Stop the Bombing! Essendon’s nickname a crass insult to modern society - Tony Mahoney

[DapperJong]

You can set your watch that in a thread about Essendon, Kangaroo supporters will be around being the contrary lot. Usually its that Wild Bill goon, but appears he has a new apprentice. It must be hard work to be so consumed by another team.
Let it go man, there are much more important issues in the world than a nickname of a football club

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

Gunners isn't as bad as bombers as a nickname tbh but both are there due to historical reasons and context is key

There are other odd nicknames around - The Red Devils for MUFC, Monkey Hangers for Hartepool. English football is full of them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_football_club_nicknames_in_the_United_Kingdom

Dundee United nicknamed the Arabs for lulz

 

[HighBudget]

In a follow up story, he argues that Cale Hooker should change his name as it's offensive to sex workers...

He's just a PC campaigner

 

[MagpieJo]

Ironically, people who want the nickname changed are probably more concerned about that than actual suicide bombers.

Probably because generally speaking, suicide bombers are, well, dead!

 

[JackFlash]

It's most of the posts in this thread, not the article, which I find reactive, and which seem to make well his point about the insularity of Australian sport.

Can we not see some merit in what he has to say, even if that is not the article in its entirety? Is he required to be Australian to have a comment? Does he have to be answerable for other sports and clubs (eg 'gunners' comments)?

Personally, I'm a footy tragic (more a Roos tragic these days). I've grown up with the "bombers" moniker as synonymous with Essendon for nearly 40 years, so I get the footy history and attachment to the (official) nickname and get where it comes from. (He seems to get that too.) And, it has for most of my adult life jarred somewhat for the reasons similar to those this guy outlines.

"Bombs and bombers are now, more than ever, synonymous with what they truly are: a mechanic for death and destruction. Man’s most efficient method of killing man on a mass scale. On a human level, there are little or no positives when it comes to detonating an explosive device."

Take out "now more than ever" and I can't disagree with this statement of the obvious. How can any of us? Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were killed in the invasion of Baghdad mostly as a result of bombing. Syrian refugees have been fleeing the bombing of their homeland, etcetera. But the practice isn't a 21st phenomena. If anything, I think the guy is being a bit too 'modern-centric'.

For me, it is the article heading "suicide bombers" which I agree was an insensitive pun and it probably does, indeed, indicate for good or bad, the fact that Australia is somewhat insulated from 'global terrorism' if we don't recognise the insensitivity. We don't equate modern day terrorism and suicide bombing with 'da bombers' and I think he makes an interesting point about our insularity here. We equate the name with its origins, not with current terrorist practice.

Where I'd differ, and possibly go further than he has, is to suggest that if Essendon were to ditch the name, it would be because we recognise the name doesn't really represent something honourable. It doesn't recognise 'heroism', (a wartime euphemism) but an instrument that facilitates the killing of mostly civilians on a mass scale. Please, let's have a nuanced conversation here, instead of knee-jerk ad hominem attacks. (On the other hand, it is BF. )

"Does he have to be answerable for other sports and clubs (eg 'gunners' comments)?
Yes he does before sticking his nose in.
Full definition of Arsenal:
noun
noun: arsenal; plural noun: arsenals
a collection of weapons and military equipment.
"Britain's nuclear arsenal"

Their nickname is "the Gunners"

Arsenal were named after The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich who carried out armaments manufacture, ammunition proofing, and explosives research for the British armed forces at a site on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London. It finally closed as a factory in 1967 and the Ministry of Defence moved out in 1994.

He's very much answerable IMO.

 

[Seeds]

What you don't seem to get (or do and choose to ignore) is that bomber aeroplanes have functions other than dropping bombs that destroy cites and kill innocent people. They were also used for tactical and strategic attacks on enemy infrastructure and comabt installations which saved the lives of Australian and allied ground troops during World War 2.

If we were called the Essendon Bombs I could understand the outrage, because those are the things actually doing the damage and are objects that ultimately only serve one purpose, but we aren't. No one with a sane mind associates the "Essendon Bombers" with any war campaigns or suicide attacks.

You do realise you are making an argument to support the journalists view right?

 

[Jobe Watson]

You do realise you are making an argument to support the journalists view right?

Not really. Honouring Essendon's heritage as a base for war planes during the war is nothing like what the journalist is saying... that the name "Bombers" has modern day connotations to suicide bombings and death and destruction. I've never met a single person who has made this link, even with all the s**t going on in current times. And if people were truly offender by the name "Bombers" we would've heard a lot more about it.

