Aside from being the high point of the Melbourne sporting calendar, the AFL Grand Final also displays the cringeworthy spectacle of players from each team stumbling and mumbling their way through our national anthem, Advance Australia Fair.
On the other hand, it seems to me that football club songs are unsophisticated both lyrically and musically, specifically designed for ease of recall. Write a few verses of one or two syllable words, and set them to a well known public domain tune, and you have your song. It doesn't need to sung in tune, but suitable to be sung in unison as a team bonding exercise after winning a game, or possibly by drunken fans having a celebratory tipple.
Footballers have often been pilloried, sometimes deservedly for their lack of eloquence in speaking to the media and in other contexts, most notably by comedian Shaun Micallef in his hilarious Phillip Quist sketches on Full Frontal. In these sketches Micallef played Phillip Quist, a documentary film maker and art critic. Due to network staff shortages, he found himself having to work as a TV sports reporter, doing post-match interviews with footy players, a task which he considers beneath him. He demonstrates this with his arrogant, patronising interview technique, belittling the players for their inability to correctly use spoken English.
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