We're letting the Aussies get away with it a bit here...not on the cricket field - that's all done and dusted and we're only viewing portracted rigor mortis.
But in general- they're still Aussies. Their team are still a bunch of downright scary and disturbing fanatical weirdos. They sing a 'patriotic' song after every single test win, the baggy green is treated with the same reference as a holy relic, nicknames are a deadly serious tribal rite of pasage thing etc. etc. If they didn't have a sporting outlet for their dangerous levels of testosterone they'd be getting on the jackboots and invading New Zealand. FACT.
Let's look at the team- Hayden- the double Y chromosome missing link school bully who never grew up, Langer - thinks he's actually fighting a war, Ponting need I say more, Clarke- weird arian puppy with a diamond stud in his ear, Symonds- pig shooting hick, belongs in a horror film, Gilchrist- appauling hypocrite who walks for nicks but has no qualms about cheating other batsmen of their wicket with endless spurious appeals behind the wicket and we haven't even started on the two described as the 'Great Men'. Totally conceited and arrogant so and so's- both overdo it with the verbals, one probably needs castrating and the other's a redneck. 'Great Men'? Check out Ghandi or Nelson Mandella. Your boys are the great trailer trash.
KP aside, England are to a man regular, fairly well-balanced, as professional sportsmen go, human beings. You can beat our team 5-0 every series for the next 100 years but we'll always be the 'real' winners.
I'd sing a patriotic song now but I'm not incurably vulgar enough.
Apparently a poll was conducted in Australia recently and 70% of 18-30 year old men said they would give up sex for 6 months if Australia regained the Ashes.
Originally posted by Mr Watermelon: Apparently a poll was conducted in Australia recently and 70% of 18-30 year old men said they would give up sex for 6 months if Australia regained the Ashes.
Must be a lot of relieved sheep out there.
You must be mistaking Aussies with Kiwis. It's an easy thing for outsiders to do, but the telltale sign is this: If you start thinking erotic thoughts when they count to six it must be a kiwi.
I saw an Attenborough documentary the other day about English sheep evolving stripes to help hide themselves from all of Warney's girlfriends ex-partners
Originally posted by Toga: KP aside, England are to a man regular, fairly well-balanced, as professional sportsmen go, human beings. You can beat our team 5-0 every series for the next 100 years but we'll always be the 'real' winners.
A fine post!
Scyld Berry wrote about how the England players (KP apart) are rounded human beings with a gentle, Anima side, who can probably converse intelligently on a range of topics.
I bet most of the Aussie players can't even pronounce Shakespeare, let alone quote him.
Originally posted by 15Degrees_of_Grace: The loss of the Ashes has just set in huh? GIve it time, maybe get a girlfriend/boyfriend to take your mind off it.
The shock of regaining the Ashes against all odds from a country who's only reason for existence is the relentless, remorseless & ruthless pursuit of sporting excellence still hasn't set in.
Sporting silverware won't stop global warming or bring peace to the Middle east or stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons or stop people dying of AIDs in Africa or actually make the world a better place in anyway at all.
Originally posted by 15Degrees_of_Grace: The loss of the Ashes has just set in huh? GIve it time, maybe get a girlfriend/boyfriend to take your mind off it.
The shock of regaining the Ashes against all odds from a country who's only reason for existence is the relentless, remorseless & ruthless pursuit of sporting excellence still hasn't set in.
Sporting silverware won't stop global warming or bring peace to the Middle east or stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons or stop people dying of AIDs in Africa or actually make the world a better place in anyway at all.
Just so you know.
Bloody el, this is like some philosophy class in action.
Originally posted by Toga: KP aside, England are to a man regular, fairly well-balanced, as professional sportsmen go, human beings. You can beat our team 5-0 every series for the next 100 years but we'll always be the 'real' winners.
A fine post!
Scyld Berry wrote about how the England players (KP apart) are rounded human beings with a gentle, Anima side, who can probably converse intelligently on a range of topics.
I bet most of the Aussie players can't even pronounce Shakespeare, let alone quote him.
What does this have to do with playing sport, Robby?
Sounds like a losers mentality to me, a very English one. I thought we were shaking that off, sadly too many middle aged hacks still cling to it with your misty eyed and misplaced nostalgia.
-------------------------------------------------------- I say it so it must be so.
There is a lot of truth in Toga's post. Most people would agree that while Aussie cricketers posesss great skills, almost all of them lack class and are not the kind you'd want to do anything with (there are exceptions, as always with any rule).
Yes someone like Warne is a great bowler, but the level of adulation towards him by many here is just plain shocking. He is just about as pathetic a human being as anybody can be
A real fan shouldn't give too hoots about the person away from the playing field, it's about the game not the man when he's at home. Thats a pointless argument.
If England had a player as great as Warne he'd get the same adulation that Warne does and his off field faults would be just as ignored.
You get interested in the players on the pitch and the game, not what they do when they go home. I've my own life to think about and live!
Who cares whether they read the Beano instead of Camus!?
-------------------------------------------------------- I say it so it must be so.
The shock of regaining the Ashes against all odds from a country who's only reason for existence is the relentless, remorseless & ruthless pursuit of sporting excellence still hasn't set in.
Sporting silverware won't stop global warming or bring peace to the Middle east or stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons or stop people dying of AIDs in Africa or actually make the world a better place in anyway at all.
Just so you know.
Precious perspective. I know which team members I'd introduce to my mother and it isn't those avuncular Aussies.
A real fan shouldn't give too hoots about the person away from the playing field, it's about the game not the man when he's at home. Thats a pointless argument.
