Apropos of this*, The Half Back Flank presents part 1 of a continuing series entitled "A Blight on Australian Society".

1. The Fanatics

Not funny, not creative, not cool. Not even, I hypothesise, actual sports fans. Something about the dressing up and the over-the-top green-and-gold gives me the creeps. It also suggests the prime objective is to get on telly, rather than watch the contest at hand.

Plus the chants. Contrived. Pommy soccer fans chant and sing, and because they've always done it, they're quite good at it. American sports fans are told when to chant and cheer by the playing of too-loud rock and rap, and the jumbotron. It would be awfully cheesey if tried here (anyone been to a Twenty20 international lately?) but in a Seppo ballpark or a football stadium, it works beautifully; it's part of the sporting culture.

The Fanatics? Not so much. It's contrived, but worse, these clowns celebrate boorish behaviour, like the Aussie Aussie Aussie chant** and reinforce negative stereotypes about Australian sports fans.

Just stop it please.

To be continued.

* Thanks to Tony from After Grog Blog for the link. Talk about efficiency. He obviously checks his referrer logs. I guess this means I have to keep writing.

** When travelling overseas with a particular group of mates, we have only one rule. Any person who participates in an Aussie Aussie Aussie chant is on the next Flying Kangaroo home.