At what point does supporting become abuse and not supporting at all?

[Cap]

I was sitting at a local match on Saturday and had to put up with the most foul mouthed idiots I’ve seen in a good ten years. Apart from being massively intoxicated they weren’t funny in any way and the “supporting” revolved around abusing opposition fans and players. Now don’t get me wrong I’m hardly conservative and give as good as I get but its seems the boundary of common decency has been lost.
Generally if you try and bring this up with people you get howled down because they are just supporting their team and if you don’t like it loud you shouldn’t come or the old you can’t handle a bit of argy bargy.
But for me the modern fan seems to have taken it all to a new level – I like a bit of argy bargy in supporters when its about football or light hearted stuff that can be laughed off when the final siren blows. I cringe when I hear personal insults at players (either from my club or another) and supporters; there is no reason to call someone you have never met names that would make a sailor blush.
It appears that people have moved away from the humorous stuff to personal attacks you’d rather scream that someone is a "####" than say he "can’t kick to save himself" or other football related things.
I realise by posting this people are going to think I’m some sort of ****ter who can’t handle opposition fans. But to them; I say I can and I love argy bargy, I grew up telling supporters their players were worse than ours or that they were a loud mouth or the like, even with a bit colourful language but I am getting sick and tired of foul mouthed people who would think Will Minson should get suspended for abuse but are then happy to call out much worse on game day (I’m not aiming this at Port Supporters but that’s been a topic in Adelaide recently).
What as happened to the banter that used to be enjoyed between clubs which has now been replaced with vile people who obviously have nothing in their lives and feel that the verbal abuse of people somehow improves their life, and what happened to just plain support ? why do people even need to hell at the opposition players at all ?
Anyway what are peoples thoughts ?

 

[jo172]

I think it's because football attracts alot of people with extreme short man's syndrome who can only live out their failed dreams/feel good about themselves by denigrating those far more successful with far more ability than themselves. This can often for instance be observed on this board without naming names.

You'll notice that rarely are the loudmouths/yobbos the club legends/blokes who have played a reasonable amount on the park. It's generally the guys who never made it and are living vicariously through their current football players.

 

[Bosley]

My favourite misguided barb is when male fans try to "abuse" a player by calling him a "****ter" (usually with adjectives as a precursor).

The irony is lost on them that they have just paid their hard earned money to watch 40 guys run around in tight shorts.

I always like to respond by saying "People's personal sexual preferences are nobody's business but their own!" ... but of course I never do

 

[CaptainDangerfield]

I abused perrie at the footy once and felt terrible for the next week. I never yell abuse at the game anymore, especially when the players are putting their body on the line why I'm sitting on my a$$. I would say about 70% of people on this board have a good feel for the game, that falls to about 20%(maybe even less) at the actual game.

 

[Crow-mo]

nothing to see here.

idiots are idiots at the footy. they're also idiots at home, at work etc...

you can over analyse it and pretend you think you know all these reasons why, but it isn't any more complicated than above.

 

[Vince Van Mackay]

There is this guy at the footy that yells tosser ALL THE TIME. But he yells it at the umpires, so I guess we can forgive him, still an idiot though.

 

[Geoffa32]

It is abuse when there is no humour involved.

 

[Macca19]

What as happened to the banter that used to be enjoyed between clubs which has now been replaced with vile people who obviously have nothing in their lives and feel that the verbal abuse of people somehow improves their life, and what happened to just plain support ?

Depends what you mean by a local match. Local as in SANFL or local as in amateurs/country? As Crow-mo said...a moron is always a moron.

Cant say I ever hear over the top abuse at AAMI as most people will turn around and tell that person to **** off.

Just on the quoted part though and on more of an AFL line...I think in general both Port and Crows supporters have 'forgotten' how to interact with opposition supporters simply because apart from the opposition cheersquad block, you'd be lucky to get 2-3 opposition supporters in each bay.

Theres plenty of good healthy banter at SANFL games.

 

[GoCrows08]

ok this is my first post on this site but ive been a long time reader
i was at the adelaide game at the MCG on the weekend and on the top tier, above where i was sitting was the most idiotic collingwood supporter that i have met. He was constantly screaming abuse at brett burton for some unknown reason, screaming stuff like "Burton you're shit!" and other various things. now he didnt really swear a lot but the amount of abuse that was coming out of his mouth was unbelievable. even after brett got injured he was screaming out "kick it to burton!!!". Then for some unknown reason he started to abuse his own players, even when they were 4 goals up. What made it worse was the fact that when he was screaming, spit was going everywhere, even all over us supporters in the tier below. By the end of the game, even the collingwood supporters around me were yelling up to tell him to be quiet!

now there wasnt a lot of swearing involved or anything but i have never met anyone hurl abuse as much as he did, let alone at just one person. it was definitely not neccesary and i have never encountered anyone yelling out that much abuse before.

 

[pjcrows]

I vocally abuse umpires, no problem. I have a quiet expletive when one of our players stuffs up, but I never yell that out.

 

[JHF1870]

Yeah you get them at all clubs.

I'm a Power supporter and I'm supposed to be feral, and unintelligent. Its the generalization, and Its far from the truth, I go to games respecting all supporters and players. I don't hurl abuse at spectators or players, I guess I never noticed it at home games, but the first away game I ever went to was the grand final and I was shocked with the amount of abuse thrown around. after the game I had a number of smartasses have a go at me. I don't know why people need to act this way.

I have found though at the local games, that people can get very abusive and I've seen people smashing stuff cos their team is losing.

When I was at Launceston this year, I was a lone Port Adelaide supporter, but didn't cop abuse from a single Hawks supporter, then what I saw at the end of the game amazed me. walking past the Port outer army, I saw several of those guys hurling abuse at Hawks supporters....Sore losers....I think so. It is disgraceful. I'd spent the whole day at the footy as a good supporter, and had no problems, even after the game, I was talking to other Hawks supporters. At the end of the day I'm glad I didn't join up with the group, I guess people are so passionate about the game that they cant handle losing.

Also last week at the Parade, I watched a few abusive people hurling abuse and foul language in front of children. And then watched a group of Norwood supporters lay into the North Adelaide players coming into the change rooms. I think people forget how hard these guys work to play the game.