The Football Tragic

It seems I’m not the only one somewhat peeved by the general perception that Australia played an overly physical game in Germany. Les Murray has dedicated his latest prose composition to an analysis of the prevailing attitudes towards Australian football; he, too, takes issue with the knee-jerk belittling of Australia’s performance at the World Cup. I heartily agree, although, as I mentioned in the article linked above, there are peripheral benefits to be gained from such a reputation.

The second half of Murray’s article deals with the sporting behaviour of the Australian team, by comparison with some of the more successful nations at the event. Although I take issue with his squeaky-clean portrayal of the Brazilians (after all, Les was in Munich to see the Brazil v. Australia game, didn’t he find a few of the Brazilian tumbles a tad, erm, egregious?), the basic thrust of his argument is valid.

In my opinion, he is on less firm ground when he generalizes the desire to win in gentlemanly fashion to the Australian sporting public in general. I don’t believe this is the case, and it is perhaps because Australia occupies such an impressively high rank in most sporting codes that we are prepared to make excuses for our own athletes’ reprehensible behaviour at times, while damning the foreigners without trial.

Take the case of international cricket. The vastly successful Australian team has been at the top of the cricketing tree for some considerable time, and the reflected glory that the team bestows has resulted in a good deal of casuistry in recent times.

Countless excuses were offered for the foolish, selfish involvement with sub-continental bookies on the part of Mark Waugh and Shane Warne; the other players involved were unequivocally lambasted. Likewise, after the first Muralitharan “incident”, foreign bowlers with suspect actions were regularly put under the microscope by the Australian media and fans, while Brett Lee’s blatantly illegal bouncers tended to escape notice.

Another brief point: it was a commonplace in the era before neutral umpires to state that the sub-continental umps were crooked beyond belief. Biased they doubtless were, but some Australian umpires were little better in terms of favouring their own – a fact that was never admitted in the Australian media.

The match which most directly led to the use of neutral umpires, in fact, was the disgraceful final test of the Australia v. South Africa series in 1993/94, in which the South Africans suffered some ludicrous LBW decisions at the hands of Darrell Hair (yes, the same fellow who’s been in the news recently) and Terry Prue.

Perhaps it is simply the case that when a national team has reached the pinnacle of any sport, their fans become even more jealously protective of the players. I have found that Australian football fans are, on the whole, more even-handed than the passionate followers of other sports in this country. Even among those who were furious at the manner of Australia’s exit from the World Cup (and that makes about 99.9%), there were plenty who were prepared to admit that Marco Materazzi’s earlier dismissal was somewhat harsh – and that Marco Bresciano’s fall was somewhat theatrical.

Yes, Australian footballers and football fans do tend to be more ethical and fair-minded than those of some other nations. But let's not pretend that this is a universal trend in Australian sport. It isn't.