The Dream Team v Victoria - does anyone really care?
May 6th 2008 11:05
THIS weekend’s Tribute Game at the MCG between Victoria and a ‘Dream Team’ - made up of the other 7 states and territories - has been organised to celebrate the game’s 150th year.
It will be a contest between the best 44 football players in the country (bar a few injured stars) at the biggest, most famous ground in the land.
Why, then, is there so little interest?
Is it because other 7 states and territories are insulted because they’ve been shoved together in a manufactured ‘Dream Team’ to play as one against the Vics?
Almost certainly. While games between different states (especially South Australia v Victoria) - back when state of origin was a regular fixture - were often passion-fuelled gladitorial contests, one can only imagine it will be difficult for the Dream Team to muster similar enthusiasm.
Is it because a lot of AFL supporters have grown up supporting their own club, and put their club above all?
Probably. As The Age’s Greg Baum so eloquently put it: “A club provides its fans with important links, to a place, to the past, with all its resonances, and to each other. It provides a sense of tribalism, of belonging, of righteous struggle — week by week, season by season, decade by decade — in which no game stands alone, but is a step one way or the other in that ceaseless and unifying struggle.
The Tribute Game, by definition, sits outside this dynamic. It is a one-off, an exhibition, between two representative teams, one rarely seen, the other made up.”
Is it because AFL supporters are worried their teams’ stars might get injured?
You bet. Amongst the excitement of watching a (most likely) entertaining contest, dread will be an underlying feeling amongst all supporters watching their stars crash and bash their way through the exhibition game.
Brisbane supporters will wince every time Victorian skipper Jonathon Brown smashes through a pack. Fremantle followers will cross their fingers when their only truly gun, Mathew Pavlich, flies for a mark and those with Blue and White running through their veins will feel every one of Jimmy Bartel’s bumps and tackles.
The AFL has been doing their utmost to drum up interest in the game, with advertising across all mediums at saturation point.
So far, an estimated 30,000 tickets have been sold, hardly an indication of frenzied support. With good weather, the game could attract a crowd of more than 70,000, still less than what the AFL would want.
But then again, it is Melbourne we’re talking about, a city that would turn out in force to watch a yabbie race if there was nothing else on.
Seeing as it’s the only game on for the weekend, I’m expecting (barring foul weather) a crowd in the vicinity of 75,000.
Just don’t expect to see a contest like this again anytime soon.
It will be a contest between the best 44 football players in the country (bar a few injured stars) at the biggest, most famous ground in the land.
Why, then, is there so little interest?
Is it because other 7 states and territories are insulted because they’ve been shoved together in a manufactured ‘Dream Team’ to play as one against the Vics?
Almost certainly. While games between different states (especially South Australia v Victoria) - back when state of origin was a regular fixture - were often passion-fuelled gladitorial contests, one can only imagine it will be difficult for the Dream Team to muster similar enthusiasm.
Is it because a lot of AFL supporters have grown up supporting their own club, and put their club above all?
Probably. As The Age’s Greg Baum so eloquently put it: “A club provides its fans with important links, to a place, to the past, with all its resonances, and to each other. It provides a sense of tribalism, of belonging, of righteous struggle — week by week, season by season, decade by decade — in which no game stands alone, but is a step one way or the other in that ceaseless and unifying struggle.
The Tribute Game, by definition, sits outside this dynamic. It is a one-off, an exhibition, between two representative teams, one rarely seen, the other made up.”
Is it because AFL supporters are worried their teams’ stars might get injured?
You bet. Amongst the excitement of watching a (most likely) entertaining contest, dread will be an underlying feeling amongst all supporters watching their stars crash and bash their way through the exhibition game.
Brisbane supporters will wince every time Victorian skipper Jonathon Brown smashes through a pack. Fremantle followers will cross their fingers when their only truly gun, Mathew Pavlich, flies for a mark and those with Blue and White running through their veins will feel every one of Jimmy Bartel’s bumps and tackles.
The AFL has been doing their utmost to drum up interest in the game, with advertising across all mediums at saturation point.
So far, an estimated 30,000 tickets have been sold, hardly an indication of frenzied support. With good weather, the game could attract a crowd of more than 70,000, still less than what the AFL would want.
But then again, it is Melbourne we’re talking about, a city that would turn out in force to watch a yabbie race if there was nothing else on.
Seeing as it’s the only game on for the weekend, I’m expecting (barring foul weather) a crowd in the vicinity of 75,000.
Just don’t expect to see a contest like this again anytime soon.
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