Nick Bendel
State of Indifference
May 7th 2008 13:56
On Saturday night, the MCG will play host to the Hall of Fame Tribute Match, “the game 150 years in the making”.
Although there may be sound historical, emotional and commercial reasons for celebrating the sesquicentenary of Australian Rules football, an all-star game, between Victoria and the Dream Team (i.e. everyone else), is not the way to do it.
The problem is that the fans, players and clubs are not sufficiently enamoured with the concept. Clubs are reluctant to release their stars, fearing they may get injured; players are nervous about putting their bodies on their line, knowing they are partaking in a glorified exhibition; and fans are unable to fully identify with their side, recognising that it is filled with half-hearted footballers. And it is a vicious cycle, in which each party’s negativity feeds off the others’.
Dismissing the match may seem strange when one considers how successful the State of Origin series is. But there is a key difference: while rugby league’s representative showpiece benefits from an authentic rivalry, the Aussie Rules version is based on a manufactured enmity.
The NRL sources most of its players from two antagonistic states, Queensland and New South Wales, which means that fans, players and clubs are genuinely interested to see what will happen when they clash. The AFL, however, recruits from all over Australia, with the result that it is impossible to pit two proper sides against each other. How can the Dream Team have passion in playing for their state/territory, when they are not even representing one? How can the Victorians feel hostility towards their opposition, when they are uncertain who that opposition is? Although the AFL’s marketing department would have us believe that the teams will be desperate to beat each other, in reality, they will not, thereby making the whole exercise pointless.
Indeed, this is why the AFL decided to scrap its own State of Origin a decade ago. Due to the nationwide spread of talent, no less than four squads had to be put together each year: Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the Allies (a more inventive term for ‘everyone else’). Consequently, the one on one rivalry that inspires such high drama in rugby league’s Origin contests was absent. The result, of course, was declining enthusiasm on the part of fans, players and clubs, before the concept was euthanized in 1999.
It therefore calls the Hall of Fame Tribute Match into question. What, exactly, is the AFL hoping to achieve? If they are aiming to reintroduce State of Origin by stealth, they are wasting their time, as any new version would fail for the same reasons as the old. If, on the other hand, they are merely doing what they say and honouring the game’s history, a meaningless all-star game seems a peculiar way to go about it.
Although there may be sound historical, emotional and commercial reasons for celebrating the sesquicentenary of Australian Rules football, an all-star game, between Victoria and the Dream Team (i.e. everyone else), is not the way to do it.
The problem is that the fans, players and clubs are not sufficiently enamoured with the concept. Clubs are reluctant to release their stars, fearing they may get injured; players are nervous about putting their bodies on their line, knowing they are partaking in a glorified exhibition; and fans are unable to fully identify with their side, recognising that it is filled with half-hearted footballers. And it is a vicious cycle, in which each party’s negativity feeds off the others’.
Dismissing the match may seem strange when one considers how successful the State of Origin series is. But there is a key difference: while rugby league’s representative showpiece benefits from an authentic rivalry, the Aussie Rules version is based on a manufactured enmity.
The NRL sources most of its players from two antagonistic states, Queensland and New South Wales, which means that fans, players and clubs are genuinely interested to see what will happen when they clash. The AFL, however, recruits from all over Australia, with the result that it is impossible to pit two proper sides against each other. How can the Dream Team have passion in playing for their state/territory, when they are not even representing one? How can the Victorians feel hostility towards their opposition, when they are uncertain who that opposition is? Although the AFL’s marketing department would have us believe that the teams will be desperate to beat each other, in reality, they will not, thereby making the whole exercise pointless.
Indeed, this is why the AFL decided to scrap its own State of Origin a decade ago. Due to the nationwide spread of talent, no less than four squads had to be put together each year: Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the Allies (a more inventive term for ‘everyone else’). Consequently, the one on one rivalry that inspires such high drama in rugby league’s Origin contests was absent. The result, of course, was declining enthusiasm on the part of fans, players and clubs, before the concept was euthanized in 1999.
It therefore calls the Hall of Fame Tribute Match into question. What, exactly, is the AFL hoping to achieve? If they are aiming to reintroduce State of Origin by stealth, they are wasting their time, as any new version would fail for the same reasons as the old. If, on the other hand, they are merely doing what they say and honouring the game’s history, a meaningless all-star game seems a peculiar way to go about it.
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