The Rambling Couch Sitter’s Top Five Least Favourite Sports Teams

Here are my Top Five Least Favourite Sports Teams in order. These are teams that have had a large influence on everything I dislike about sport. I can never truly hate any team..... well maybe one or two from this list can be put into the “Hate” category.

 

Port Adelaide Football Club (AFL) – If there is one team I truly hate it is the Port Adelaide Football Club (PAFC), they are represented by the Magpies in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and the Power in the Australian Football League (AFL). This is a team that tried to turn its back on the SANFL in 1990 to join the lucrative AFL competition much to the outrage of South Australia. It resulted in the Adelaide Crows being created by the SANFL to counter the push by Port Adelaide. The culture at PAFC is very much “us versus them” and the socio-demographic of the supporters is working class which further fuels this attitude. 

It was this attitude that drove them in 1990 and if they looked at the “big picture” they would have seen that there were some Victorian clubs in real strife which may have lead to a true club competition in the AFL rather than just an expended Victorian Football League calling itself the AFL. They are often referred to as the collective brain cell by yours truly. So much is my hatred to this club whenever I see supporters in the street I will mutter under my breath “Wharfie Scum” and a trip to Alberton Oval is always a pleasant experience.

Melbourne Victory (A-League) - Rank second and are fast tracking themselves towards the “hate” category. Captained by Kevin Muscat this team plays tough football which is good, but it is often too tough. Their team is arrogant and their supporters are at times scary especially when in a group. So bad is the rivalry between the Victory, Sydney FC and Adelaide United that the visiting supporters are given a police escort while walking to the Victory home ground. Whenever the Victory fall behind there is a great tension in the stadium. The players start whining to the referee and the fans will just whine.... Quite simply, they are very sore losers!!

Sri Lanka Cricket Team – It was tough to decide between third and fourth, but Sri Lanka gets the nod purely around the “Murali” chucking furore. Murali was called for throwing during the Boxing Day test in 1996 based on the Laws of Cricket. Usually this meant that the bowler was banished and never came back to the game until they sorted out their action or never came back at all. The problem was that the Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga thought that his bowler was victimised and added fuel to the fire saying that the call was racially motivated. 

This incident threatened to split world cricket with the powerful Asian block of countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) and the West Indies threatening to break away from the ICC. The potential loss of revenue resulted in the ICC reviewing the laws around when a bowler is deemed to be throwing and the bowler is referred to coaches for “corrective action”. Murali went on to take 500-600 more wickets to become the highest test wicket taker of all time. Not bad for someone who should be branded a “chucker” and banished from the game.

Italian Football Team – are fourth due to their performance against Australia at the 2006 World Cup. Fabio Grosso did a nice little dive in the penalty box just before full time to earn Italy a penalty. The penalty was converted and Italy won 1-0. Italy was already down to 10 men after Marco Materazzi was sent off in the 50^th minute and Australia due to their superior fitness probably would have won had the game gone to extra time. The referee decision to award the penalty was considered controversial. There was also an incident earlier in the play that the referee should have awarded a free kick but this was missed and hence no advantage was given. If the goal had been scored from that then well done, but scoring one after the dive is sacrilege. 

The Italians did go on to win the World Cup, so the decision ended up being very crucial. After the game, Grosso maintained he was fouled, saying, "I tried to avoid contact, I got past one defender but then my leg got stuck in between the other defender's legs and I had no option but to go down. My aim was to go all the way." But of course Grosso would say something along those lines.

St Kilda (AFL) – Scrape into the Top 5 more from their off field antics rather than their on-field play. While footballers in general have a reputation for being “lads”, the reaction that St Kilda initially had to a 17 year old girl releasing nude photos of some of their players was overdone and a public relations nightmare. The incident was the result of revenge by the girl over the treatment by some of the players towards her. There were rumours of her being pregnant and losing the baby amongst other things. St Kilda threatened to sue her for a large amount of money that she would be paying off well into her 30’s. The morality of the players was never questioned by the club and tragically the girl’s family have disowned her. It is one of those situations where there is no winner and it was clear that the girl needed help. Recently the club has agreed to provide accommodation for the girl in exchange for the photos being removed from the internet. The right outcome has been achieved but the Saints have lost respect from the incident.

This is not the first time that St Kilda have been involved in such an incident. Players Stephen Milne and Leigh Montagna in 2004 were the at the centre of a police investigation of the rape of a woman. No charges were laid, however in June 2010 a former detective who was the lead detective in the case made claims that the case collapsed under internal pressure from within the Victorian police force and powerful club backers as well as another detective alleging the cost of the case was a factor.

Other teams to miss out on the top 5 were Arsenal, Glasgow Celtic, Croatia and Manchester United