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Issue No. 135 | 10 May 2002 |
The Costs of War
Interview: Squaring Off Industrial: Heroes Betrayed History: At The Coalface International: Wobblies With Chinese Characters? Politics: Dancing with Trotsky Economics: You Are What You Eat Poetry: Alexander's Bragtime Band Satire: Stott Despoja Celebrates Engagement With Minor Party Review: Painting Paradise
Gun-Runners Threaten Aussie Coast Kings Cross Date For Commissioner Cole Sunbeam Irons Out Sydney Grand Mother NSW Libs Open to Abbott Takeover Terror Bill Needs More Work, ACTU Burma Release Fails to Blunt Campaign East Timorese MPs oppose Timor Sea Arrangement Airport Screeners Face Men in Jocks Unions Push into Regional Queensland
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard Bosswatch Week in Review Tool Shed
No Choice Who Rules Australia? No Wrap for Song Comp Abbott's Contempt
Labor Council of NSW |
The Locker Room Something To Chew On...
********************** This follows in the wake of Brad Wira using the old squirrel grip for Footscray last year. If you don't know what a squirrel grip is, well, it's the reason squirrels run away when approached. While most of the football world has been down on 'chewy' Filandia I think the great positive is that he has given the Port Melbourne Football club some much needed publicity. It's one of the great problems in sport today that, once you get away from the elite levels of Cricket, the NRL and the AFL, media coverage in this country is generally abysmal. This becomes a self-perpetuating machine as, without the exposure, other sports and other levels of sport find it hard to attract interest, especially sponsorship interest. So, strapped for cash and all but invisible it becomes easy for the media to dismiss these sports as irrelevant. Until someone bites someone on the cods, or Wayne Carey decides to turn up for training at North Wagga. The sad irony of this is that without the 'grass roots' underpinning the elite levels of any code a sport can find itself in trouble. We are starting to see this in Rugby League, and it will get worse before it gets better. The other problem is that grass roots sport is one of the great instances of community, and once it starts to slide you can bet the quinella will be the community itself begins to also experience problems. Port Melbourne footy club is a good example of this. The Port Melbourne football club banned members of the Victorian police service from being players or members at the club following the Police response to the 1927 Waterfront Dispute. It's a good example of a sporting club being used to define what a community is about. For Port Melbourne it wasn't about cops beating the shit out of striking trade unionists. But why tell that story when you've got a good bit of titillation instead. Especially when Port Melbourne is now overrun by a bunch of clueless middle-class yuppies who have the same approach to community that a rabbit has to headlights. If you treat people like 13 year olds they'll act like 13 year olds. The media has a lot to answer for in this country. Phil Doyle - throwing the dummy and slicing through the gap.
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