Fozz has em up in ARMS!
Over at THE ROAR the natives are restless with Sir Fozzie for taking Aussies to task on the codes of football which are actually handball codes, and of course people are...well up in arms!
Here's what I Foz is actually saying:
Linking an Australian sport best suited to support the aspirations and growth of Australian economic nation is a question smart Aussies should consider. Why?
Because we should surely invest most money in codes that enable girls and boys to remain healthy for life, codes that best assist our nation's culturaland economic aspirations.
Fozz reckons football best represents Australia economic/cultural and sporting growth of all the codes. You might not like the man but the ideas are worthy of consideration and on many levels it's more economic, has better benefits for boys and girls and the future of the country to promote and encourage/ support football development rather than...
say AFL to China, or Rugby League across the globe or indeed these codes to girls.
Are the boys and girls of Australia really going to benefit from encouraging them to play League or AFL. Is it going to keep them fit for life is just one questions I might pose.
Maybe some people in Australia miss one major point of the book! But then hands up who's read it!
And Fozzies handball point remains and indeed is critical to get Australians to bring to their football, grassroots, supporting of their kids, support of national teams etc...call the games what you like if it keep your blood pressure down...but Foz is pointing out that the other three codes are played with their hands....or haven't you noticed. And there's a fair bit more to it than that point.
He uses the argument debate to further point out the difference between the three other footy codes and football. A crucial difference.
Without Aussies understanding this difference we bring our attitudes from the other codes, and let's face it more Aussies watch AFL and League more often than football so it's natural some attitudes from those codes flow into football. Foz argues they are useless attitudes when applied to football. As a small skilful player, I agree!
Get in to him, tackle him, crunch him, be a man (whatever that means) are great AFL/League attributes and make the game better....and a team succeed but try and apply that to the Brazilian or Dutch football team and this is where the Aussies need to aim to succeed in football.
Those "Aussie" attitudes can never assist Australian footballers succeed on the international stage, can they?
All Aussies can fight on the field, we've all had our weekly fill of AFL and League values flowing through our TV's, school yard and workplaces. These attitudes from the other codes and supporters cannot help Australia EVER succeed in footballl.
To the base of supporters who follow many codes these so-called Aussie attitudes have to be revisited if football is to progress. That I reckon is what Fozzie is really saying in my view.
And you can still call it football if you think it's football!
8 comments:
Fozzie love him or hate him makes some great arguments regarding how football should be played and how football should be governed in Australia.
The problem is getting people to actually listen to him and then understanding what he is actually saying.
Fozzie's argument is actually proposterous.
Does he raise any question about table tennis? Swimming? Extreme sports? Ballet? No, it's the People's Front of Judea v. The People's Judean Front. They're just different games, and Australia is blessed I believe with its diversity. I for one do not want a monosporting culture.
The enemy (of round ball) is not AFL or Rugby, but obesity, apathy, poor diet, computer games. If the kids are playing sport, effin' great I reckon.
Don't agree Hamish...
take a look at our under 6-12 kids playing football in droves, but many parents bring attitudes from the games they watch like AFL, Union or League.
The attributes of those games won't ever help you be a better footballer.
Tackle, crunch, boot it, big kick, get in to them, all fine attributes for the other footy codes..but bring to these to the sidelines of junior football...and a generation is wasted.
This is I think the real point underlying Fozzie's argument.
And call it Handball to clearly show the switch that needs to be be made if we are ever to improve at football.
They are not "just different," games they bring a whole different philosophy, and most people watch AFL and League and bring the attributes required to kids football, hence the lack of skill in Aussie footballers across all ages.
In terms of development re-educating of parents is clearly required, but as regards "enemies," well I think that's League and AFL regard the round ball game. How long have you lived and talked sport in Australia?
The notion that other sports need to "help you be a better footballer," is fine. It's a bit fanatical clearly, a bit narrow even, but certainly amusing. I don't think the Sports Minister should suggest anything like this. :)
I've lived in Australia all my life, played soccer and rugby (not well) as a kid, then got more fanatically into soccer (by far my favourite game) around the last World Cup. I'm also a constant and voracious consumer of media. Maybe that makes me unqualified to have opinion on the subject, that would make yours a pretty elitist position, because my sports biography is very typical in Australia.
As for the alleged bias against association football... firstly, I think it's mainly the media itself, and especially those with vested interests in other codes. I don't find much anti-soccer sentiment among everyday people - some, but not much. Secondly, every time I hear or read soccer people complaining about anti-football bias, I laugh, because the bias against AFL and rugby from soccer folk is far greater, more deliberate, explicit, fanatical and rabid than anything I see the other way around. (Fozzie really is hilarious in this sense, and he simply should not be SBS's general sports announcer).
It's classic tweedledum and tweedledee and I honestly think it puts people off our sport.
As you know, football is the best game and it can speak for itself. AFL in particular is also a great game, and I'm proud of it and that it's Australian.
Other sports don't need to "help you be a better footballer"...of course they don't and I'm not suggesting that.
But if parents want their kids to be better players then bringing those sporting attitudes/characteristics from the other footy codes won't help...in my view.
How is that fanatical?
I see so many parents getting their kids into football, but don't have any or much idea how to assist the kid to improve. Why? Because they bring the skills/characteristics from the predominant Aussie codes.
Most parents want their kids to improve at whatever they do. So why wouldn't you give the best advice and assistance to the kids...once you know what it is and not what you might transfer from the other codes.
There is a reason why players can move from Union to League to AFL..but never football.
You say fanatical..but clearly we need to be a little more intelligent in our approach if we are to produce further generations of quality players. Fozz is simply stating the obvious, so why do so many take offence?
One reason why so many kids leave the sport around 12 is because they don't have competent skills required to enjoy the game. No-one stays too long at something they aren't so hot at do they?
As for the media issue...never seen anything like it in England where I grew up. Union, League, Football Cricket..no code seemed to get bagged in the media.
But in Australia the stance against soccer has been well documented. Seems we differ here as well:)
Agree getting stuck into the other codes won't help football reach beyond it's niche market but Union does it thru Fitsimons, AFL thru Patrick Smith and League have Wilson and others.
So if Fozzie wants to stick his neck out, big deal. It's his problem as it is the other journos mentioned.
I think I did misunderstand you a bit Eamonn, and my apologies. I can see your point.
But the answer is (as is being pursued) good coaching, including coaching coaches, and time.
You're absolutely right that many junior coaches and parents do not have enough understanding of football to not have their understandings of other sports adversely interfere. I just don't think you can blame the other games as such.
And I do think it's improving. The part of FFA's strategy which appears to me to be actually working is the long term effort to try to get the juniors to become seniors. It's this generation coming through that hopefully will not just provide more player talent, but also better junior coaches and refs, and more educated parents of the next generation.
Cheers Eamonn.
It strikes me sometimes that the whole Crawford Report / Old Soccer/New Football, NSL/A-League narrative seems to heap a lot of blame on the grass roots. This seems a bit ironic because the grass roots actually has a great history, and junior participation has been strong throughout. It's clearly the admin that has stuffed up, then as now.
agree with hamish to some extent - and also rekkun that afl does engender a lot of skills that the other thug codes don't... but also agree that fusbol is more likely to get and keep people active for longer (me as case in point - 46 next week and too fat but still turning out in div 7s), so fozzie does, as ever, have an excellent point - if a little combatitively made (as ever).
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