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Beating Around the Bush A column with Cathy Stubbs
A sporting look at sport
There are few things in this world which can rival sport’s ability to alter people’s personalities. Even the most mild mannered and conservative among us can be transformed into Conan the Barbarian when things aren’t going according to plan on the sporting field, or when a favourite team is getting a flogging. I myself once succumbed to a fit of temper during a social game of golf, and broke a treasured putter which had belonged to my father. Notwithstanding the fact that I felt that my very honour was at stake because I was being beaten by my husband, Mr Never-Stop-Gloating, it was as though I had become another person. I was gripped by a strange fury which was hardly justified by the social nature of the game. Sport’s curious ability to "get people going" applies equally to those on the side line. While I am not by any means a sports fanatic, for many years I have felt an irresistible compulsion to watch the State of Origin league games. During that 80 minutes I am consumed by an intense loathing of the colour moroon and a hatred of everything from Queensland. I have been known to leap from the couch yelling "yesss!" when ever NSW scores a try - this despite of the fact that I don’t watch a single other minute of rugby league all season. I don’t even know who is in the Sydney competition. It is at times like these that my husband, who cares less about footy than I do, always adopts the opposite stance, supporting Queensland. I know he does this simply to provoke and aggravate me, but it is not unusual for me to storm to the opposite end of the house at the conclusion of the game, absolutely boiling mad about his lack of loyalty to NSW. However, it was during my visit to Gulgong on Sunday to take photos for the paper of the Gulgong lads playing Wallerawang (Go the mighty Terriers - who incidentally won) that I became aware of the power of a crowd to set the mood. I arrived as a disinterested bystander there to do a job, but soon found myself drawn into support for a local league side for which I had no allegiance up until that time.
Though I could not compete with that nice lady in the crowd who kept screaming out "kill the blue and white pigs" (I assume she meant Wallerawang - although both sides were in blue), I could certainly sympathise with her desire for a local victory. I too felt the urge to join the chorus of red faced people calling out "Come on Gully, whip their butts" and "Carn Gulgong, - they can’t run without legs."
When one of the locals was sent to the sin bin (don’t ask me why, I was too angry to notice), I was gripped by a burning feeling of indignation and was sorely tempted to yell out a piece of football match abuse much loved by my ultra-conservative father about sending off the referee. Anyway, on this occasion, self restraint won the day, and so did Gulgong, which is just as well, because who knows what I might have said if they’d lost!
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