The furore engaged in by fans of Newcastle United – myself including – is perhaps a tenuous link to this blog on grassroots sport.
But it does make me more appreciative of the relative innocence of sport at its purest level.
Newcastle United’s controversial owner Mike Ashley has renamed the 120 year-old stadium, St James’ Park, the Sports Direct Arena. It has provoked outrage – but is sadly inevitable.
Photo: Twitter, @suttonnick
Within a couple of decades, perhaps less, I would not be surprised to see the vast majority of decent-sized English football stadiums carrying a sponsor’s name. The pragmatist within me is aware that fans of top sports teams cannot have it two ways and that money rules completely in professional sport.
That will hardly make it any easier to swallow the name change – indeed all Newcastle fans will continue to refer to this beacon towering over the centre of Toon as St James’ Park.
I am not naïve as to think money does not play a role in grassroots sport, too, but there is a clear predominance of on-the-field concerns.
When fans see stadium names changed on a whim or when they see players refusing to play, they are hardly likely to be endeared to the professional game. The same goes for rugby, cricket and other sports, but football, the most lucrative game in this country, clearly suffers more than others.
The frustration with the treatment of the regular punter, whose interests appear to be secondary to those on various club’s executive boards, is what drives many people to choose to watch grassroots sport.
It is arguably only at that level that the true emotional ‘value’ of sport can still be determined.
These are six of the world’s most popular annual events in sports not commonly played in the UK. Which would you rather see live at the stadium or arena?
Australian Rules Football – ‘footy’ Down Under, colloquially ‘Aussie rules’ to the rest of the world – can claim to be one of the well-known non-mainstream sports in the UK, although they will probably see it as a confused melee, loosely based on some kind of hybrid between rugby and basketball.
Collingwood vs Fremantle play at the vast Melbourne Cricket Ground; photo: Flickr, Steel Wool
Most sports fans in this country will have a vague idea of the concept of the game, which is the most popular sport in Australia. But, after it was devised in Victoria as a means of keeping cricketers in shape during the winter, little effort was made to spread it to the rest of the world. Its very name implies a certain degree of isolation.
A 2007 survey by the AFL, the governing body of the sport in Australia, revealed that there were only 303 registered clubs and fewer than 10,000 players in the whole of the rest of the world. By contrast, there are hundreds of thousands registered players in the country of the sport’s birth.
Since that survey, though, Aussie rules has seen something of a surge in support in the UK, says Mark Horsman, club secretary of the South Cardiff Panthers, who play at Pontcanna Fields in the Riverside area of the city.
The Panthers, established in 2006 as a founding member of the Welsh Australian Rules Football League (WARFL), are one of the most successful clubs in Britain.
Only three of the 24 squad members are Australian, suggesting Aussie rules in this country has become far more than simply a comfort for homesick Antipodeans and that, however small, the sport has established a foothold on these shores.
Welsh Australian Rules Football LeagueVideo credit: brycestone, YouTube
The version of the sport played most commonly in this country is a truncated adaptation of the original. In Australia, matches are played on cricket pitches – a throwback to the game’s original purpose – by teams of 18. Here, rugby fields are used for nine-a-side encounters.
But Mark Horsman points out that Australia has begun to introduce the nine-player version as well, in an effort to make playing the sport more accessible: “It is in its early days but could prove successful.
“It is a great testament to the game in Europe.”
Other than a solitary defeat against the Swansea Magpies last season, the Panthers have gone unbeaten in the WARFL for the last three years and their only other loss in that period came against a London side comprised entirely of Australians.
Such a success hardly sits well with the description of the Panthers as a grassroots side. They can boast not only the success they have had in their own right – but also the fact three quarters of the Panthers’ squad are internationals, most representing Wales in the nine-man format.
Horsman is among seven Panthers who have also made the step up to the Great Britain Bulldogs 18-a-side game in the past four seasons, one of whom – 6ft 9in ruckman Chris James – played at the International Cup in August, where the Bulldogs finished seventh.
