Letter in Friday's Express-Advocate 21/10

[omni]

Heads up guys - rather bitchy letteer about swearing in the express tomorrow. The letter makes it sound like every 2nd word is F or C.

Here we go:

NO ACTION TAKEN AT OBSCENE LANGUAGE
CENTRAL Coast Stadium has a written code of conduct in its conditions of entry.
It states that for the saftey and security of all spectators the use of offensive or inciting language is prohibited.
What good are statements like that when they are not enforced?
My son and I were at Sunday's Mariners V Perth match and instead of good-natured jaunts directed at Perth, supporter songs containing obscene expletives were sung repeatedly.
Several security guards and police stood by and only offered a cursory glance towards the offenders.
To use this language shows gross disrespect, not only to the away side, but to the Mariners themselves.
I wonder how many families sitting in that vicinity and hearing that language will bring their children back to another game?
For a side that desperately needs the support of the families on the coast to survive this type of behaviour can only do irreparable damage

(won't put their name in for obvious reasons)

Right so is it time for an 'official' response, it appears that this person has only been to the Perth game otherwise they would have known better and that 'gross disrespect' is just insulting. Do we want to respond?

[Adz]

omni they're finally putting your complaint in the paper

[marinerbhoy]

nah dont respond. let it die down. an issue does need to be made of this.

[Perm]

she does make a point. we are incredibly loud and the language can be heard by all, and its not the best thing for children to hear.
i disagree with the F^%k em up chant and any use of the C word ( which i havent heard used for a few matches now ). we need to solve this, because i dont want us to be the cause of families not coming to games and a negatitive connotation to the Marinators.

[omni]

What are you talking about Adz I've clearly never had any f***ing problem with swearing

I think what we're doing is fine - it's not excessive and we're only singled out because we're a big group.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

first response: hmmm...
second response: are we being baited in the wake of a frankly silly public (or what the telegraph, owned by the same people as the express-advocate) reaction over pat o'shane's verdict that you shouldn't be offended when someone says f### in the rocks at a pub at 1AM on a sunday morning?
third response: consider it, work out if it really is a problem or if we're rubbing up against the on person who really gives a rat's
fourth response: has she ever been to a league or union game? sheesh!

i accept that i'm wowserish with a couple of the sorts of songs that bay 16 sings from time to time, but it's not like her kids have never heard "f###" before, and the sky doesn't fall...

[kevrenor]

dibo said:

third response: consider it, work out if it really is a problem or if we're rubbing up against the on person who really gives a rat's (note - fair bit snipped)

I haven't seen the letter however I agree with what dibo said above ... but now the following points:

1. The stadium code and FFA code state that obscene language is out
2. The club has raised it strongly with us, and they are under pressure from a) stadium, b) licencing police. It Limits our links with the club.
3. We go overboard on the F word, and I'd be very sorry to hear the C word (offensive to our own females)

To balance that we don't want to dilute the passionate nature of our support. We don't want to be singing piss weak songs and chants. We want to be us!

Taking dibos point, I think we don't reply, unless the media seek a reply (and that should be given a considered balanced response), or the club takes it up with us, in which case we talk with them!

We do however ask ourselves when we are singing .... is not using the F word in this song, that many of us want to use, make any difference to its impact? If it destroys it, keep it in - if it makes no difference then the word is gratuitous and need not be used.

How some may be amended: An example - The f*** em up, sounds nearly as good with stuff em up! You may not agree.

My view is: No C word ever, no rascist stuff, no sexist stuff, the F word in a song no more than twice a game.

Let's be the intelligent fans we are and use humour and irony etc. as much as we can to get out point across.

As an exercise - Look at the Newcastle song list - all good ideas - but what ones would we use, what would we not??

[pieman]

Away and get F#@ked. If more people turned up they wouldn't hear you ! compared to other leagues around the world you guy's are tame Trust me!!

[DJ]

pieman said:

Away and get F#@ked. If more people turned up they wouldn't hear you ! compared to other leagues around the world you guy's are tame Trust me!!

Compared to England and Scotland we are teddy bears!

In England 1 of the songs a lot of people sing is stuff like........

My old man
said be an Arsenal fan
I said f*** off bollocks your a c**t!

You don't hear anything like that here, the worst we have is I can't hear a f***ing thing........(which we don't usually sing, I think we only sang that this week coz we were getting away with it)

At the end of the day we are at a football match not church, at all major sporting events you hear everyday language like f***! Get over it and worry about what your kids hear at school!

[Golden Boy]

I think omni should do a door to door poll of every central ocast resident and get the consensus on the issue.
Is this one person or the masses that we are offending and possibly turning away?
The problem is the coast has lived a sheltered football life. Even if we are tame compared to others, these families don't know it.
I say we tone down.
Can you hear Perth sing, I can't hear a bloody thing.
Bust 'em up!
We can go back to f&*k 'em up when people will come to the match to support their team regardless of what the drunkards behind the goal are singing. Or if there are a few offended people it won't matter there will be others to take their place in the packed stadium.

