Pavlov’s Rabbit

It’s an understatement to say it hasn’t been easy being a Rabbitohs fan in the last 20 years or so. Both before and after readmission the team hasn’t been able to deliver on the field, even as they cleaned up their act and became one of the most professional clubs off the field.

We (yes I speak about the teams I support as if I am one of the players, deal with it) have only made the finals once since 1989, in 2007, when we lost convincingly to Manly at Brookvale Oval. In the last few years the Rabbitohs have finished just outside the top 8, always left to lament the ‘what ifs’ of winning one more game and making the finals.

                                               

As I write this the Rabbitohs sit at 7 wins and 4 losses and more importantly, sit 4th on the ladder and equal on point with the second placed Broncos. However, despite the fact that nearly halfway through the season the team seems destined to be playing finals footy in 2012, Rabbitohs fans like myself seem preconditioned to expect the worst, or at the very least, never get our hopes up.

Fan of good teams go into games with confidence, expecting to win. I know this because some of the other teams I support have actually had some success in recent years. But no matter how good the Rabbitohs are, I find myself going into every game a nervous wreck, just waiting for the other shoe to drop or something to go wrong. No lead ever feels safe; always concerned an important player is about to have their season ended by cruel injury, concerned a simple bounce of the ball will undo us.

Fan of some other teams, the Chicago Cubs for example, know exactly how I feel.

It’s an instinct that is so hard to block out after experience tattoos it into your mind and psyche. You can even feel it in the crowd, that nervous tension, which I think even the players feel and sometimes can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. When there is a feeling in the air that a team will blow it, inevitably they do just that... until one day they don’t.

See, as a Boston Red Sox fan I had the same emotions about the Red Sox that I did the Rabbitohs. In fact the Red Sox history of losing was much more disheartening than the Bunnies. But all it takes is the team somehow, inexplicably beating the odds and winning as the Red Sox did in 2004 and again in 2007. Once that monkey gets off the back, it really is gone forever.

If the Rabbitohs were any other team, I would go into each game confident, knowing that we are not only as good or better than our opposition on paper, but we are most likely above them or equal with them on the ladder (after all we don’t play the Storm again in the regular season). But over the last few years the Rabbitohs always lost games when they were the favourite and so that feeling of expecting to win actually makes us even more scared than usual.

Hopefully by next year or the year after, that monkey will be lifted and Rabbitohs fans can go into each game without that fear. It would certainly do my heart a world of good.

State of UGHigin

So I’ve now had a night to sleep on the events on last night in State of Origin and obviously as a New South Welshmen (or given the blog title I should say Jew South Welshman) I am both disappointed and angry.

When I analyse sporting results and performances I do always try to take off my fan hat and look at it objectively though. With that being said, even objectively I think NSW got screwed.

For starters, people are arguing over whether Robbie Farah played at the ball when he kicked it out of Inglis’ hands, but frankly it shouldn’t matter if it was deliberate or not for one reason. That reason is that Inglis knocks on again after Farah dislodges the ball. Thus, either way it is no try.

Now Queenslanders will rightly point out that even without that try NSW were down two. This is correct however it neglects the two other huge calls that went against NSW in the game.

The Greg Bird penalty for the dangerous tackle was rubbish, it lead directly to a try and everyone seems to be in agreement on that so I don’t need to go further.

The Jennings sinbinning itself is fine. Bloke ran in and threw a punch. If they are saying you can no longer do that, even in Origin, then fine. Problem is, he was one of many guys who ran in and threw a punch in that fracas and if you are sending Jennings, you have to send the guy who was throwing punches at him too. Thus it would be 12 on 12 and QLD never would have had the overlap that lead to their first try.

However this sinbinning incident made me think about an idea I’ve had for footy for years. People often talk about how they wish there was a third option besides a send off and a 10 minute sinbinning. The idea of a five minute sinbinning has been suggested but I think I have a better idea.

Why can’t footy take a great idea from ice hockey and give out a 10 minute sinbinning, but as soon (or if) the opposition scores a try, the sinbinned player gets to return for the kickoff.

That way the opposition does get a clear advantage to assist them in making the sinbinning offence show on the scoreboard, but not so much that they get said advantage for an 8^th of the match.

Surely this idea has merit. Unfortunately NSW didn’t have Nathan Merritt.

In the interests of not being too much of a sore loser I have added this section about the fact that NSW shot themselves in the foot plenty too. Carney was not only poor in his Origin debut, but actually looked scared. Gotta stick with him for Game 2 but he needs to step it up. NSW had several opportunities in attack and wasted them, including Glenn Stewart pushing a pass on the third tackle, constantly kicking to Tate rather than Boyd, dropping the ball and other poor decisions and plays.

The refs were terrible and a big factor in the result, but NSW could have won the game nonetheless and didn't.

Overgrown Children and Why We Hate John Cena

I must confess, growing up I was a big wrestling fan, but then as most do, drifted away from it as I reached my latter teenage years and my early 20s. I somewhat kept tabs on what was happening and would read the occasional article when WWE managed to cross over onto mainstream news or ESPN, but for the most part, I was out.

I found myself sucked back in last year when CM Punk somewhat made wrestling cool again (kind of) and despite the fact it has often failed to live up to the heights of last year, I find myself still hooked.

In doing this, I have also found myself deep into the online wrestling world reading "dirt sheets" on occasion and also the articles of some of my favourite wrestling writers such as David Shoemaker and Brandon Stroud, as well as interacting with them on twitter. Immersing myself in this world I have found just how much wrestling fans of my generation and older hate John Cena.

I can't pretend to be a Cena fan either, but it's actually quite amazing how vitriolic some people can be about it and it makes me wonder why and of course, I have a theory.

Now the prevailing thoughts on the issue are the Cena caters to children, is rammed down our throat even when we are sick of him and also that a guy that looks like he should be the best and never seems to really struggle, dominates his competition, which becomes boring and repetitive, especially with such a limited arsenal.

The above is all true, but I think there is more to it. My theory is that wrestling fans who hate John Cena on some level hate him because he reminds them that in some regards, they are still heavily following a sport/entertainment that most people their age long ago left to the younger generation. The exact reason Cena is rammed down our throats is because of his appeal to children, the merchandise sales he generates and so forth. But there-in lies the problem for many people. Who are WWE saying is their target market?

If at my age I admit to someone who doesn't follow wrestling that I in fact do, I fully expect an eye roll or snarky comment. I'm sure this is the same for many. The last place a wrestling fan wants to get that treatment is when they are watching the product itself. In some ways, John Cena is that eye roll and snarky comment but coming directly from the WWE. John Cena is the face of the WWE even if we hate it because we're not supposed to be watching anymore anyway.

Now obviously that's not entirely true. The WWE can't survive on the child demographic alone. They need the big kids like myself to continue to watch and that's why we do get thrown a bone now and then. The recent pushes of CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and Zack Ryder are testament to that. That way the WWE continues to have its cake and eat it too.

But the big question I think I and other wrestling fans over the age of 20 might need to ask ourselves is whether we hate Cena because he sucks, or because he reminds us that we are holding onto something that isn't aimed at us anymore and we don't want to admit it.

In the meantime, enjoy Punk v Bryan at Over The Limit.