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MajorlyRagerly
Trevor Allan (34)
Here come the generalizations....... Why do you feel the need to kiwi bash?
It's natural to enjoy your sport more when winning? Where were the sold-out sun corps when the reds sucked? Where werevall the posts about loving rugby aftervthe cheetahs beat the tahs? It wasc whole bunch of rugby haters from memory.
Don't get me wrong, kiwis can be a fickle bunch, but with only 4 mill people we don't have the population (or the cash) to loyally support and attend 4 major sports year round. And yes, of course we enjoy beating Australia. Your the bigger brother and also probably the biggest shit-giving country of people in the world! why wouldn't we enjoy it?
T
TOCC
Guest
MR, you cant have it both ways...
whinging about being generalized into that 'kiwi' category but then turn around and label those of us who write a positive comment about the Reds/Wallabies as typical bandwagon supporter. If you do indeed question where our positive comments were back when the Reds/Wallabies werent winning, maybe you should spend time to look back through these forums, you will find that some of us have been here for a few years consistently supporting and talking up our teams.
Regardless, the point of my initial post wasnt purely about just supporting 'said' team, its about the greater rugby union topic. Rugby has taken a turn to positive play after years of negative play around the 2007 RWC. Heck, even England has started to play positive. I enjoy the lengthened Super Rugby season becuase it gives time to recover from slumps and to build form. I enjoy the shorterned Tri-Nations because it IMO returned some of the prestige to the term of 'test' rugby after been over staturated in preceding years. I enjoy watching guys like Kurtley Bealen and Benn Robinson even though they played for the team which is historically my teams rival....
If anything, criticise me for being a bandwagon supporter of positive rugby....
whinging about being generalized into that 'kiwi' category but then turn around and label those of us who write a positive comment about the Reds/Wallabies as typical bandwagon supporter. If you do indeed question where our positive comments were back when the Reds/Wallabies werent winning, maybe you should spend time to look back through these forums, you will find that some of us have been here for a few years consistently supporting and talking up our teams.
Regardless, the point of my initial post wasnt purely about just supporting 'said' team, its about the greater rugby union topic. Rugby has taken a turn to positive play after years of negative play around the 2007 RWC. Heck, even England has started to play positive. I enjoy the lengthened Super Rugby season becuase it gives time to recover from slumps and to build form. I enjoy the shorterned Tri-Nations because it IMO returned some of the prestige to the term of 'test' rugby after been over staturated in preceding years. I enjoy watching guys like Kurtley Bealen and Benn Robinson even though they played for the team which is historically my teams rival....
If anything, criticise me for being a bandwagon supporter of positive rugby....
MajorlyRagerly
Trevor Allan (34)
Who called anybody a fairweather fan? Or bandwagon supporters - I never said anything close to that (although to deny that there are a fair few bandwagon supporters out there would ludicrous).
Its natural to love a sport more when the team you are supporting is winning.
I personally think nothing has changed in the way it's being played, it's just the axis has shifted so the Wobs & Reds are now starting to win.
Do you think Arsenal fans are loving football right now? Indian fans are loving cricket?
Its natural to love a sport more when the team you are supporting is winning.
I personally think nothing has changed in the way it's being played, it's just the axis has shifted so the Wobs & Reds are now starting to win.
Do you think Arsenal fans are loving football right now? Indian fans are loving cricket?
RedsHappy
Tony Shaw (54)
TOCC - I think your starting post was excellent, thanks for taking the trouble to do it and share your well-articulated passions, plus good photos!
Not that you fundamentally disagreed, but I do think the Major is right: once Australian rugby gets back to a pattern of one or more S15 teams winning championships, or consistently getting very close with excellent, dynamic play, and the Wallabies start winning BCs and/or 3/4Ns, and certainly beating the ABs more, the crowds will return, the enthusiasm will return, the community belief will return, just as it always does in this country when national, or big provincial, teams start to excel. Golden rule here. Great example is how fan interest built hugely in Australian cricket alongside the period of Australia's world dominance from the mid 1990s through 2006. And beating England was/is more important than anything, just as beating the ABs over time will always be important to the economic viability of the Wallabies as that's the contest against the oldest, best foe that Australians most identity with (and rightly too, as they're the absolute best there is, year in, year out).
What is clearly happening now is that the Reds dramatic revival into not only playing exemplar rugby that even NSW pay TV viewers watch more than their local team, but winning an S15 Final vs the nearly-ABs (Cru), is driving massive, rebuilt support for rugby in QLD and that and the RWC are combining nicely with results like Saturday's to re-spark key elements of national interest and positive vibe around the game. There can be no doubt that winning tons more than losing is at the heart of all this.
And, as the Major says, there's nothing wrong with any of this! Most of us would take consistent (dull and glorious) winning over glorious losing any day!
