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July 09, 2003
Football
I have joked in the past about the different flavours of Real Football (tm) played in Australia: Union, Thugby and AFL. Living in NSW, there is a lot (too much) coverage of Thugby and it has (more so in the past) been promoted as a state game. Kids at school are under intense pressure to play despite the high injury rate. I was fortunate enough to have a kinked spine (which straightened as I grew taller) which precluded me from playing Thugby but my own son does not have such an excuse. The pressure is already coming from older students and some teachers to 'follow' a Thugby team and there have been school visits and posters etc.
My resistence to the game as a whole received a boost in the recent "State of Origin" series between Queensland and NSW. On that weekend there were two head injuries in two different codes of football. In an AFL match, the Sydney skipper received a blow to the head - he was escorted off the field bandaged and treated and returned to keep playing. In the Origin match, one of the players was also injured and the papers the next day carried a picture of this idiot having his head stapled. In the process the stapler jamed and this turkey was standing there with a stapler attached to the side of his head telling the doctors to hurry so he could get back out and play - No Sense - No Feeling! (or maybe lots of drugs, no brains).
I nearly ran the item but decided that everyone would agree that it bought the game into disrepute and had turned them off Thugby all together until I found this item in Spike (SMH) today:
Our campaign to assemble an exhibit of extraneous memorabilia received a boost yesterday with the news that the staple gun used to staple a winger's head back together in the first State of Origin rugby league game last month will be sold at a fundraising auction on Friday. NSW doctor John Orchard reportedly required six staples to piece Michael De Vere's head together.
Why would anyone want to collect this other than as an object lesson - you play Thugby, I'll staple your head on with this!
References to the story can be found: here, here and here. And no, I don't have any disgusting pictures of the event....
Posted by Ozguru at July 9, 2003 08:07 AM
Comments
Posted by: GDay Mate at July 9, 2003 08:07 AM
