Because sometimes we take the things we love for granted, you don’t actually tend to realise exactly how brutal Australia’s native ball sports can be until an outsider looks on at what you’d otherwise rate as a pretty mundane event like it’s a heavyweight slugfest.
That’s exactly what’s happening this week, with footage of a bit of a dust-up from the recent Ron Massey Cup Grand Final doing the rounds of the US sports media oddspot pages, where it’s being looked upon like it’s the onset of World War 3.
In a brawl that rates about a C on the ‘Strayan Sports Fights scale, a fracas between players from Mount Pritchard Mounties and the Entrance Tigers breaks out, resulting in 4 players being sent to the sin bin. Sure, there’s a couple of errant rights thrown that kind of find their mark, but otherwise it’s remarkably par-for-the-course as far as on-field melees go – particularly given that it was a Grand Final too.
Honestly, I’ve seen bigger hits on a So Fresh CD.
But such is the fascination with our brutish, padless sporting culture over there (which is particularly weird given that it’s a country where the NHL exists) the story has made it to a number of different media outlets.
Complex called it “the craziest sports fight of 2014,” with the point where a Tigers player gets pushed onto the awards dais as the moment where he was “destroyed.”
Apparently SB Nation‘s LookIt has never heard of the concept of a fight occurring during a Grand Final before.
Fansided took a slightly more flippant approach, labelling it “ugly” and stating “The Ron Massey Cup is a tournament for semi-professional rugby league development teams in New South Wales, Australia.
As you can see from the brawl that broke out, they still clearly lack any professionalism.“
Whilst USA Today‘s FTW section noted the distinct availability of seats in the crowd, as well as marvelling at the novelty of having refs mic’d up.
All we can say to that is that if that’s what the USA rates as an “ugly” and “crazy” sports brawl, then for the sake of their innocent little souls it’s probably for the best they weren’t around in 1981 for the Newtown/Manly donnybrook…
…or that they don’t know who Gorden Tallis is…
…or Alastair Lynch, for that matter…
…or that the phrase “Line in the Sand” doesn’t quite hold the same significance to them.
For the record, the Entrance Tigers won the Massey Cup 22-18, after a try in Golden Point Extra Time by Mulia Malau.
Up ’em, Tiges!