Like saying the Newcastle/New York Jets should change their name because fighter jets can be used to kill people.

 

[Seeds]

Not really. Honouring Essendon's heritage as a base for war planes during the war is nothing like what the journalist is saying... that the name "Bombers" has modern day connotations to suicide bombings and death and destruction. I've never met a single person who has made this link, even with all the s**t going on in current times. And if people were truly offender by the name "Bombers" we would've heard a lot more about it.

Like saying the Newcastle/New York Jets should change their name because fighter jets can be used to kill people.

Bombers have bad connotations today but they had just as bad connotations when Essendon became the bombers. The journalists argument is wrong because they have always been bad. Many nicknames are. How many teams out their are named the Devils, the symbol of pure evil. Start making an argument as you did that the bombers were once deemed heroic and good then you give an argument (albeit a stupid one) for morons like the journalist who thinks the reason for why teams were originally named has changed and thus justifies to them that the name must change.

 

[LB#16]

Not really. Honouring Essendon's heritage as a base for war planes during the war is nothing like what the journalist is saying... that the name "Bombers" has modern day connotations to suicide bombings and death and destruction. I've never met a single person who has made this link, even with all the s**t going on in current times. And if people were truly offender by the name "Bombers" we would've heard a lot more about it.

Like saying the Newcastle/New York Jets should change their name because fighter jets can be used to kill people.

Interesting to note that the New York Jets played a home game on September 9th, 2001. They kept their name through out the seasons following the biggest terrorist attack in US history, in the city where the attacks occured.

 

[Sixpence]

The club I followed in Launceston (North Launceston, formerly the Robins and now the Bombers) wears the same colours as Essendon.

That isn't the useless trivia though.

Sounds like it was.

 

[Big Fozza]

http://www.sportingnews.com/afl-new...-nickname-is-a-crass-insult-to-modern-society

An article from a UK journalist who was not too impressed with a News Limited headline about the Essendon players getting banned.

People's thoughts?


I personally don't have an issue with their nickname, maybe because I have grown up with it. It's the Essendon War Planes not the Essendon Briefcase at a train station. It's a powerful symbol, part of the heritage of the Essendon community and since it's been around for 75 odd years it is part of the Essendon Football Club.

Thank god the writer didn't dig deeper into other names they were once called.

*******

 

[Fire]

If this is what civilization has come to, then I'm embarrassed to be a human.

No one has a right to not be offended. If enough people take offense at 'bombers' then I'm sure Essendon will change their name. Untill then people have to learn how to manage their own emotional responses and triggers.

 

[kickazz]

Journalists are employed to write articles and sometimes they get stuck for ideas.

Nothing to see here.

 

[Lester Burnham]

Essendon should change their nickname to the Bummers. It's what most people already call them and it would be less controversial.

 

[JapanFootball]

So this truck was in Hiroshima recently. Youth league. Bombers? :0

 

[ShanDog]

I feel sorry for people who choose to see the negative in everything in life. Every day and every interaction must be a new source of sadness and frustration.

Also, I find the most intriuing aspect of the article is the writer's name. Tony Mahoney. The more you say it, the funnier it gets.

 

[RoundCubic]

Click bait can't find any other articles by Tony Mahoney
Good on him for suckering this site into giving him a months payed holiday to Australia and just s@#ting out this turd out when they demanded something for their money

 

[Hoops]

There's also no possibility of life on this planet without the sun. Don't think you can say the same for warplanes. Yeah, I think your comment is idiotic in a particularly irrelevant thread.

What about the use of Kangaroos as suicide bombers?

 

[BigRedRoo]

No wonder North got rid of 'Shinboners'. Must have been offensive to all the vegetarians out there to have reference to butchering in a nickname.

Or people without legs.

 

[BigRedRoo]

The Essendon Flight attendants?

 

[Doss]

Purple Bombers. I can think of a couple punters who'd love that.

 

[ShanDog]

Maybe Essendon could embrace it?

Essendon Warmongors.
Essendon Bloodthirsties.
Essendon Babykillers.

THAT'S a team I could get behind!

 

[Dave]

Essendon Vils.

 

[Doss]

Maybe Essendon could embrace it?

Essendon Warmongors.
Essendon Bloodthirsties.
Essendon Babykillers.

THAT'S a team I could get behind!

I can cop the first two...

Babykillers?

 

[ShanDog]

I can cop the first two...

Babykillers?

Oh. That's the one I liked the most.