Meanwhile, club President and Wales captain David Saunders has been selected for the EuroCup Team Europe for the last two seasons, the only Welsh player to achieve that feat.
Yet, undeniably, despite the sport’s growing popularity in this country, Aussie rules remains very much a minority sport in Cardiff, as with almost everywhere outside Oz. Organisers of the six-team WARFL (which is to be extended by a further two clubs in time for the 2012 season) are perfectly aware of this – as many players do not play solely Aussie rules, the season runs through the summer to avoid clashing with rugby, football and hockey matches.
Panthers after winning their third successive Welsh Grand Final earlier this year
Other sides in the league have often faced player shortages but the Panthers have managed to avoid these difficulties, which so often affect grassroots sports teams.
Indeed, it could be said the Panthers run a perfect operation for a club of their stature. They have a number of sponsorship deals – Deli Rouge, Cardiff Sports Nutritions, Spire Healthcare and the Outdoor Fitness company if were asking – and also run successful Facebook and Twitter campaigns to keep squad numbers up and embark on an annual end-of-season tour, the latest being a successful trip to Rome at the end of October.
Nor is fitness taken lightly, in a warning to anyone who thinks an ability to catch and kick the ovoid ball is a valid qualification for joining the squad. The commitment to conditioning is one of the main reasons for the success enjoyed by the Panthers, explains Horsman.
“I think I could safely say that all of our players are heavily into their fitness,” he says. The link with Outdoor Fitness gives ample opportunity for that – and, perhaps, little excuse not to.
“Most of the team train with Outdoor Fitness through the week at all times of the year and this type of training – military style – really suits the intensity and physicality of Aussie Rules.”
Although the Panthers were founders of the WARFL, Aussie rules in Wales dates back to the Second World War, when it was played by members of the Royal Australian Air Force based at Pembroke Dock.
Although there may not have been any direct link between that first Welsh taste of footy and the fledging league the Panthers have come to dominate, the side has been asked to commemorate that occasion in 1944 by playing another fixture on Anzac Day (remembrance day for Australians and New Zealanders).
That planned fixture alludes to the perpetual Australian link that will colour every instance of this sport wherever around the world it is played. But teams such as the South Cardiff Panthers are fiercely proud of their own contribution to the development in Wales of the sport as it comes increasingly – if still very slowly – into the public conscience.
“The scene in Wales and the UK is very promising with a big growth in clubs and players over the last 3 years,” notes Horsman. How long it will be before the South Wales Panthers are properly challenged, however, remains to be seen.
Every weekend, hundreds of thousands of people of all ages across Wales take part in sport but only those who play at an elite level – and in a mainstream sport – typically get any media attention at all.
This blog is hardly going to have much of an impact in reversing that, but it is intended to get a flavour of what motivates so many people to give so much every week. For everyone who has played any sport at any level, the anticipation and steely focus on a match that accompanies every fixture is part of the addictive nature that playing sport brings.
Outsiders looking in may wonder why so much dedication is required for relatively low-level competition, but those who play do not think in such terms, in terms the neutral might regard as entirely rational.
For everybody who plays sport at an amateur level – and, perhaps, the lower the quality level the more applicable this is – the enjoyment in success as well as the bitter hollowness that accompanies disappointment is a passion.
For these people, every frozen February pitch is their Millennium Stadium or Wembley; every chipped tennis court with the torn net is their Wimbledon.
Less mainstream sports such as Aussie rules and handball also have committed bands of players, coaches and supporters who simply add to the rich, if underlying, variety of sports enjoyed across the country.
This blog will focus on those teams and those sports that will not reach the sports section of the newspaper. It will not bring match reports or league updates; that would be impractical and is not my preferred focus.
It will, however, attempt to explain to those who have not been infected with the addiction to playing sport that so many people go through every week. If this is applicable to your team or sport, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
An Early Bath 