Nothing personal about our Board specifically, but I've been on a self imposed exile from Bigfooty this year as I decided to step back and take a breath.
It seems there's been a poisoning of the well over the last few years. I've felt the culture of footy changing around me. The whole AFL experience is coming apart and I'm not alone in sensing that.
And it's not the look of the game - which seems to be this month's hobby-horse. I actually enjoy modern footy immensely.
For me the mood around COLA, Trade bans, having some prominent Victorian club presidents effectively bullying me on a weekly basis in click-baiting drives from the pulpits their respective media outlets (how it feels sometimes), the disgraceful anti-Academy political movement which mocks the future of the code itself, the hypocrisy of the so-called 'Equalisation' policies, the general quality of the AFL media and its hopelessly compromised, agenda driven tropes, and the sense I have that the AFL commission itself is so lost in its search for the mystical 'heartland' that they have succumbed to what look like an anti-Sydney agenda from some sectors of the industry as a whole....
...all of it.
And that's just if you're a Swans' supporter. Throw in the ASADA scandal, the rise of recreational drug use in the code and all the rest and we really are seeing a whole lot of supporters under siege by the bad news the code they love the most has started to generate on a weekly basis.
I've lived with it. Laughed at it. Become angry at it. Shaken my head. That's fine. That's footy. We all move on, and at least on the weekend there's a game to enjoy.
And, hey this is all cyclical right? Carlton fans would have hated the decade after the cap infringements. Eagles fans would have hated the decline at their club after their series of scandals. North fans would have hated the relocation discussion. South supporters would have felt the same in the 80's. All supporters are inevitably destined to cop this stuff, so I'll endeavor not to be precious about it.
But nothing...NOTHING...in all my years following AR has been more disappointing than the way Goodes has been treated.
If we let Goodes go out like this, I no longer have a positive argument left for bothering anymore.
It's not hyperbole. If we let Goodes be bullied out of one of the greatest careers of the century over this rubbish, this will become a moment future generations of AFL supporters will look back upon forever in disgust.
We all rallied around the Crows this year after their tragedy. It was a great moment in our game - which gives me hope. It's time the same level of gravity was applied to this racism issue.
Personally, I'd like to have 18 club presidents and 17 opposition captains stand arm in arm forming a race for Goodes to clap him onto this field this week (if we can convince him to even play again).
But will that, or something as poignant as that happen? Or will we just succumb to the media cycle again, and let the haters drive this issue apart after a couple of days when the roaches come out and articles start dropping from the Bolts and the Divines of this world, and then the radio shock jocks will become emboldended again to reignite the victim blaming all over again?
Get it right, Aussie Rules. Get it right NOW. Enough said.
Peace.
It seems there's been a poisoning of the well over the last few years. I've felt the culture of footy changing around me. The whole AFL experience is coming apart and I'm not alone in sensing that.
And it's not the look of the game - which seems to be this month's hobby-horse. I actually enjoy modern footy immensely.
For me the mood around COLA, Trade bans, having some prominent Victorian club presidents effectively bullying me on a weekly basis in click-baiting drives from the pulpits their respective media outlets (how it feels sometimes), the disgraceful anti-Academy political movement which mocks the future of the code itself, the hypocrisy of the so-called 'Equalisation' policies, the general quality of the AFL media and its hopelessly compromised, agenda driven tropes, and the sense I have that the AFL commission itself is so lost in its search for the mystical 'heartland' that they have succumbed to what look like an anti-Sydney agenda from some sectors of the industry as a whole....
...all of it.
And that's just if you're a Swans' supporter. Throw in the ASADA scandal, the rise of recreational drug use in the code and all the rest and we really are seeing a whole lot of supporters under siege by the bad news the code they love the most has started to generate on a weekly basis.
I've lived with it. Laughed at it. Become angry at it. Shaken my head. That's fine. That's footy. We all move on, and at least on the weekend there's a game to enjoy.
And, hey this is all cyclical right? Carlton fans would have hated the decade after the cap infringements. Eagles fans would have hated the decline at their club after their series of scandals. North fans would have hated the relocation discussion. South supporters would have felt the same in the 80's. All supporters are inevitably destined to cop this stuff, so I'll endeavor not to be precious about it.
But nothing...NOTHING...in all my years following AR has been more disappointing than the way Goodes has been treated.
If we let Goodes go out like this, I no longer have a positive argument left for bothering anymore.
It's not hyperbole. If we let Goodes be bullied out of one of the greatest careers of the century over this rubbish, this will become a moment future generations of AFL supporters will look back upon forever in disgust.
We all rallied around the Crows this year after their tragedy. It was a great moment in our game - which gives me hope. It's time the same level of gravity was applied to this racism issue.
Personally, I'd like to have 18 club presidents and 17 opposition captains stand arm in arm forming a race for Goodes to clap him onto this field this week (if we can convince him to even play again).
But will that, or something as poignant as that happen? Or will we just succumb to the media cycle again, and let the haters drive this issue apart after a couple of days when the roaches come out and articles start dropping from the Bolts and the Divines of this world, and then the radio shock jocks will become emboldended again to reignite the victim blaming all over again?
Get it right, Aussie Rules. Get it right NOW. Enough said.
Peace.
