Eels Blogs

Well, having been part of this illustrious band of merry men (and woman) for some time now, I think it's about time I contribute to our little soiree. 

I suppose formalities should force me to apologize to those hard core true contributors of the site for not blogging, by coming up with excuses like; I had a tomato party to attend too, my cat died (every day for the past 2 years or so) but what the hell, anyway.

A couple of days ago I watched a couple of reruns of old games against parra and the dogs. It brought up some old memories. However, there was one thing I noticed in particular. THE REFEREES WEREN'T BLOWING THEIR WHISTLES!

Sure there was the occasional mistake but

The game flowed,

Limited stoppages

Faster overall play,

And, in my option, a better spectacle.

On reflection, I feel this current dilemma that we face with the bunker has been a series of reactive rules and technologies we have been forced to be put in place by various ref boards. This is in order to stem the barrage of complaints about poor decisions. 

Now Poppa, before you bless me with an auspicious and omnipotent reflection, that in then end leaves you pondering have I wasted my life!!! I also grew up in a time and a place without television and the only way to enjoy the game was to listen to it on my wireless. We had a telephone exchange, made trunk calls, had party lines (not the stuff you blokes now snort up your nose) and using old Myer catalogues with a drawn sheila in a dress as your pornography. 

Now don't get me wrong, I get wired up like the rest of you buggers when things don't go our way but, looking at the whole situation subjectively, it has gone too far.

We can go on blaming the refs, the media and that tossa across the paddock who let his dog lose to kill my chooks which forced me to vote for the Greens. Until we collectively accept the blame "we ain't goin nowhere". (that's for you Bob Dylan fans)

I thought I'd list some factors which I thought contributed. This is not extortive but indicative! But first I’d like to introduce you to:

Foot note #1: The end of the day, we are no more satisfied then when we didn’t have all this choices.

1) Too many replays and too many camera angles:

This leads to over analysing the result. Often leading too a confusion about the decision, sometimes

by the commentators and ex-players themselves. I fear that the shape of the game is moving towards NFL. For those that can remember, it had it’s origins with rugby. Over time it developed into this strategic (not instinctive) game we see today. I wonder if it was a result of issues we face today? Endstate: refer to foot note #1

2) The shape of the media. You can blame Rupert, the daily mirror, the woman’s weekly and the new idea, but the end of the day it’s as good as blaming your mother because she bought the crap! Please refer to foot note #1

3) People and teams just not being able to accept that they just weren’t good enough. Blaming some other bastard and coming up with excuses. As my old man said to me once, if you fail son, work harder next time.

4) Ulterior motives outside of winning the game. Gee, we could talk a decade about this. But I’d like to some this up by saying if you see a politician in a rugby league football Guernsey he either;

Fell into it when he rolled out of bed this morning in his drunken stupor,

was given it as a piece offering the night before at the Mardi Gras and was wearing it to appease the local peasants in the naïve hope that they won’t attack him,

or they really follow VFL and think that rugby league is just a strange, of shoot and will eventually come back into the fold.

Finally, please refer to footnote #1