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realfooty.com.au
Wanga should get an Oscar
By Jake Niall
July 8, 2004
There is a decorated Brownlow medallist with movie-star looks whose terrible acting can be an embarrassment to himself and his club. And it isn't Shane Crawford.
Gavin Wanganeen is the AFL's leading thespian. The astonishing array of skills he demonstrates on the field includes the backwards fall, the swan dive, the writhe-in-bogus-agony and many other fakes designed to con umpires.
Too often these World Wrestling-Jackie Chan techniques succeed in creating optical illusions that deceive our beleaguered umpires, who cannot be expected to keep up with the play and the latest in football fakery.
Fraser Gehrig is the most notable recent victim of Wanganeen's peerless staging. On Sunday, the troubled Saints spearhead gave Port's Rubber Man a half-hearted shove around the shoulder blade.
Wanganeen hit the deck faster than the Brisbane doctor after Damien Peverill's shove. From a distance, Rubber Man made it appear as though Gehrig had smacked him in the head and went down in a manner befitting the worst soccer dives, not an Australian football champion. Wanga, needless to add, was handed a dubious free and Gehrig, who had enough trouble on his plate, was dragged.
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In terms of acting in sport, Wanga's backward pike was almost in the Rivaldo World Cup class. Unfortunately, there is no punitive action for excessive staging in the AFL.
Wanganeen is by no means the only player skilled in the dramatic arts, although his diving is Greg Louganis-like. Matthew Lloyd would share the podium with him, while there are several others, mostly little men - Brent Harvey and Leon Davis among them - who would fight for the bronze.
In fairness to Lloyd, he gets scragged plenty by full-backs and if he can make a slight shove appear three times more forceful, he is probably getting back what the umpires owe him.
Wanganeen simply does it better because he is more practised. He has been feinting and fainting since he was an Essendon prodigy in the early '90s; as a small, highly skilled player, perhaps playing for frees was a survival mechanism.
In 1993, Kevin Sheedy, with his usual flair for overstatement, said Wanganeen was "a marked man" after three players were suspended for attacks on him. He won the Brownlow that season.
The hammy acting would be amusing if there were not potentially severe consequences for those who are silly enough to lay a hand on Rubber Man. These days, the tribunal is rubbing players out for glorified shoves to the face and other football equivalents to jaywalking.
Luke Penny was suspended for kneeing Wanganeen - a more serious offence - pending an appeal. On this occasion, Wanganeen didn't over-dramatise the contact as much, although he certainly didn't hide his pain. At the tribunal, as he sought to do his belated best for Penny, Wanganeen said the hurt he displayed was due to his chronic dodgy back.
Wanganeen is one of the greats of the game. There is hardly a more watchable player, or one with such a complete package - he can mark, kick and evade. He is quick and courageous and reads the play with the best of them.
In my mind, though, the acting is a blot on an otherwise perfect copy. The faked free-falls have hurt his standing in the game, particularly among opposition supporters.
Wanganeen should be in the Michael Voss, James Hird category of champions who are feted beyond their own club. But by dint of his diving, Wanganeen irritates as much as he enthralls - on talkback this week, his theatrical work has drawn much ire.
If he has not already done so, Mark Williams should pull Wanganeen aside and tell him to tone it down, to leave the acting to Crawford productions.
Wanga should get an Oscar
By Jake Niall
July 8, 2004
There is a decorated Brownlow medallist with movie-star looks whose terrible acting can be an embarrassment to himself and his club. And it isn't Shane Crawford.
Gavin Wanganeen is the AFL's leading thespian. The astonishing array of skills he demonstrates on the field includes the backwards fall, the swan dive, the writhe-in-bogus-agony and many other fakes designed to con umpires.
Too often these World Wrestling-Jackie Chan techniques succeed in creating optical illusions that deceive our beleaguered umpires, who cannot be expected to keep up with the play and the latest in football fakery.
Fraser Gehrig is the most notable recent victim of Wanganeen's peerless staging. On Sunday, the troubled Saints spearhead gave Port's Rubber Man a half-hearted shove around the shoulder blade.
Wanganeen hit the deck faster than the Brisbane doctor after Damien Peverill's shove. From a distance, Rubber Man made it appear as though Gehrig had smacked him in the head and went down in a manner befitting the worst soccer dives, not an Australian football champion. Wanga, needless to add, was handed a dubious free and Gehrig, who had enough trouble on his plate, was dragged.
advertisement
advertisement
In terms of acting in sport, Wanga's backward pike was almost in the Rivaldo World Cup class. Unfortunately, there is no punitive action for excessive staging in the AFL.
Wanganeen is by no means the only player skilled in the dramatic arts, although his diving is Greg Louganis-like. Matthew Lloyd would share the podium with him, while there are several others, mostly little men - Brent Harvey and Leon Davis among them - who would fight for the bronze.
In fairness to Lloyd, he gets scragged plenty by full-backs and if he can make a slight shove appear three times more forceful, he is probably getting back what the umpires owe him.
Wanganeen simply does it better because he is more practised. He has been feinting and fainting since he was an Essendon prodigy in the early '90s; as a small, highly skilled player, perhaps playing for frees was a survival mechanism.
In 1993, Kevin Sheedy, with his usual flair for overstatement, said Wanganeen was "a marked man" after three players were suspended for attacks on him. He won the Brownlow that season.
The hammy acting would be amusing if there were not potentially severe consequences for those who are silly enough to lay a hand on Rubber Man. These days, the tribunal is rubbing players out for glorified shoves to the face and other football equivalents to jaywalking.
Luke Penny was suspended for kneeing Wanganeen - a more serious offence - pending an appeal. On this occasion, Wanganeen didn't over-dramatise the contact as much, although he certainly didn't hide his pain. At the tribunal, as he sought to do his belated best for Penny, Wanganeen said the hurt he displayed was due to his chronic dodgy back.
Wanganeen is one of the greats of the game. There is hardly a more watchable player, or one with such a complete package - he can mark, kick and evade. He is quick and courageous and reads the play with the best of them.
In my mind, though, the acting is a blot on an otherwise perfect copy. The faked free-falls have hurt his standing in the game, particularly among opposition supporters.
Wanganeen should be in the Michael Voss, James Hird category of champions who are feted beyond their own club. But by dint of his diving, Wanganeen irritates as much as he enthralls - on talkback this week, his theatrical work has drawn much ire.
If he has not already done so, Mark Williams should pull Wanganeen aside and tell him to tone it down, to leave the acting to Crawford productions.
