Azkatro for the Panthers.
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Sydney's grip slip
Plenty of Sydney’s diehard rugby league supporters are feeling a bit nervous leading into this weekend’s preliminary finals matches.
The feeling is that, with two Sydney-based teams remaining, the locals are sticking true to tradition and dreaming of a mighty match-up between the Dragons and the Bulldogs.
The outsiders are one-capital-city teams, namely Brisbane and Melbourne. Form and talent-wise, it’s hard to pick any one outstanding team. The Dragons have acquired marginal favouritism, but they have always been a favourite of the punters.
We’ve become used to seeing outside teams succeeding in the NRL, but the prospect of a grand final with no Sydney teams involved is one that seems to be scaring the bejeezus out of traditionalists who still think the likes of Newtown and the Bears should be put back in the NRL.
They might like to drown their sorrows with an unlikely ally in their Melbourne cousins, who are still coming to terms with another grand final being contested by sides outside of their beloved Victoria. It was in 2004 that their worst fear was first realised as Port Adelaide trumped Brisbane in the decider. And with the preliminary finals still to be played in 2006, they’ve been preparing themselves for yet another entirely interstate grand final.
It’s a funny old situation when you take a step back and look at things from afar. In fact you could just about liken the intrigue with an episode of Neighbours.
Sydney has always had “its” rugby league and Melbourne has always had “its” Aussie rules. When money eventually got involved however, the rich cousins from interstate bought a house in the neighbourhood. The impoverished family that had always lived there had to either ship out or move in with other semi-poor family up the road. Sometimes there were messy divorces, but some grew comfortable with the new arrangements and continued about their business – even if they did have to stay in the corner and be quiet most of the time.
The old families in the neighbourhood aren’t happy about the “new kids on the block” taking centre stage, so they’re starting to look at what’s going on with the family that used to live there but moved across town. And the new neighbours are upset because they feel like they’re not getting the treatment they deserve.
Oh the drama of it all!
The reality of the situation, however, is that if Melbourne and Brisbane aren’t the two teams to make it through the grand final, the Sydney faithful will breathe a huge sigh of a relief.
But the AFL competition is testament that it is only a matter of time before two interstate teams arrive in Sydney in October to play in the biggest club game of the year. It is an absolute certainty.
What’s not so clear is how Sydney will handle the rejection.
The limited evidence we can go on may suggest that if the NRL is serious about making rugby league a sport that everybody in Australia can support and enjoy, they will have to go through a bitter and messy divorce with the Sydney faithful.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a great majority of rugby league fans who are exactly that – rugby league fans. But the gradual nationalisation of the game will leave the NSWRL fans licking their wounds as they try to recover their bruised and battered egos. It will no doubt take some time but eventually they will see that there still is – and always will be – quality competitive football being played in Sydney and surrounding districts, complete with all their favourite teams. The NSWRL Premier League will, over time, become more relevant to Sydney’s lovers of tribal, suburban rugby league derbies.
And as they do, rugby league fans will gradually grow in numbers across the land. And ultimately we all want what’s best for the game, don’t we?
I will finish this off with a message to the diehard supporters who are clinging onto tradition like Tarzan to a greasy vine.
If the Bulldogs and Dragons make it through to the grand final this weekend, cherish it. Go to the game if you can, watch every minute of it, and take every opportunity to remember the “good old days” where the gritty forward packs wearing the Red V or blue and whites would collide in epic encounters at the SCG.
Because all-Sydney grand finals will increasingly become few and far between.
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747 words. Liftoff!