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This piece isn't on the web anywhere that I can find (I've typed it up). I think it's from todays Canberra Times (I found it in a liftout section on the table with no markings/date).
The Manuka Showdown
Australian Football
By Scott Walsh
There are few bigger contrasts in the AFL that that which exists between the Kangaroos and Sydney.
On one hand are the perennial battlers, scrappers and fighters from the modest Arden Street ground in North Melbourne, with their small but dedicated band of die-hard supporters.
On the other are the silver-tailed Swans, from "Club Chardonnay", decked out in comparatively lavish surrounds inside the Sydney Cricket Ground, with their fair-weather supporters and history of flashy full-forwards.
The Kangaroos stem from the tribal environment of suburban Melbourne football, dating back to when they joined the then Victorian Football League in 1925 with Footscray and Hawthorn.
Although the Swans are technically among the oldest AFL clubs, having joined the competition in 1897 as South Melbourne, their transplant north to Sydney in 1982 was based mainly on cashing in on the burgeoning sports television market in Australia's most populated state. Their image is of a franchise, rather than a fair-dinkum footy club.
For the Kangaroos, even their former team nickname - the Shinboners - told a tale of their tough-as-nails heritage.
Butchers would hang beef shinbones from their shops painted in the club's royal blue and white colours to rally support for their suburban team.
Another theory behind the name was that the rugged, working-class players would brazenly - and illegally - swing their legs at opponents' shinbones in the clinches.
Despite their humble background, which is still evident at their Arden Street training ground today, the Kangaroos were rightly dubbed the team of the 1990s. Two of their four premierships came in that decade, in 1996 and 1999, thanks largely to the domination of a core of players including Wayne Carey, Corey McKernan, Glenn Archer and Anthony Stevens.
All that in spite of one of the lowest membership bases and one of the poorest budgets in the AFL.
The direct contrast is the team from the harbour city, in the red and white jumper brandishing a silhouette of the Opera House.
Perhaps that emblem on their chest, while a fitting snapshot as Sydney's and Australia's most recognisable feature, also best explains Sydney's affluent and "yuppie" supporter-base perception.
The idea is that hot-and-cold Swans fans go along to the SCG if the winter weather is fine, rugged up in their cashmere coats for a three-hour spectacle. It is a social, carnival atmosphere that is an alternative to a night absorbing the Sydney Symphony Orchestra or sipping a Moet on Darling Harbour.
That image gained a full head of steam in 1985 when Dr Geoffrey Edelstein took over the ailing show with his pink helicopter, cheerleaders and the high leaping, blond-haired promotional frontman in his skin-tight shorts, Warwick Capper.
In modern times a pair of ex-St Kilda bad boys - full forwards Tony Lockett and Barry Hall - have helped endear the Swans to their public, and slowly shake off any notions of being the pretty losers.
In comparison Kangaroo fans, and other footy-blooded fans like them, pay their money to ride every bump and tackle, celebrate every goal, jeer every poor umpiring decision and go hoarse voicing their free-flowing advice - rain, hail or shine and win, lose or draw.
The Swans as a Sydney team only last year - with a narrow loss to eventual premier Brisbane in the preliminary final - distanced themselves from the stigma of being a young team still earning its right to be considered a genuine threat.
All three of their premierships came when the club was still based at South Melbourne, and not one has come in the past 70 years. Under coach Paul Roos, early indications are that a fourth isn't far away.
In the 21st century, a premiership generally sends membership queues and club money tills into a frenzy.
But an underlying motivation to win a flag surely pervades the Sydney fans.
Imagine the frief it would cause the wholf of Melbourne's football-mad fraternity if the Swans - little more than an easy-beat basketcase 10 years ago - could beat all 10 of Victoria's teams at their own game.
It would be another blow for Melbourne, already frustrated as Australia's second-biggest city.
The Manuka Showdown
Australian Football
By Scott Walsh
There are few bigger contrasts in the AFL that that which exists between the Kangaroos and Sydney.
On one hand are the perennial battlers, scrappers and fighters from the modest Arden Street ground in North Melbourne, with their small but dedicated band of die-hard supporters.
On the other are the silver-tailed Swans, from "Club Chardonnay", decked out in comparatively lavish surrounds inside the Sydney Cricket Ground, with their fair-weather supporters and history of flashy full-forwards.
The Kangaroos stem from the tribal environment of suburban Melbourne football, dating back to when they joined the then Victorian Football League in 1925 with Footscray and Hawthorn.
Although the Swans are technically among the oldest AFL clubs, having joined the competition in 1897 as South Melbourne, their transplant north to Sydney in 1982 was based mainly on cashing in on the burgeoning sports television market in Australia's most populated state. Their image is of a franchise, rather than a fair-dinkum footy club.
For the Kangaroos, even their former team nickname - the Shinboners - told a tale of their tough-as-nails heritage.
Butchers would hang beef shinbones from their shops painted in the club's royal blue and white colours to rally support for their suburban team.
Another theory behind the name was that the rugged, working-class players would brazenly - and illegally - swing their legs at opponents' shinbones in the clinches.
Despite their humble background, which is still evident at their Arden Street training ground today, the Kangaroos were rightly dubbed the team of the 1990s. Two of their four premierships came in that decade, in 1996 and 1999, thanks largely to the domination of a core of players including Wayne Carey, Corey McKernan, Glenn Archer and Anthony Stevens.
All that in spite of one of the lowest membership bases and one of the poorest budgets in the AFL.
The direct contrast is the team from the harbour city, in the red and white jumper brandishing a silhouette of the Opera House.
Perhaps that emblem on their chest, while a fitting snapshot as Sydney's and Australia's most recognisable feature, also best explains Sydney's affluent and "yuppie" supporter-base perception.
The idea is that hot-and-cold Swans fans go along to the SCG if the winter weather is fine, rugged up in their cashmere coats for a three-hour spectacle. It is a social, carnival atmosphere that is an alternative to a night absorbing the Sydney Symphony Orchestra or sipping a Moet on Darling Harbour.
That image gained a full head of steam in 1985 when Dr Geoffrey Edelstein took over the ailing show with his pink helicopter, cheerleaders and the high leaping, blond-haired promotional frontman in his skin-tight shorts, Warwick Capper.
In modern times a pair of ex-St Kilda bad boys - full forwards Tony Lockett and Barry Hall - have helped endear the Swans to their public, and slowly shake off any notions of being the pretty losers.
In comparison Kangaroo fans, and other footy-blooded fans like them, pay their money to ride every bump and tackle, celebrate every goal, jeer every poor umpiring decision and go hoarse voicing their free-flowing advice - rain, hail or shine and win, lose or draw.
The Swans as a Sydney team only last year - with a narrow loss to eventual premier Brisbane in the preliminary final - distanced themselves from the stigma of being a young team still earning its right to be considered a genuine threat.
All three of their premierships came when the club was still based at South Melbourne, and not one has come in the past 70 years. Under coach Paul Roos, early indications are that a fourth isn't far away.
In the 21st century, a premiership generally sends membership queues and club money tills into a frenzy.
But an underlying motivation to win a flag surely pervades the Sydney fans.
Imagine the frief it would cause the wholf of Melbourne's football-mad fraternity if the Swans - little more than an easy-beat basketcase 10 years ago - could beat all 10 of Victoria's teams at their own game.
It would be another blow for Melbourne, already frustrated as Australia's second-biggest city.
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