I deserve a better effort from you

I got my first request for a blog and unlike a successful rock band I can’t really afford not to do requests. The request came with a link to a Peter Fitzsimons article which to condense into half a sentence explained that Aussie international sporting teams are rubbish because Gen Y are a bunch of sooks.

I’m sure some of Simmos complaints are to do purely with things were better in my day nostalgia. Simmo even suggested players in his day wouldn’t have  gone out for hamburgers like the Wallabies or had a party like the swimmers because people in his day cared. With all due respect what a load of cobblers ya has-been. I’m sure if I trawled through the archives there would be an article by the same bandana wearing clown about how much better it was in his day when beer swilling characters added colour before everything was sanitized.

That one complaint aside the article did strike a chord with me, we (meaning Australia I’d never be good enough to mean me as part of an elite outfit even as orange cutter) seem to lack any spine in the international arena.  I was nodding my head in agreement as Simmmo laid bare our recent sporting incompetence and the metro sexual, self indulgent and petulant characters that brought us these shoddy displays. They are supposed to be representing the best to of us so how dare they be so rubbish? I deserve to sit on my couch and bask in the reflected glory.  

I don’t buy into the whole theory that certain generations are some how fundamentally different.  Much of what Gen Y are blamed for is a reflection of being young, but, to a degree there also has to be an effect that the current shape of society has on the natural bell curve personalities. That is why there were no hipsters when you had to work to feed your family from eight and went to war at eighteen, it was no good cracking it at your mum for taking the sticker off your flat cap back then.

So I’m not blaming gen Y for not breaking a leg in pursuit of a competent performance in a friendly against Brazil or for playing meaningless tournaments for the Delhi Donkeys rather than preparing for a friggin test match..well maybe a little spoilt brats. It is a reflection of a society where every kid wins, no one is made to work for praise and people are told they are the most important person in the world. It raises a society where these spoilt young talents chase a dollar rather than team glory, drop their bundle when things get tough and pursue selfish interests to the detriment of the greater good. If you had a choice of working in a coal mine or bowling for Australia you tended to be a bit more grateful for the opportunity, it seems people now arrive at the peak of sport in this country as if they have a birth right to be there. Don’t this generation owe it to me and all the other hopeless, lazy, cynics  to risk their health, push their limits (if illegally just don’t get caught) and sacrifice their earning potential so I can get that short lived joy of seeing Aussie victory.