. (In passing I would note that Toby Greene seems to be punished annually simply for being Toby Greene.)
It is only a few weeks since the AFL hit Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley with a fine for impersonating an aeroplane in some pointed post-match banter against Hawthorn.
What a po-faced bit of nonsense that was.
People like passion. People also do stupid things. The AFL has gone to war against passion, lest things get out of hand, and believes first-offence stupidity by the young should result in fines and public shaming.
Even when what we are ultimately talking about are misguided attempts at humour by young people who didn’t think things through.
Well, don’t despair, the AFL’s newly formed bad comedy unit is on standby to act against offending material.
Different, though, if you go out after a game and get smashed and wasted on booze and drugs and are found asleep in a nightclub. You’re free to play the following week.
Article in part courtesy of the Herald Sun.
I grew up in an Aussie Rules state and still follow the game. But the older and more politically incorrect I get, the more I find myself being drawn to the bogan authenticity of the NRL.
Unlike the AFL, the NRL has not confused itself with being a preachy vehicle for social change. The NRL knows it is a football code and acts accordingly.
While the NRL focuses on playing footy the way it has always been played, the AFL busies itself thinking of new ways to change the rules of the game and new ways to change society.
NRL Vegas round is a stellar example of a brand that knows what it is and is really leaning into it.
This is the sporting equivalent of those genuinely excellent “I Don’t Care” KFC advertisements, proudly selling a salty, fatty product as an illicit thrill on the grounds that life’s short and you might as well have some fun while it lasts, even if a regular three-piece feed hastens your meeting with your maker.
The AFL in contrast has been overrun by worriers and straighteners. In trying to render the world a perfect place it also invites accusations of hypocrisy.
Under the AFL’s bizarre illicit drug rules every player at the Greater Western Sydney Football Club could have gone on a 15-day cocaine bender and none of us would be any the wiser.
In contrast, GWS has been thrust into the headlines over a ribald party which was probably as offensive as those bad taste parties many of us attended in the 1980s and 1990s.
An important caveat here.
What some of those GWS players did was not just dopey, but really quite appalling.
It was especially appalling given that GWS had taken the commendable step early this year of staging an in-house presentation by the important organisation Our Watch to make them aware of issues surrounding violence against women and how such violence cannot be trivialised.
Against that backdrop, the club itself (which staged the private event) was right to haul them up over their conduct, which I am sure they all now regret deeply and sincerely.
But here’s where things get weird. With typical self-importance the AFL comes charging in on its white steed and turns the whole thing into some tiered fines fiasco, as per a melee on match day, meting out punishments which invite ridicule.
Blokes being tut-tutted for making gallows humour gags about September 11 (whatever) and Toby Greene being punished for (shock horror) going dressed as the hapless hip-hopper RayGun, as if this was some moral breach in his role as captain. (In passing I would note that Toby Greene seems to be punished annually simply for being Toby Greene.)
It is only a few weeks since the AFL hit Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley with a fine for impersonating an aeroplane in some pointed post-match banter against Hawthorn.
What a po-faced bit of nonsense that was.
People like passion. People also do stupid things. The AFL has gone to war against passion, lest things get out of hand, and believes first-offence stupidity by the young should result in fines and public shaming.
Even when what we are ultimately talking about are misguided attempts at humour by young people who didn’t think things through.
Well, don’t despair, the AFL’s newly formed bad comedy unit is on standby to act against offending material.
Different, though, if you go out after a game and get smashed and wasted on booze and drugs and are found asleep in a nightclub. You’re free to play the following week.
Article in part courtesy of the Herald Sun.
