Post by serious14 on Oct 25, 2007 4:44:36 GMT 10
At a time when Dickhead Noone and his mates down the road at the Daily Terrorgraph (Paul Kent and Josh Massoud, we're looking at you) take the greatest of delights in bashing football for no other reason than it threatens NRL, and the AFL media in Melbourne and Adelaide purposefully send undercover operatives to games with the sole intention of smearing football's good name, all the while reporting on what draft pick #54 eats for breakfast every day, I thought I'd post (most likely a repost) this article from Simon Hill when he was still at SBS. One of the best articles I've ever read and one that perfectly sums up the conservative media's approach to football in this country......
"Can you smell the fear?
Simon Hill (SBS - The World Game Presenter)
Can you? If you live in Sydney, you'll hardly be able to breathe for the pungent stench. The egg-ballers are starting to sweat - and the putrid odour of fear is enveloping the Harbour City in the only way it knows how...via the pages of the city's newspapers. In all my years in football, I've never witnessed such an intense, vitriolic campaign against the game I - and millions of others - love with a passion.
It all started two weeks ago with an odious article written by a guy called Paul Kent in the Daily Telegraph. Entitled 'Dress for distress, hooligans with flare', Kent wrote a piece so drenched in fear and hatred - not just
of football but of the 'ethnics' - he almost drowned in his own invective. Now I don't know Paul Kent - I've never met him - but I have it on good authority that he is a Rugby League journalist. As he works for the Telegraph (owned by News Limited, which in turn owns the rights to the NRL), then it's a fair guess he's no great fan of our game.
Fair enough.
I'm no great fan of AFL - which is why I rarely touch upon it in opinion pieces, because I don't understand it and it's of no interest to me. The question then, is why are Kent and his like sticking the boot in? Well, the answer is clear. Rugby League in particular is feeling very uneasy about football's big year.
The A-League is just around the corner, Harry Kewell is about to play in a Champions League final, and the national team have another chance to qualify for the World Cup. But it's the move to Asia that has really browned the trousers of the egg-ball scribblers. They know full well the impact this could have on the other football codes...and League in particular.
Rugby League holds a unique position in Australian sport - it's neither a national code, nor a minor code. Due to it's stranglehold in Sydney and Brisbane it gains much more attention than it probably deserves. Ask people in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Darwin about League, and they'll more than likely shrug their shoulders.
Australian Rules Football has long since outwitted it in terms of being the biggest spectator sport - and Rugby Union with it's Commonwealth...sorry, World Cup, is starting to make inroads in to its traditional territories
too.
It can ill afford another rival in its heartlands - and so, football, with local glamour club Sydney FC starting to grab some attention, gets its ritual kicking. Dwight Yorke, Pierre Littbarski, Anthony La Paglia - these are names known and respected worldwide, and the League scribes don't like it...not one little bit.
Kent's article was actually just the latest in a long line of
carefully-worded digs at the world game by the Telegraph. For months it has been running a campaign aimed at discrediting the sport.
Just to cite a few examples, we've had stories on how 'Soccer over 35'sgetting injured in Sunday league games are a drain on the health service' as well as 'How soccer gives you brain injuries by repeated heading of the
ball' through to the usual guff about 'ethnic' hooligans threatening totear the very fabric of Australian society apart...oh, and the quitefrankly bizarre resurrection of the Frank Farina-Andrew Orsatti story that allowed football lovers such as Mike Gibson to get involved.
These articles are very 'Rugby League' - a game where the only skills required are to be able to catch the ball, run with it and hit very hard.
And that's exactly what others have done. The Sydney Morning Herald - led by football hater in-chief Peter Fitzsimmons, (wonderfully irked by having to call the sport by its proper name under the Herald's new policy) - has grabbed the ball, run with it, and waded in with some gems of its own. Check out last weekend's offering by someone called Stephen Gibbs, who slammed the game using the usual stereotypes. I'll pick out a few quotes
for you from Gibbs's article, and you'll get the gist.
