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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

State of Origin or Cultural Decay?

                      

Lulu’s netball game has been cancelled tonight. Why? … because of the bloody State of Origin Rugby League match of course.

Our nation stops when Origin fever descends; the pubs are insanely full for a Wednesday night, the electricity grid is strained to the limit powering all the big screen televisions and everyone in Queensland is wearing Mighty Maroon even though the colour makes even the more attractive zealots look sickly.

This morning as I sat in the staffroom eavesdropping on the mind-numbing discussion centred on tonight’s game and feeling a bit left out, I pitched in my two cents worth.

“So who is Queensland playing tonight?” I queried feigning interest.

There followed an appalled silence as they stared at me as if I was some sort bizarre extra-terrestrial.

Then came the uproarious, mocking laughter and I quickly realised my blooper.

I may as well have asked who Australia is playing this year in the Ashes.

Oh well… we can’t all be rabid footy fans. Someone has to uphold the cultural element in society.

Crap… now I’ve done it... I’ll be copping some flack tomorrow for that statement. But on the other hand no one will read it because they’ll all be watching the damn S.O.O. eating meat pies, screaming abuse at the referees and swilling beer.

Back in the eighties when I lived in Sydney, I shared a house with four other people including one of the New South Wales State of Origin players, Michael O’Connor, and his fiancé Suzy. Our house was always full of elite football players but the game still didn’t manage to hook me in.

Occasionally I’d accompany Suzy and go to watch Michael play a game but I think I annoyed her by asking questions like, 
“So who are the ones in the stripy costumes again?”



Cameron Smith is a bit of a spunk though! Don't tell Scotto I wrote that.