FOOTILICIOUS!

BY RAJIB SARKAR

Australians are a great sporting nation. Their records are nothing short of outstanding in all forms of outdoor games. There are two notable exceptions though: track-and-field events in athletics and soccer. In my reckoning, Australia’s tepid show in both these sports has something to do with its obsession with its own brand of football, footy!
‘Australian Rules Football’ has a history of over a century and a half. Way back in 1858, Melbourne Football Club was formed. It was the first club of Australia’s only indigenous game. Since then, footy has grown so much in popularity that during AFL (Australian Football League) every day, life itself takes a backseat. Come evening, either you are screaming hoarse in giant stadia like Telstra Dome or you are glued to your TV with a Victoria Bitter in hand. Meetings, business deals, marriage ceremonies - everything, everything – make way to accommodate AFL.
While footy is loved and played all over the nation, the state of Victoria is its natural home. No city, I repeat, no city, in Australia can match Melbourne’s craze for this most masculine form of human diversions. Minor injuries to local footy stars make front-page newspaper headlines often. AFL times are crossroad times for Melbournians. It may take just one match to start or end a relationship. Anything can happen during a match. It all depends on where the footytalk with your ‘significant other’ is heading …Hawthorne Hawks are gutless zombies … Collingwood Magpies are savage criminals …Richmond Tigers are a bunch of cheats… I dare not go further. Aussie invectives are not music to anybody’s ears.
Surprisingly, footy is not that big in Sydney. It is rugby that rules Australia’s biggest city. By the way, Nicole Kidman is a big fan of Sydney Swans. Not that it has made any dent in North South Wales’ wall of indifference. Brisbane Lions of Queensland and Western Bulldogs of Western Australia are two powerhouse teams outside of Victoria.
Though on the face of it, footy looks similar to rugby, it is faster paced and more flexible than rugby. Footy may lack soccer’s compositional grace and the beauty of dribbling. But that is compensated by its unfettered aggression and brawny abandon. Muscled bodies in motion create their own poetry in space. Can’t blame Australian women for counting footy among the last male bastions. Those who bemoan Mandira Bedi commenting on cricket would do well to note that female commentators are de rigueur on AFL broadcast.
All ye cricket aficionados, you will be mortified to know that during the winter, a venerable cricket ground like MCG gets pounded by 44 pairs of strapping feet. And cricket news simply disappears from sports pages of all national dailies.
You may argue that had such fine athletes taken up soccer instead, the rank of Australian national soccer team would have been more respectable. But why should what the rest of the world think be such a big deal? Let the others play soccer. Or run 400m.Let them not know what they are missing out on.

Bee Gee’s note: After having known Rajib for many years, can’t claim to know much about him. Well, this is what I am aware of. A qualified Mechanical Engineer, he also has an MBA degree. He has worked as an engineer for Bajaj, been with ad agencies, is currently with a consultancy firm, and was the Publisher and Editor of Gentleman which is when I got to know him. He was in the University of Melbourne in the pursuit of some course recently. So you know how this article came into being.