Funny, cleaning up an old computer last nite which is about to kark it and I came across something I'd written way back in June 2010.
Not sure if I posted it at the time (and everyone feel free to ignore) 🙂 but it did make me think of one or two characters here 🙂
.........
Will I be happy? Will I be rich?
I sat last week watching Manly battle the Bunnies. Fearing the worst, daring to hope but not expecting any joy, actually suffering with the tension of the situation - and then suddenly relieved after that great finish. It occurred to me to ask myself some questions about my lot as a fan of the mighty Manly Sea Eagles NRL team..
What do I get out of this? What do I expect out of this? What do I want out of this?
Answering the last first, I want Manly to win of course! But obviously they won’t – not every week anyway! Apart from being by far the best club, Manly is actually one of the most consistently successful of all clubs. Of current NRL clubs only Brisbane and (the fairly new and extremely dishonest) Melbourne Storm have slightly better all-time win/loss records.
My expectation? It is very high. I expect us to be in with a genuine shot every week, including through the finals. My expectation for this week’s game against Penrith was slightly lower. I thought we would be right in it and actually win the game. Or that’s what I thought I thought. In reality I knew we were outsiders and I hoped to win rather than expected to win.
What do I get? I get entertainment. I get emotional involvement. I get some vicarious self-esteem by association with the team’s success. In addition, in recent years, having discovered the official fan forum (and later this excellent Silvertails site) I get a lot of on-line conversational fun and information about our team and all things under the sun. I also got a significant sense of belonging by signing up as a member of the Sea Eagles, although aware of the limited nature of that membership.
I am sometimes very critical of the club’s officials, but rarely if ever critical of the players. They are not all champions, but so far as I can tell they are all doing their best playing a very difficult sport at a very high level. I am sometimes amused by fans who rip in to the guys. Do you believe we should win every game by 40 nil? Every team has some players who are at the lower end of the ability scale, compared with each other. They might be the players who get the last bench spot, or who only occasionally get picked. Or maybe even the players who hold down a starting berth, but who will never be a rep star.
Do we seriously expect every member of our squad to be an out-and-out champion? And also those reserves who end up coming in to cover for our long term injured, do we expect they have to be champions too?
Even if they are, sometimes champions have lapses anyway!
My inclination is to stick up for those who become whipping boys and scapegoats for our losses, because we will always have losses and it is inherently unfair to blame those who simply are the lesser players in our squad. If they don’t try that is one thing, but I have not seen that and I have watched nearly all of our matches in recent years (though mostly on TV).
I try to enjoy the skill effort and courage of our team. Some fans seem to always be miserable or angry thinking about the shortcomings of some players or some of the team’s performances.
Not sure if I posted it at the time (and everyone feel free to ignore) 🙂 but it did make me think of one or two characters here 🙂
.........
Will I be happy? Will I be rich?
I sat last week watching Manly battle the Bunnies. Fearing the worst, daring to hope but not expecting any joy, actually suffering with the tension of the situation - and then suddenly relieved after that great finish. It occurred to me to ask myself some questions about my lot as a fan of the mighty Manly Sea Eagles NRL team..
What do I get out of this? What do I expect out of this? What do I want out of this?
Answering the last first, I want Manly to win of course! But obviously they won’t – not every week anyway! Apart from being by far the best club, Manly is actually one of the most consistently successful of all clubs. Of current NRL clubs only Brisbane and (the fairly new and extremely dishonest) Melbourne Storm have slightly better all-time win/loss records.
My expectation? It is very high. I expect us to be in with a genuine shot every week, including through the finals. My expectation for this week’s game against Penrith was slightly lower. I thought we would be right in it and actually win the game. Or that’s what I thought I thought. In reality I knew we were outsiders and I hoped to win rather than expected to win.
What do I get? I get entertainment. I get emotional involvement. I get some vicarious self-esteem by association with the team’s success. In addition, in recent years, having discovered the official fan forum (and later this excellent Silvertails site) I get a lot of on-line conversational fun and information about our team and all things under the sun. I also got a significant sense of belonging by signing up as a member of the Sea Eagles, although aware of the limited nature of that membership.
I am sometimes very critical of the club’s officials, but rarely if ever critical of the players. They are not all champions, but so far as I can tell they are all doing their best playing a very difficult sport at a very high level. I am sometimes amused by fans who rip in to the guys. Do you believe we should win every game by 40 nil? Every team has some players who are at the lower end of the ability scale, compared with each other. They might be the players who get the last bench spot, or who only occasionally get picked. Or maybe even the players who hold down a starting berth, but who will never be a rep star.
Do we seriously expect every member of our squad to be an out-and-out champion? And also those reserves who end up coming in to cover for our long term injured, do we expect they have to be champions too?
Even if they are, sometimes champions have lapses anyway!
My inclination is to stick up for those who become whipping boys and scapegoats for our losses, because we will always have losses and it is inherently unfair to blame those who simply are the lesser players in our squad. If they don’t try that is one thing, but I have not seen that and I have watched nearly all of our matches in recent years (though mostly on TV).
I try to enjoy the skill effort and courage of our team. Some fans seem to always be miserable or angry thinking about the shortcomings of some players or some of the team’s performances.