* 'I always thought it was a game for sissies' (sheilas - tick!)
* 'Anyone calling soccer football with an accent is probably certifiable'(wogs - tick!),
* 'Other football codes use athletic men and gorgeous women to promote their game' (poofters - tick, and that's a full house!).
Johnny Warren will be turning in his grave - after years of fighting this prejudicial garbage, the title of his autobiography has been vindicated in one, painfully ill-informed piece. Anthony La Paglia comes in for a bit of stick during the piece too - which is strange, considering he is considered a bit of an Aussie hero. But it seems if he likes 'soccer' - then he reverts to being 'just another wog'.
Sad, very sad indeed.
Even The Australian wades in with some uninformed comments. A throwaway line it may have been in a column called 'Strewth' but it underlines the fact that the concept of a 'fair go' in this country still doesn't apply to our game. The paper sneers at the concept of the A-League striving for excellence when 'the Central Coast Mariners had to order a coach to take them by road to Adelaide for the Club World Championship Qualifying Final'. (This was before the switch to Gosford incidentally.)
Now, the article contains a half-truth. The Mariners most certainly DID order a coach...for the short trip to Sydney airport. Which I would have thought is perfectly normal for a team from the coast? It looks slightly different when you know the truth eh?
The problem for football with this type of journalism is that it DOES impact on the general public - at a time when the sport is trying to make a transition from old to new. The League crowd know this - and they are trying everything in their power to keep the game small, ignoring the strident efforts made by FFA to rid the game of it's problems (yes, we know there are some), and the fact that many of their readers love the game.
You want small? I'll give you small. This week's Braith Anasta situation highlighted League's problems perfectly. Coveted by the New South Wales Waratahs who can offer him Super 12 rugby (okay, trips to New Zealand and South Africa may not seem much, but it's a start) and a potentially meaningful international career, Anasta's club side responded with a mighty
comeback.
What could the Bulldogs give young Braith to tempt him to stay the reporters asked? The answer - continuity. Yup, that's all folks! More of the same. Another trip to Penrith...a once a year sojourn over the Tasman to play the Warriors, maybe an annual trip to Wigan. Tough choice Braith.
League's failure to penetrate nationally is exacerbated by its complete lack of international profile. Last year it seemed they were going some way to redeem that with the launch of the Tri-Nations series, which initially proved a huge success.
Problem is, when really put to the test, Australia simply crushed Great Britain like they've done for the last forty years, and on their return, NRL coaches retreated in to their provincialism, claiming the tournament was 'too long' and 'could impact on the domestic season'. I'll tell you what guys - YOU stay small, you know it makes sense.
How the League boys must long for the days when the only access to Australia was by boat, and the only television coverage was local and parochial. No overseas football to contend with, no glamour from elsewhere giving Australians a flavour of something different.
Well, the world has changed, and League knows Asia, with its tough international qualifying zone and cash-rich Champions League offers something that it can never, ever compete with.
The irony of the League crowd is that on the one hand, they preach about how disgraceful the crowd incidents are at football - yet in the same breath, revel in photos of 'big, tough' players on the pitch trying to rip each others heads off. How does that work exactly? (Oh, and while we're about it, isn't giving someone a 'wedgie' just a teensy bit poofy boys?)
But there's another, much bigger, irony that hasn't been touched on at all by the media in Sydney. On the same day as the 'soccer riots' took place between Sydney United and Bonnyrigg in Parramatta (arrest count single
figures), rather more trouble was afoot across town at the Rugby League game between St. George and the Sydney Roosters - twenty eight arrests to be exact. Anyone read that in their Sydney paper in the days that followed? No? Me either.
Fights at the League game? Just the lads having too much beer, that's all. Fights at the 'soccer'? Ethnic warfare - that's the message from Sydney's media.
All of which wouldn't be so bad if there was some balance somewhere - but so far, only ABC televisions' The Glasshouse programme has managed to take a stab at the difference in coverage, labelling some of the reporting at worst, 'racist'. Couldn't have put it better myself.
