Anti-football brigade have become boring

To quote Kel Kimble from the 1990s TV show ‘Kenan and Kel’, “Awwww here it goes!”

The latest pearls of wisdom from a certain uber-sensitive, question me-and-I’ll-block-you Herald Sun blogger - 'journalist' is used far too loosely these days - have unfortunately prompted the desired reaction from fans of the round-ball game.

The party line that seems to be trotted out by the “This wouldn’t happen in AFL” brigade is that football fans are blindly defending the sport, ignoring the real issue at hand which is the fan violence that took place before the Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers match on December 29th last year.

That couldn’t be further from the truth; all it takes is a quick look through the #MVCvWSW hashtag from the game in question to see fans from all over the country having a go at the Red and Black Bloc for the flares and whatever else they used on the night.

The video of the fans fighting pre-game also went viral and guess what? Yep, that was also roundly condemned.

Yet here we are, 10 days later, having to repeat the same points ad nauseam because somebody with an obvious agenda against the game has decided they need to get a few clicks.

To put it simply, it has become boring. The Football Sack is bored of it (Matt Marsden’s column has gone down the satire road to break the monotony). Fans across the country are bored of it.

Amongst all the bluster and aimless writing, there have been no suggestions offered on how football should clamp down on its problem.

There’s only so many times you can say “Your game is inferior and you should know that it’ll always be inferior” before people cast a dismissive yawn in your general direction.

Indeed, we covered the same ground just eleven months ago when the same Herald Sun blogger climbed aboard a pedestal and spoke down to the football community and its army of trolls (on a side note, I’d love to be paid to re-hash the same content twice)

The thing is, Football Federation Australia has acted. There have been charges laid against both clubs, so what more do the finger pointers want at this stage? It appears they just want to be outraged about something that they never actively attend.

I also hate a lot of things. The Big Bang Theory and Glee, for example, really piss me off. However, I haven’t written a purposely antagonistic blog saying that anyone who watches them and defends their existence is delusional. I'd like to think I’m a bit bigger than that.

Even if I do fire out the odd snotty tweet about something I have a dislike for, it’s an informed opinion. I’ve watched the show, listened to the music or read the article. You can't help but wonder how many times the naysayers have actually put their lives at risk by sitting in AAMI Park.

I feel sorry for the over-reactors who say that they will no longer take their kids to games based on something that happened several kilometres from the stadium. There was a fight at the bottle shop down the road from me the other day, I better not go to the pub again

At this stage, we’re in a holding pattern. Victory and Wanderers will face off again later this month and all eyes will be on the game, fingers hovering over the ‘R’, ‘I’, ‘O’ and ‘T’ keys.

Until then, it’s best to ignore the haters when they have nothing constructive to add.