[omni]

Bloody worked well when we used it last time so go back to that perhaps (at away games we can make the air turn blue) as for the GET INTO EM chant - I dunno if it is effective without the F word, but I haven't heard it without the F word so I can't really say - Like I said I don't think that you guys do use it to excess and I agree let's not kick up something about it, basically I wanted to see what all you guys thought before I got pissed off and wrote a response.

I'm with GoldenBoy - when we get 20 000 we can swear all we want people will take their place.

Swearing at school isn't something parents care about because at least their kids get an education - at football games they just want a rant.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

i'm inclined to agree with the substantive point that DJ and pieman are making while i guess disagreeing with the conclusions- i have no doubt that we're teddybears compared to other leagues. i also have no doubt that a person who complained about us would go apoplectic if they heard say... west ham or millwall fans.

kevrenor makes a good point as well that we could just modify things a bit, generally tone down the language and try to be funnier.

while i've derided the person who wrote the letter as a nutjob, at the same time we need every nutjob (as well as the rest of the saner population) who will dip into their bag of crusts and pop some to the club. while we're not running flat broke as far as i'm aware, we are still in a position where the club can't really turn away a dollar nor can the stadium irritate the licencing police because a fan group likes to say f### a lot.

it's a shit sandwich, and i'm not wild about it, but it might simply be the practical reality.

[jonny44]

Hey guys,
This is the first time I have posted anything but I always read this forum and am a big Mariners fan. I just wanted to say that what you do for the Mariners is brilliant, you are easily the best fans in the competition in my opinion. In regards to this letter and other complaints of swearing I think maybe you should take the word f#ck out of your songs if its going to tarnish your good name as the Marinators. I agree that evryone swears and we all hear in day to day life but if more complaints come you guys may be targeted and kicked out of stadiums for swearing and then that takes away all the effectiveness you guys have in pushing our team through the tough matches. Anyway, just thought it was about time I got involved in this forum, I hope I didnt offend anyone with my 2 cents worth, keep up the good work!

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

welcome aboard, and good first post (not just because i agree with you either) ;D.

hope to see you in bay 16 sometime soon.

[jonny44]

I would have been in there with you all last Sunday but dogged it because of the rain. Will be there next home game for sure.

[Golden Boy]

Why aren't you coming to Newcastle on Sunday.
It's an hour drive or you could catch the train??

[MsCanada]

as the size of the marinators grows... we need to be more aware of public image (sorry guys but true fact...) and that means toning down the language... I understand that it seems insulting to some but is it really that hard. i've got a rather filthy mouth when i'm worked up but i still manage to tone it down at games.... we don't need to be stubborn about it... NRL may be worse but we're not NRL fans, we're REAL football fans....

ok fire back if you need to..... *cringe*

[marinermick]

There is no need to make an official repsonse becuase this letter is targeted towards the Marinators in a direct way.

Anyway let's foght fire with fire and put our own letters in. Here is mine:

[e-mail]

So Mrs Swaab (No action taken at obscene language 21/10/05) is offended by swearing at Central Coast Stadium. I have been to every Mariners game this year and yes I have heard swearing, but this swearing is nothing compared to what I hear in everyday life. To isolate the Mariners supporters is grossly unfair and disrespectful to our national football club because this is an issue that cuts through our whole society.

Mrs Swaab should take her head out of the sand and then she would understand that swearing is a societal issue as evidenced by the Pat O’Shane verdict last week. I dare say Mrs Swaab would hear far worse in her children’s playground or on the bus on the way to school. I know I have.

Michael Kmet
Tascott

[DJ]

jonny44 said:

Hey guys,
This is the first time I have posted anything but I always read this forum and am a big Mariners fan. I just wanted to say that what you do for the Mariners is brilliant, you are easily the best fans in the competition in my opinion. In regards to this letter and other complaints of swearing I think maybe you should take the word f#ck out of your songs if its going to tarnish your good name as the Marinators. I agree that evryone swears and we all hear in day to day life but if more complaints come you guys may be targeted and kicked out of stadiums for swearing and then that takes away all the effectiveness you guys have in pushing our team through the tough matches. Anyway, just thought it was about time I got involved in this forum, I hope I didnt offend anyone with my 2 cents worth, keep up the good work!

Yes welcome Jonny.......no offence taken at all, everyone is entitled to their opinion!

It's very annoying when you read this in the paper thou, as we are not that bad at all!

Believe it or not I have lost count of how many times we have had this discussion, and most people know my opinion. However, whilst we are trying to promote the game and get bums on seats lets try and limit the swearing, we have plenty of songs which won't offend anyone!

[jonny44]

I would of gone to Newcastle but I'm flying up to the Goldcoast tomorrow for Indy, hopefully I can watch the game up there somewhere.