So, what can we do about it? Well, making your feelings known is one way -but I'd prefer a different approach. Vote with your feet. If you truly love the game, support the A-League and make it a rip-roaring success by going to matches. That's the only way we can put this type of crass journalism to bed for good."
Oh man, that makes me smile every time I read it.
"Can you smell the fear?
Simon Hill (SBS - The World Game Presenter)
Can you? If you live in Sydney, you'll hardly be able to breathe for the pungent stench. The egg-ballers are starting to sweat - and the putrid odour of fear is enveloping the Harbour City in the only way it knows how...via the pages of the city's newspapers. In all my years in football, I've never witnessed such an intense, vitriolic campaign against the game I - and millions of others - love with a passion.
It all started two weeks ago with an odious article written by a guy called Paul Kent in the Daily Telegraph. Entitled 'Dress for distress, hooligans with flare', Kent wrote a piece so drenched in fear and hatred - not just
of football but of the 'ethnics' - he almost drowned in his own invective. Now I don't know Paul Kent - I've never met him - but I have it on good authority that he is a Rugby League journalist. As he works for the Telegraph (owned by News Limited, which in turn owns the rights to the NRL), then it's a fair guess he's no great fan of our game.
Fair enough.
I'm no great fan of AFL - which is why I rarely touch upon it in opinion pieces, because I don't understand it and it's of no interest to me. The question then, is why are Kent and his like sticking the boot in? Well, the answer is clear. Rugby League in particular is feeling very uneasy about football's big year.
The A-League is just around the corner, Harry Kewell is about to play in a Champions League final, and the national team have another chance to qualify for the World Cup. But it's the move to Asia that has really browned the trousers of the egg-ball scribblers. They know full well the impact this could have on the other football codes...and League in particular.
Rugby League holds a unique position in Australian sport - it's neither a national code, nor a minor code. Due to it's stranglehold in Sydney and Brisbane it gains much more attention than it probably deserves. Ask people in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Darwin about League, and they'll more than likely shrug their shoulders.
Australian Rules Football has long since outwitted it in terms of being the biggest spectator sport - and Rugby Union with it's Commonwealth...sorry, World Cup, is starting to make inroads in to its traditional territories
too.
It can ill afford another rival in its heartlands - and so, football, with local glamour club Sydney FC starting to grab some attention, gets its ritual kicking. Dwight Yorke, Pierre Littbarski, Anthony La Paglia - these are names known and respected worldwide, and the League scribes don't like it...not one little bit.
Kent's article was actually just the latest in a long line of
carefully-worded digs at the world game by the Telegraph. For months it has been running a campaign aimed at discrediting the sport.
Just to cite a few examples, we've had stories on how 'Soccer over 35'sgetting injured in Sunday league games are a drain on the health service' as well as 'How soccer gives you brain injuries by repeated heading of the
ball' through to the usual guff about 'ethnic' hooligans threatening totear the very fabric of Australian society apart...oh, and the quitefrankly bizarre resurrection of the Frank Farina-Andrew Orsatti story that allowed football lovers such as Mike Gibson to get involved.
These articles are very 'Rugby League' - a game where the only skills required are to be able to catch the ball, run with it and hit very hard.
And that's exactly what others have done. The Sydney Morning Herald - led by football hater in-chief Peter Fitzsimmons, (wonderfully irked by having to call the sport by its proper name under the Herald's new policy) - has grabbed the ball, run with it, and waded in with some gems of its own. Check out last weekend's offering by someone called Stephen Gibbs, who slammed the game using the usual stereotypes. I'll pick out a few quotes
for you from Gibbs's article, and you'll get the gist.
* 'I always thought it was a game for sissies' (sheilas - tick!)
* 'Anyone calling soccer football with an accent is probably certifiable'(wogs - tick!),
* 'Other football codes use athletic men and gorgeous women to promote their game' (poofters - tick, and that's a full house!).
