Collingwood, the team for all Australians

by MICHAEL STEVEN

SINCE the 2003 grand final the sporting media of Australia has shown an extraordinary hysteria that could only occur in an ex-convict outpost, where xenophobia and colonial cultural cringe are supreme and John Howard can become Prime Minister.

Brisbane won its third premiership in a row, a feat not achieved since the middle of last century, but the obsession of all was about the loser, the Collingwood Football Club. Everyone wanted to slip the boots in. Everyone knew the result before the game but was not able to admit it until after the game. Everyone had a "rational" explanation for why Collingwood was not good enough but had underachieved by getting beaten in the grand final.

There was hardly any acknowledgement of the achievements of Brisbane, the brilliance of Akermanis, Black or Voss, the endurance and supremacy of Pike, Lynch or Ashcroft, or the absolute dominance of Leigh Matthews as the most incisive and influential coach since Norm Smith, the last to win three in a row.

There was hardly any discussion before the event that Brisbane medicos were pouring bucket loads of pain killers into its players, a practise outlawed in the racing industry because the morphine-like drugs eliminate pain and excite the brain so that you'll do almost anything with reckless abandon to the extent that permanent damage could be caused.

There was absolutely no mention of the fact that Collingwood won 11 of its last 13 games beating every team it played at least once including the eventual premiership winner. There was absolutely no mention of the fact that the Collingwood Football Club had reached the grand final with the third youngest list and can only get better.

Those who wanted to criticise Malthouse's performance failed to mention that he took the team from last to second in three years despite having what every non-Collinwood supporter believes is a mediocre list. No-one cared to compare his performance with that of Damian Drum who selected Fremantle in preference to Collingwood because the Dockers list had more potential. No-one cared to compare Sheedy with Malthouse since the year that Collingwood was reigning wooden-spooner and Essendon was hailed as one of the greatest teams ever. No-one cared to compare Collingwood's performance with Richmond which was a premiership chance when Collingwood got the wooden spoon the year before Malthouse arrived. No-one compared Malthouse with Ayres or Pagan or anyone else despite the fact that only Matthews can claim a more significant and positive contribution to his team in the last four years.

What is it that drives people into such anti-Collingwood fever? Is it indeed the convict inferiority complex of our forebears that drives those less successful to look for someone to kick when they are down? Is it the squattocracy joyously celebrating the fact that the working man's club has been knocked back in its place, by it doesn't matter who? Is it because Australians love to knock the tall poppy and Collingwood is the biggest sporting club in the country and doesn't look like getting any smaller? Or is it the collective loathing by a waspish christian society challenged by the almost religious fervour of the Collingwood army, black and white, standing side by side, vertical in resolute defiance of those who scorn its achievements, dedication and commitment, and is prepared to face its critics and rise again despite loss and adversity.

Not much has changed in Australia since Norm Smith led Melbourne to three in a row. The established ideals of conformity and subservience to greater powers still remain. Catholic priests are still doing what Catholic priests do. The problems of the Aboriginal community are still supposedly problems of the Aborigines' making. Immigrants are preferred if they look and dress the same, speak excellent English and have lots of money.

In football too, many of the same issues are there. A team has won three in a row and looking for its fourth. Collingwood is once again hated and held up for ridicule. The privileges of the MCC members may not be so obvious but privileges are still being handed out by the league's governors, this time to the so-called non-football states.

Is it possible that this competition, which is exalted by the powerbrokers as being one of the most even, will allow or actually sponsor one team to win four in a row? The challenge is there for 15 other teams but quite probably there is only one that has the focus, the discipline, the understanding of what is needed and the ability to stop them from doing it. As I have said before, football needs Collingwood.

And so it seems do most Australians.

australianrules.com.au

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