ozbash
Referee
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found a good yarn on xtra, very fitting for this weekend.
Oh the anguish! It's grand final weekend and the footy fanatics are tearing out their hair, gnashing their teeth and weeping into their pots and schooners.
In Melbourne, the Australian Rules (AFL) final is between teams from Sydney and Perth.
In Sydney, rugby league's crown will be fought out by Melbourne and Brisbane.
This is heresy to the diehard. The AFL final is meant to involve Melbourne teams and the National Rugby League is the domain of Sydney teams.
Those blasted administrating alickadoos have ruined everything for them by taking the codes to rival states.
In typical fashion, the Daily Telegraph newspaper last week called on all Sydney rugby league fans to support the Bulldogs and Dragons in the NRL semifinals, against the aliens from Melbourne and Brisbane, exhorting them with the headline: 'Let's run them out of town - it's Sydney's game'.
It would be a nightmare if the Storm and Broncos played in the final, the newspaper said, predicting thousands of empty seats at Telstra Stadium.
"Who in their right mind would want to see that?"
Guess what? Tickets for the Broncos and Storm final on Sunday night have sold out.
There is no doubt who will get the louder crowd support either.
In rugby league tribalism, the New South Wales mob hate the Queenslanders.
The Storm, relative newcomers to league even though they won a grand final in only their second year in 1999, are like innocent bystanders when it comes to the traditional rivalry, so they will get the Sydney cheers.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is sold out too for the Sydney Swans-West Coast Eagles AFL grand final. It's a re-run of last year's final and what a fuss there was about no Victorian teams playing.
Victoria is home of the aerial ballet code, but its 10 teams all failed to make the semifinals. The best-placed was Collingwood in fifth spot.
The Swans were formerly the Melbourne South and even though it is 24 years since they shifted camp to Sydney, the Melbourne connection was a sop to the fans at last year's final when they won - particularly as Souths hadn't claimed a VFL or AFL title since 1933.
You might expect that with the final being a re-run there would be less griping about the absence of Melbourne teams.
But no, it's just as loud.
Ron Barassi, an Aussie Rules legend, harped on this week.
"We've got to do something about it, for God's sake. If for the next two or three years no Victorian team gets into the premier finals and grand final, well, you might say there is something wrong," he told the ABC.
But Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse said the chorus about the state of footy in Victoria was as futile as it was predictable.
"Most of the grizzling has come from pundits and ex-footballers pining for the good old days when suburban-based clubs played on Saturday afternoons. They're dreaming," he wrote in his column in The Australian newspaper.
"Moaning is for losers," he said.
Prime Minister John Howard agrees and thinks the spread out of their home bases has been 'absolutely great' for both codes.
"I know that's not a popular thing to say in Melbourne and it's probably not a popular thing to say in parts of Sydney either, but if you look at the vision splendid of Australianising ... all codes of football then I think you've got to say hallelujah to what's happened," he told Southern Cross Radio.
"But I can understand particularly Victorians wanting the hallelujah chorus to end soon."
For what it is worth, the prime ministerial tips were Melbourne Storm to win the NRL premiership and his home team, the Sydney Swans, to win their second AFL final in a row.
New Zealanders should be worried about his reference to Australianising though, especially after Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett's comments this week about the absence of Sydney clubs in the NRL final.
He seemed to put New Zealand's most populated city in Australia.
"We're in a national competition. It's not about Sydney, it's about all of us, whether we're in Auckland, or Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne, whatever. I think it's great."
In fairness to Bennett, the New Zealand Warriors do play in the misleadingly-named National Rugby League competition.
It's a good time for New Zealand to push for a name change for the NRL before this Australiansing goes too far and Wayne Bennett's poker face appears on the $5 trans-Tasman common currency note.
Oh the anguish! It's grand final weekend and the footy fanatics are tearing out their hair, gnashing their teeth and weeping into their pots and schooners.
In Melbourne, the Australian Rules (AFL) final is between teams from Sydney and Perth.
In Sydney, rugby league's crown will be fought out by Melbourne and Brisbane.
This is heresy to the diehard. The AFL final is meant to involve Melbourne teams and the National Rugby League is the domain of Sydney teams.
Those blasted administrating alickadoos have ruined everything for them by taking the codes to rival states.
In typical fashion, the Daily Telegraph newspaper last week called on all Sydney rugby league fans to support the Bulldogs and Dragons in the NRL semifinals, against the aliens from Melbourne and Brisbane, exhorting them with the headline: 'Let's run them out of town - it's Sydney's game'.
It would be a nightmare if the Storm and Broncos played in the final, the newspaper said, predicting thousands of empty seats at Telstra Stadium.
"Who in their right mind would want to see that?"
Guess what? Tickets for the Broncos and Storm final on Sunday night have sold out.
There is no doubt who will get the louder crowd support either.
In rugby league tribalism, the New South Wales mob hate the Queenslanders.
The Storm, relative newcomers to league even though they won a grand final in only their second year in 1999, are like innocent bystanders when it comes to the traditional rivalry, so they will get the Sydney cheers.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is sold out too for the Sydney Swans-West Coast Eagles AFL grand final. It's a re-run of last year's final and what a fuss there was about no Victorian teams playing.
Victoria is home of the aerial ballet code, but its 10 teams all failed to make the semifinals. The best-placed was Collingwood in fifth spot.
The Swans were formerly the Melbourne South and even though it is 24 years since they shifted camp to Sydney, the Melbourne connection was a sop to the fans at last year's final when they won - particularly as Souths hadn't claimed a VFL or AFL title since 1933.
You might expect that with the final being a re-run there would be less griping about the absence of Melbourne teams.
But no, it's just as loud.
Ron Barassi, an Aussie Rules legend, harped on this week.
"We've got to do something about it, for God's sake. If for the next two or three years no Victorian team gets into the premier finals and grand final, well, you might say there is something wrong," he told the ABC.
But Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse said the chorus about the state of footy in Victoria was as futile as it was predictable.
"Most of the grizzling has come from pundits and ex-footballers pining for the good old days when suburban-based clubs played on Saturday afternoons. They're dreaming," he wrote in his column in The Australian newspaper.
"Moaning is for losers," he said.
Prime Minister John Howard agrees and thinks the spread out of their home bases has been 'absolutely great' for both codes.
"I know that's not a popular thing to say in Melbourne and it's probably not a popular thing to say in parts of Sydney either, but if you look at the vision splendid of Australianising ... all codes of football then I think you've got to say hallelujah to what's happened," he told Southern Cross Radio.
"But I can understand particularly Victorians wanting the hallelujah chorus to end soon."
For what it is worth, the prime ministerial tips were Melbourne Storm to win the NRL premiership and his home team, the Sydney Swans, to win their second AFL final in a row.
New Zealanders should be worried about his reference to Australianising though, especially after Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett's comments this week about the absence of Sydney clubs in the NRL final.
He seemed to put New Zealand's most populated city in Australia.
"We're in a national competition. It's not about Sydney, it's about all of us, whether we're in Auckland, or Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne, whatever. I think it's great."
In fairness to Bennett, the New Zealand Warriors do play in the misleadingly-named National Rugby League competition.
It's a good time for New Zealand to push for a name change for the NRL before this Australiansing goes too far and Wayne Bennett's poker face appears on the $5 trans-Tasman common currency note.
