Footy Fans Condemned For A Higher Cause
Sun Herald
Sunday April 4, 2004
WHEN rugby league fans brawled at the Bulldogs-Roosters game last weekend, there was widespread outrage. The Bulldogs faced being docked four competition points by the NRL and received an $8000 bill from the Roosters, brawlers faced life bans, there was blanket tut-tutting in the media, and countless column inches spent lamenting yet another example of bad manners in football.
And yet, when 500 students at the University of Technology rioted last week, attacking police and destroying public property, the response was quite different. Unlike the footy fans, the students had planned their confrontation, timing it with similar actions on campuses in other states, to protest against fees and freedom (a proposal to make student union membership voluntary).
Instead of condemnation, the student rioters attracted sympathy. NSW MP Lee Rhiannon condemned the police for using capsicum spray against the students because it might have caused an asthma attack. There was no such concern for league's rioters, shown in photographs with blood gushing from their noses.
Why do we expect a better standard of behaviour from Bulldogs fans, who, unlike the students, had genuine cause to be unhappy as their beleaguered team was being thrashed 35-0 and unsporting Roosters fans were goading them?
© 2004 Sun Herald
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