If England had a player as great as Warne he'd get the same adulation that Warne does and his off field faults would be just as ignored.
You get interested in the players on the pitch and the game, not what they do when they go home. I've my own life to think about and live!
Who cares whether they read the Beano instead of Camus!?.
-------------------------------------------------------- I say it so it must be so.
The point isn't about cricketing skills, which are not being disputed. It is about being "great men" worthy of adulation, respect and all that. You don't become a great man by throwing a piece of leather from 22 yards over and over again
I think there's some taking out of context going on, Aussies call them great men because they happen to be two of the best bowlers of all time. So I think thats the reason for that term being coined, I doubt it's meant in any other capacity and it is rather clutching at thin air to think they are.
-------------------------------------------------------- I say it so it must be so.
The Aussie cricketers are to be admired for their proficiency at cricket. They have given sheer joy to millions of cricket fans, a basic human emotion and a contribution which is stupendous. Which of us can claim that for ourselves? How many human beings can say that for themselves?
I admit that I find a line by Georger Macdonald Fraser or Ghalib more precious than a Tendulkar cover drive or a Warne turner. But just as the former give me more pleasure, I am ready to accept that the latter are more pleasing to others.
If the cricketers are found lacking in other (in this case intellectual) areas, so be it. They are not to be judged by that yardstick.
............................ "The prisoner Pierre Laval is in no danger of dying"
Originally posted by Toga: We're letting the Aussies get away with it a bit here...not on the cricket field - that's all done and dusted and we're only viewing portracted rigor mortis.
But in general- they're still Aussies. Their team are still a bunch of downright scary and disturbing fanatical weirdos. They sing a 'patriotic' song after every single test win, the baggy green is treated with the same reference as a holy relic, nicknames are a deadly serious tribal rite of pasage thing etc. etc. If they didn't have a sporting outlet for their dangerous levels of testosterone they'd be getting on the jackboots and invading New Zealand. FACT.
Let's look at the team- Hayden- the double Y chromosome missing link school bully who never grew up, Langer - thinks he's actually fighting a war, Ponting need I say more, Clarke- weird arian puppy with a diamond stud in his ear, Symonds- pig shooting hick, belongs in a horror film, Gilchrist- appauling hypocrite who walks for nicks but has no qualms about cheating other batsmen of their wicket with endless spurious appeals behind the wicket and we haven't even started on the two described as the 'Great Men'. Totally conceited and arrogant so and so's- both overdo it with the verbals, one probably needs castrating and the other's a redneck. 'Great Men'? Check out Ghandi or Nelson Mandella. Your boys are the great trailer trash.
KP aside, England are to a man regular, fairly well-balanced, as professional sportsmen go, human beings. You can beat our team 5-0 every series for the next 100 years but we'll always be the 'real' winners.
I'd sing a patriotic song now but I'm not incurably vulgar enough.
Well said Tom! You even brought tears on my Eye! Good on ya!
Ned Kelly is a national hero - the man was a cold-blooded murderer and leader of an infamous gang.
Our National Song is Waltzing Matilda - it's about a man who steals a sheep and tells off the police before committing suicide.
That's not to say Australians shun those renowned for their sportsmanship.
Pat Rafter is loved in a way that Lleyton Hewitt never will be here and that's beause of his execeptional sportsmanship.
John Landy stopping mid-race to help the fallen Ron Clarke to his feet is one of the most celebrated moments in Australian sport.
But this is also the country of the larrikin. It's one thing to be a jerk. Australians don't like that. But we can identify with a sportsman who is a deeply flawed person, because, let's face it - that's what most of us are - deeply flawed.
The greatest thing about sport is that everybody is equal on the field. You can be dumb, oppressed, socially awkward, a criminal or a bigot, but once you're out on the field that doesn't matter. Sport is the great equaliser.
Originally posted by Hass: Our National Song is Waltzing Matilda - it's about a man who steals a sheep and tells off the police before committing suicide.
Originally posted by Toga: We're letting the Aussies get away with it a bit here...not on the cricket field - that's all done and dusted and we're only viewing portracted rigor mortis.
But in general- they're still Aussies. Their team are still a bunch of downright scary and disturbing fanatical weirdos. They sing a 'patriotic' song after every single test win, the baggy green is treated with the same reference as a holy relic, nicknames are a deadly serious tribal rite of pasage thing etc. etc. If they didn't have a sporting outlet for their dangerous levels of testosterone they'd be getting on the jackboots and invading New Zealand. FACT.
Let's look at the team- Hayden- the double Y chromosome missing link school bully who never grew up, Langer - thinks he's actually fighting a war, Ponting need I say more, Clarke- weird arian puppy with a diamond stud in his ear, Symonds- pig shooting hick, belongs in a horror film, Gilchrist- appauling hypocrite who walks for nicks but has no qualms about cheating other batsmen of their wicket with endless spurious appeals behind the wicket and we haven't even started on the two described as the 'Great Men'. Totally conceited and arrogant so and so's- both overdo it with the verbals, one probably needs castrating and the other's a redneck. 'Great Men'? Check out Ghandi or Nelson Mandella. Your boys are the great trailer trash.
KP aside, England are to a man regular, fairly well-balanced, as professional sportsmen go, human beings. You can beat our team 5-0 every series for the next 100 years but we'll always be the 'real' winners.
I'd sing a patriotic song now but I'm not incurably vulgar enough.
Well said Tom! You even brought tears on my Eye! Good on ya!
Another sad critter in the Mr Robby mode!
-------------------------------------------------------- I say it so it must be so.
