Australian Men Love Sport
This is how the equation goes. Australian men love sport. Therefore, the money men saw it as an opportunity and so we got professional sport. Football being the sports of choice in this regard with AFL and NRL being the main codes professionalised and commercialised. Sponsor logos on the jerseys and signage around the ground soon spread to every which way you look there be a commercial association between team and company. The players now earn salaries in the million dollar vicinity if they are any good. Some getting overs and many just under to do the thing that, in many cases, they love. Aussie Blokes Sporting Biggest Loser Reputation The fans and club supporters watch their teams religiously every week. Some go to the games and many more watch on screens. Young men take to the field with great expectations upon their form. Coaches are interviewed pre and post-game by a media full of ex-players turned talking heads. Intermittently, gambling ads are shown as this interactive but exploitative side hustle sponsors the game. Australian men love sport, famously so, as it has become a well known national preoccupation. Australians are the greatest losers per capita in the world via their gambling habits. The Glorious Nature Of Sport Sport is a billion dollar industry, which manufacturers very little in the tangible way. The origins of sport date back to the ancient Greeks, in the recorded sense of history, but probably much further via what was never written down. Sport has always, at its roots, been about glory. Naked blokes with fig leaves around their scones dashing here, there and everywhere. Today, players and team functionaries are walking billboards. These sponsors are funding the million dollar salaries for the playing group. Now, we get to the absurdities in this commodification of sport equation. Highly paid players putting their hands up as sufferers of mental health issues. We the fans get to feel sorry for our heroes too boot. The weight of expectations upon these richly renumerated football stars has ‘done their head in.’ They just can’t cope and have to take time out from the game to deal with mental health issues. The Weight Of Expectation The normally very loud, well paid, footy pundits have to whisper in hushed tones about ‘mental health.’ The shockingly judgemental brethren of FLOGs cannot apply their usual condemnations but must muster a much neglected balm called empathy. Footy shows feature pantomime segments where former warriors pretend to lovingly care for the vulnerable mental health of superstars being paid millions. Buddy Franklin, Harry McKay, and Jamarra Ugle–Hagan are all forwards. It is the goal kicking forwards who must bear the heaviest cross, it seems. Kicking straight is a curse upon the game in that it is the final requirement and most judgemental aspect of them all. “STAR Sydney Swans forward Lance Franklin says he never considered retirement despite taking a temporary break from the game to battle mental health issues last year.” - (https://www.afl.com.au/news/152143/mental-health-battle-would-never-make-me-quit-buddy) “Carlton forward Harry McKay has encouraged people to open up about their mental health while reflecting on his struggles earlier this season.” - (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-10/afl-carlton-blues-harry-mckay-speaks-about-mental-health/105277692) The Commercial Ramifications Of Professional Sport Thus, we have blokes running around, who, in all likelihood would play the game for the love of it, but are being paid the big bucks to perform. A growing number of them are not coping with the weight of expectation and buckling under the pressure instead. Australian men love sport and the cost of this is being felt. The extreme commercialisation of sports like football is seeing the glorious pursuit weighted down with all the greedy passengers it must carry. We the fans are then asked to feel sorry for the generously endowered athletes facing the expectations of the sporting superstar lifestyle. Billions and millions of dollars fund this festival of machismo, where clubs, players and fans long to witness the holding up of a cup. Young boys and fat old guys have daydreams about elite sporting lifestyles. Of course, the reality of such lives are far more demanding than these dreams can ever know. “It was reported last month the former No. 1 draft pick (Ugle-Hagan) had checked himself into a health retreat in a key step towards reviving his AFL career.” - (https://www.thechronicle.com.au/sport/afl/afl-icon-casts-doubts-over-video-amid-suggestions-bulldogs-players-arent-happy/news-story/56f0e6433f92bc46fa2e2be3a30c1b15) The Equation The equation again: Australian men love sport; the money men see commercial opportunities; the players of sports like football get paid big bucks; their lives are owned by the sponsored sporting club for the duration of their careers; some young men buckle under the weight of expectation; their love of sport is sullied by the business of it; the fans scratch their heads at a situation where million dollar superstar lifestyles equates with mental illness WTF? What can we all learn from such things? “As an AFL footy fan it pains me to say Melbourne centric Fox Footy sucks. Too many Victorian commentators and ‘so-called’ football experts populate the game day commentary on Fox. I mean Hawthorn is way over represented with Jordan Lewis, Jason Dunstall and Dermott Brereton. These blokes cannot help but be partisan when push comes to shove during AFL matches. Garry Lyon is another prominent analyst and talking head with strong Melbourne leanings. It is the complete absence of ex-players from Sydney teams, WA sides or SA that grates with viewers. Too much bias in the calls.” - (https://www.golfdom.com.au/melbourne-centric-fox-footy-sucks/) Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer and America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump. ©GolfDom Read the full article
