An interesting window on a topic that has gripped me for... several minutes at least.

>>Supporting a football club is one activity that still allows individuals to combine with others in search of a collective purpose. For many people, their football team is crucial to their sense of identity.<<

Is this true? Can it possibly be the case that some people lead such empty lives that they rely on a football club for their sense of identity?

One saving grace is that there are actually very few individuals with such sad lives...

>>the supporters also failed to support the club in its time of need. A number of the home games in the club’s final years of competition attracted less than 10,000 people<<

Would it be impolite to suggest that these people "get a life"?

We're in a bad way as a society when an article such as this gets written with a straight face.

Or is someone having a lend here, and this is what passes for sophisticated Melbourne humour?

It is a shame that the Fitzroy football club fell apart and could no longer function. It was the last of the old style footy clubs that relied on volunteers to keep going.

However, it could not win games and it could not generate crowds. The amlagamation with Brisbane at least created an opportunity for the club to continue in a different form. They have gone on to win premierships and expand the game in Queensland.

For those who want the old style football club, there are plenty of smaller clubs in the VFL and other competitions, that operate the same way.

Phillip Mendes is right to raise for discussion the issue of the importance and the impact of the demise of the Fitzroy Football Club. Unfortunately the history of the death/murder of Fitzroy is still to be written and there is still no thorough analysis of the economic, social, cultural and other circumstances that led to the destruction of an institution that that had been a central part in the lives of generations of Melburnians. Nor has there been a like analysis of the impacts and the consequences of this and its meaning to those affected.

Commentators like the Pericles may rejoice in their lack of understanding and their ignorance of the importance of football club affiliation to those who lived through the destruction of an institution that was if not central to their lives, was a big part of it, and sneer at the importance of such bonds of affection and affiliation. Comments like "get a life" only indicate an elitist contempt for the popular culture pursuits of the "masses".

Any social and cultural history of Australia would at some stage have to come to terms with the importance of sport in general and Australian Rules Football in particular. The bloody destruction of Fitzroy is a legitimate site for analysis and social commentary.

Likewise, Mendes is right to raise the issue of the need for recognition of what happened and perhaps the need for some atonement for the harm done to the many thousands who experienced the public execution of one of the key social and cultural institutions around which they ordered their lives.

Perhaps sorry might be too much to expect from the perpetrators of this act of social and cultural vandalism. Nevertheless, is about time that some questions were asked and Mendes deserves a great deal of credit for raising some of them.

yes, pericles, you're right. you are being impolite. and superior.

nice article. it was a shameful episode.

It seems to me that he problem with the demise of football clubs in the two major Australian competitions (AFL and NRL) is that clubs that are clearly not up to the standard of the competition have nowhere to go - nowhere to retreat to lick their wounds, regroup, and return stronger. No second division! While geography prevents a second division competition covering the entire area of either the AFL or the NRL a promotion and relegation similar to English soccer, system would benefit both competitions.

If the bottom two or three clubs each year were to be relegated, presumably to their State competition, and two or three of the top teams from the State competitions were to be promoted this would enliven the competitions and, perhaps more importantly, give teams which are facing extinction (I'm thinking Melbourne and North Sydney here - but perhaps Fitzroy in the past) a more tolerant enviromnent in which to rebuild.

The history of the English first division (now the Premier League) is repleat with teams having been relegated returning only a few years later and performing very well. Far better to have teams and clubs with long and glorious histories to live to play in a lower division competition than to have then fade away forever.

Dockers and West Coast Eagles, BEWARE.
The Vics would love nothing more than to bury the lot of youse.
socratease

Pericles.. did my 'snipe' meter just give a flick ? BB seems to have nibbled at your ankle there.. for the very thing I'm often being accused of :) Aah..all good things come to those patient enuf to wait.

See you back on 'interpreting'.... I should apply those principles to your contribution here.

'People who support footy clubs are losers who need to get a life' (paraphrase)

Interpretation "Pericles is superior" :)

They say "footy" is a virtual religion in Victoria.. and it seems from the comments that many are drawn to the 'collective identity' ..perhaps the one they lost when they abandoned Christ and such things as "where two or three are gathered in my name.. I am there in the midst of them"

Nah.. much more fun to scull a few cold ones,yell at the umpy, abuse the opposition, and ogle the chicks....

<<Today we live in an increasingly individualistic society in which the old communal ties of class, workplace, geographical proximity and religious affiliation have broken down.>>

I feel so blessed that I DON'T live in that world.. I have tribe, fellowship, love, and community...and most of all, hope. We are a culture within a culture, and our family extends world wide, across race, culture, language and colour.. There is no denominational barrier to beautiful fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ.
The barriers if any are personality based.

<<But the forced demise of Fitzroy will always remain a stain upon the competition.>>

Such is life when a society abandons those values which formerly glued it together. .. "Time to say sorry" ? If they were sorry they would not have 'killed' the club...and after 'sorry' it will still be dead

Odd place to find you Boaz, but I guess any upturned milk crate will do when you have a sermon to deliver.

But you really shouldn't move too far from your comfort zone.

>>'interpreting'.... I should apply those principles to your contribution here.
'People who support footy clubs are losers who need to get a life' (paraphrase)<<

If that is what you took away from my post, then no wonder your interpretation thread went south in disarray.

My point - which even a cursory reading would reveal - was that society must be in a pretty bad way for - and don't forget, this is a quote from the article, not from me - for someone's football team to be "crucial to their sense of identity"

I confess that there was more than a slight sneer in my post, for which I am contrite, but I do not resile from the point I was making.

Not, Boaz, that "People who support footy clubs are losers who need to get a life".

But "People who rely on a football club for their sense of identity should get a life" - i.e., they should make a conscious effort to develop interests that do not rely on the antics of eighteen blokes on a paddock of a weekend.

For the record, when I lived in Melbourne I barracked for Collingwood, and regularly stood on the terraces at Vic Park. Since I have been in Sydney, I take my son to the Swans. We think Roos is a genius, are in awe of Big Bad Barry, and think Goodsie walks on water.

But we don't expend any real emotional energy on them when we're not actually at the SCG.

pericles, contrition noted.

in fact i agree, that "crucial to their sense of identity" is either overstating it, or a cause for concern, or both. probably both. but people do get enjoyment and meaning from their clubs. it's arbitrary meaning, but it's still meaning. if you stood on the terraces at victoria park then you know this is true.

the thing about the demise of fitzroy was it was so unnecessary and so calculated. and so thoroughly disrespectful of the meaning that the club did hold for its fans.