Robert's Journal

There's an advertisement for the AFL that features Eddie McGuire talking about why he enjoys the sport. It actually highlights, for me, some reasons I don't like the sport.

Eddie mentions the tribes. What sport can do is to provide another why of dividing people. Instead of being appreciative of the sport itself and its players' skills, one becomes a Collingwood or Geelong supported and the sworn enemy of the supporters of the other teams. How is this a good thing? Good players and teams can surely be appreciated for their own talent. Where is the need to attach the fervent team support to them as well?

I know the answer of course. We, humans, find it all too easy to divide the world into us and them. We are not comfortable with thinking that every else has the same rights as we do, has the same basic feeling that we do. Two AFL fans should get on better than a Soccer fan and an AFL fan, but only if the two AFL fans belong to the same tribe. Otherwise, they will see nothing in common.

Eddie McGuire says that AFL is the best thing god invented. And I thought it was sex. But it's alright. God didn't invent AFL (or anything else, not having any existence), some Melbourne cricketers invented a game that become the marketing vehicle for the AFL.

// posted by Unknown @ 11:42 am 0 comments