Finally, we should all drop the negative connotation of 'bandwagon'. There is nothing wrong with a code or team's success pulling in piles of 'new' or 'happily now returning' fans as a result of enjoying being associated in some form with an exciting, winning phenomenon. There's nothing second-class to be patronised about this. Half of Australian sports' economics would collapse in a heap without bandwagons. There was undoubtedly a time way back in NZ sports history that the early national/international AB success went from something utterly niche, to something powerfully national, there was bound to be an original 'bandwagon' phase way back there between early niche and later huge national. Ideally, the bandwagon phase is a transitional one between just those elements: minority fan worship moving to a sustainable large-scale fan base. This is where the Reds are at 2011. But they need to be there and more so in 2013++, or the awful cycle of rugby decay and disappointment and poor economic viability will have started all over again, just as happened to most of Australian rugby post 2003.
Not that you fundamentally disagreed, but I do think the Major is right: once Australian rugby gets back to a pattern of one or more S15 teams winning championships, or consistently getting very close with excellent, dynamic play, and the Wallabies start winning BCs and/or 3/4Ns, and certainly beating the ABs more, the crowds will return, the enthusiasm will return, the community belief will return, just as it always does in this country when national, or big provincial, teams start to excel. Golden rule here. Great example is how fan interest built hugely in Australian cricket alongside the period of Australia's world dominance from the mid 1990s through 2006. And beating England was/is more important than anything, just as beating the ABs over time will always be important to the economic viability of the Wallabies as that's the contest against the oldest, best foe that Australians most identity with (and rightly too, as they're the absolute best there is, year in, year out).
What is clearly happening now is that the Reds dramatic revival into not only playing exemplar rugby that even NSW pay TV viewers watch more than their local team, but winning an S15 Final vs the nearly-ABs (Cru), is driving massive, rebuilt support for rugby in QLD and that and the RWC are combining nicely with results like Saturday's to re-spark key elements of national interest and positive vibe around the game. There can be no doubt that winning tons more than losing is at the heart of all this.
And, as the Major says, there's nothing wrong with any of this! Most of us would take consistent (dull and glorious) winning over glorious losing any day!
Finally, we should all drop the negative connotation of 'bandwagon'. There is nothing wrong with a code or team's success pulling in piles of 'new' or 'happily now returning' fans as a result of enjoying being associated in some form with an exciting, winning phenomenon. There's nothing second-class to be patronised about this. Half of Australian sports' economics would collapse in a heap without bandwagons. There was undoubtedly a time way back in NZ sports history that the early national/international AB success went from something utterly niche, to something powerfully national, there was bound to be an original 'bandwagon' phase way back there between early niche and later huge national. Ideally, the bandwagon phase is a transitional one between just those elements: minority fan worship moving to a sustainable large-scale fan base. This is where the Reds are at 2011. But they need to be there and more so in 2013++, or the awful cycle of rugby decay and disappointment and poor economic viability will have started all over again, just as happened to most of Australian rugby post 2003.
Scotty
David Codey (61)
Great article by Wayne Smith in today's Australian:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...eded-is-the-edge/story-e6frg7o6-1226123972885
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...eded-is-the-edge/story-e6frg7o6-1226123972885
Sir Arthur Higgins
Dick Tooth (41)
ha. aussie rugby fans are pretty fair weather in some parts.....look at QLD crowds then and now. NSW crowds, ACT crowds.
Wallaby sell outs now that didn't happen 2-3 years ago.
for those here it's not the case. but there's a big lump of rugby fans out there who just want to see a win.
Sir Arthur Higgins
Dick Tooth (41)
really disagree. it's a brilliant battle of mind and body, but it's a battle between gentlemen. As much as Quade's knees to the head is out of place, Danny Care stopping the game when a player is down and out belongs. I think its great when a player drills his opposite man into touch, the whistle goes and he helps him up. It just shows the class in the game....versus Mungo (see manly v storm)
Don't get me wrong, if two blokes square up in union and a bit of biff gets thrown around, then that's the game too. these boys are tough as nuts, but I do enjoy seeing the class in some of the players out there.
Great article TOCC, only change I'd make is to add TPN to the crowd favourites.
T
TOCC
Guest
woops, how did i miss TPN?
T
TOCC
Guest
actually, bledisloes in Brisbane never stopped selling out
Fixed that for you.
T
TOCC
Guest
yes, it was never intended to be the opinion of the greater australian rugby public
DPK
Peter Sullivan (51)
I wonder if NZ or the RSA had a serious contender in winter sports, would the same happen?
Blue
Andrew Slack (58)
We'll never know.
We took one look at league and thought you have to be kidding. No pushing in the scrums? Fuck right off.
Until I came to Australia I thought AFL was something drunk people did when the cricketers were having tea. Like a pissed version of touch football where everyone scatters, someone kicks an Garry Owen and everyone runs into each other .
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