Johnny Warren will be turning in his grave - after years of fighting this prejudicial garbage, the title of his autobiography has been vindicated in one, painfully ill-informed piece. Anthony La Paglia comes in for a bit of stick during the piece too - which is strange, considering he is considered a bit of an Aussie hero. But it seems if he likes 'soccer' - then he reverts to being 'just another wog'.
Sad, very sad indeed.
Even The Australian wades in with some uninformed comments. A throwaway line it may have been in a column called 'Strewth' but it underlines the fact that the concept of a 'fair go' in this country still doesn't apply to our game. The paper sneers at the concept of the A-League striving for excellence when 'the Central Coast Mariners had to order a coach to take them by road to Adelaide for the Club World Championship Qualifying Final'. (This was before the switch to Gosford incidentally.)
Now, the article contains a half-truth. The Mariners most certainly DID order a coach...for the short trip to Sydney airport. Which I would have thought is perfectly normal for a team from the coast? It looks slightly different when you know the truth eh?
The problem for football with this type of journalism is that it DOES impact on the general public - at a time when the sport is trying to make a transition from old to new. The League crowd know this - and they are trying everything in their power to keep the game small, ignoring the strident efforts made by FFA to rid the game of it's problems (yes, we know there are some), and the fact that many of their readers love the game.
You want small? I'll give you small. This week's Braith Anasta situation highlighted League's problems perfectly. Coveted by the New South Wales Waratahs who can offer him Super 12 rugby (okay, trips to New Zealand and South Africa may not seem much, but it's a start) and a potentially meaningful international career, Anasta's club side responded with a mighty
comeback.
What could the Bulldogs give young Braith to tempt him to stay the reporters asked? The answer - continuity. Yup, that's all folks! More of the same. Another trip to Penrith...a once a year sojourn over the Tasman to play the Warriors, maybe an annual trip to Wigan. Tough choice Braith.
League's failure to penetrate nationally is exacerbated by its complete lack of international profile. Last year it seemed they were going some way to redeem that with the launch of the Tri-Nations series, which initially proved a huge success.
Problem is, when really put to the test, Australia simply crushed Great Britain like they've done for the last forty years, and on their return, NRL coaches retreated in to their provincialism, claiming the tournament was 'too long' and 'could impact on the domestic season'. I'll tell you what guys - YOU stay small, you know it makes sense.
How the League boys must long for the days when the only access to Australia was by boat, and the only television coverage was local and parochial. No overseas football to contend with, no glamour from elsewhere giving Australians a flavour of something different.
Well, the world has changed, and League knows Asia, with its tough international qualifying zone and cash-rich Champions League offers something that it can never, ever compete with.
The irony of the League crowd is that on the one hand, they preach about how disgraceful the crowd incidents are at football - yet in the same breath, revel in photos of 'big, tough' players on the pitch trying to rip each others heads off. How does that work exactly? (Oh, and while we're about it, isn't giving someone a 'wedgie' just a teensy bit poofy boys?)
But there's another, much bigger, irony that hasn't been touched on at all by the media in Sydney. On the same day as the 'soccer riots' took place between Sydney United and Bonnyrigg in Parramatta (arrest count single
figures), rather more trouble was afoot across town at the Rugby League game between St. George and the Sydney Roosters - twenty eight arrests to be exact. Anyone read that in their Sydney paper in the days that followed? No? Me either.
Fights at the League game? Just the lads having too much beer, that's all. Fights at the 'soccer'? Ethnic warfare - that's the message from Sydney's media.
All of which wouldn't be so bad if there was some balance somewhere - but so far, only ABC televisions' The Glasshouse programme has managed to take a stab at the difference in coverage, labelling some of the reporting at worst, 'racist'. Couldn't have put it better myself.
So, what can we do about it? Well, making your feelings known is one way -but I'd prefer a different approach. Vote with your feet. If you truly love the game, support the A-League and make it a rip-roaring success by going to matches. That's the only way we can put this type of crass journalism to bed for good."
Oh man, that makes me smile every time I read it.
