If all the white players wanted to play together at the exclusion of black players, would you be supportive of the move?
If you wouldn’t, then you need to be clearer on what your point is, because on the surface it appears you’ve got one set of rules for white guys, and another for black guys.
The series is Australia v Ireland, it’s still being marketed as Australia v Ireland, if you want to buy a ticket to this series, then you have to purchase a ticket to what is being sold as Australia v Ireland, etc etc etc..
This is slam-dunk racism, regardless of how well meaning the organisers may be. As I said in my OP:
If it helps you understand, look at it akin to say an U23 side, or perhaps like the Wisden Cricketer of Year which only allows players who haven’t won before to be included. Just a gimmick to make the game more interesting (a pretty tall order)
That’s because I’m not going to call you out on the undercurrent of your post in GD. If we were in the Pit I’d be more explicit about what I understand your motives to be, but as this is in GD I’m going to address your surface-level arguments only.
Your strawman question implies a lie. I’m not saying that, and won’t be drawn. If you want to get hot about this, you’ve chosen the wrong forum.
As has been established, players won’t play for the national team. Indigenous players will play for an indigenous team, but it looks like although they’re willing to play for an indigenous team in national colours, the teams are putting pressure on them not to do so. It was a nice idea, but it failed. If the AFL’s serious about being a real sport (one of the requirements of which is having representative games), they need to take another alternative next time. One that’s worked in the other codes is to select the best team, then to give mandatory six-game recovery periods for injuries that prevent the selected players from taking part.
No-one doubts that it’s racism. No-one doubts that you oppose it. Still, it looks like it was a good idea that didn’t work and they need to take another tack next time.
No, it’s just not a harmless gimmick, it’s also racism that reminds us all of our different skin colour, and moves us further away from racial equality.
As the joke says, you’re not here for the hunting. I’m not going to play, and you’re certainly not going to get to play the offended and misunderstood party who just wanted to talk about Aussie Rules selection policy. Start a pit thread if you like, but I’m not going to help you in a sham debate.
KellyCriterion, your subtext was obvious from your OP. There are only two groups I’ve ever seen that make the argument that this sort of minority privilege is racist and they won’t stand for it:
trolls, and
advantaged racists who want to come off as better than inclusionists because they’re “not racist” and they only want equality, pretending not to understand that they realise that there’s a difference in equality of opportunity.
Your attempt to cloak your piece of cryptoracism in a pretend debate about AFL selection policy is even stupider than the usual pretexts: complaints that white people can’t use the word ‘nigger’ or that ethnic support groups are obviously racist. Really, you should call your parents and apologise for embarrassing their DNA like that.
I’m a little sorry that decafe took your bait and gave you the opportunity to have your celebration “I’m better than you racists” moment; but now that we’re here at least I get to call you out as a stupid, obviously racist, trolling piece of shit and to invite you to get a dog up yourself.
I ain’t sorry at all, KellyCriterion’s response pretty much outed the stupid
Apparently, we can hit a magic reset button to level everything out, ignore history completely and avoid thinking about context.
With many AFL players not even bothering to show up at all to represent their country in this, which is what lead to the Indigenous All stars representing Australia against Ireland in the first place, I can’t see the outrage
Just on your last point, what we have to remember is that they are not playing Aussie Rules but a bastard cousin made up by combining rules from two sports. There really is no upside in this, imagine if you had a game that was a combination of baseball and cricket and asked your top baseballers to play, don’t think they would be busting down the doors to play.
The pinnacle for any AFL player is to play in our local league, it is a unique indigenous game to Australia.
OH and to the OP, yes it is racist to have just an indigenous team, so what? I see no harm here an I would think that most Aussies would think “good on them” an applaud their efforts.
AFL is also based on partly the Marngrook game played before us white fellas came here.
There are also interstate games that AFL players can’t be arsed to play. Again, if you don’t have a rep system you’re a pastime, not a sport.
That AFL is based on/incorporates/relates to marn grook is as much a furphy as the idea that WIlliam Webb Ellis invented rugby from whole cloth - it was adapted from gaelic football and acknowledged as such at the time. The theories that Wills knew the game are generously described as ‘speculative’, and the original rules of Rules are much closer to ‘gaelic football on a cricket ground with a rugby ball’ than anything close to marn grook, which was basically an informal game of semi-competitive kick-to-kick.
hmm the never ending debate on the origins of AFL, leave that one for now.
I think it is hard with a game played in one country to have rep comps. Same could be said for Gaelic Football, hurling, NFL and a whole bunch of other sports at the senior level as the normal comp is the best quality.
As a lifelong GAA member, can I just take this opportunity to say that the International compromise rules series is a load of old cock and that the GAA should not be wasting our time with it.
Both the Aussie rules and rugby league versions of the State of Origin series disagree. As do City v Country matches.
Also, until relatively recently, both the rugby and cricket state sides were representative selections. I believe that the GAA competitions are/were representative competitions, too.
Hell, up until the late '80s, all the NSWRL matches were representative. If you wanted to play for another club, you had to move. I don’t know if the same was true for the VFL/AFL.
Also, how serious a Gandhian are you? He advised the Allied to put down their arms and let the Nazis kill them. On the theory that the only lasting harm would be to the Nazis.
