That's Not My Team

As the opening line to Nine's Friday Night Football theme says, 'I'm a footy fan'.

But I'm no fan of the Sydney Bulldogs whose behaviour constantly brings the game into disrepute.

And as a Queenslander, I'm also no fan of Nine's commentary team. Ray Warren is the best caller of the game around but the Sydney-centric and anti-Queenslander bias shown by him and his offsiders is legendary to the point where one gasped in disbelief during the recent State of Origin decider when they protested refereeing calls against the Sunshine State team.

But one was additionally disturbed last night at the relish with which they spoke of Bulldogs aggression in a match against St George-Illawarra that resulted in one St George player being knocked unconscious and stretchered off the field and, in a separate incident, two Bulldogs players on report for a dangerous tackle (lifting a tackled player's legs over his head and driving him down onto the back of his neck).

Commentator Gus Gould, former premiership winning Panthers coach, grizzles and moans constantly - it's his trademark - and one of his favourite whinges is how the game has changed since his day. Last night, he bemoaned the fact that in years gone by, the tackle that could have crippled St George's Colin Best would have earned the Dogs' Sonny Bill Williams and Reni Maitua a pat on the back as a good move.

Earlier in the game, Warren, Gould and Peter Sterling thought it was hilarious when the Bulldogs' Mark O'Meley lowered his shoulder so as to strike St George forward Corey Payne in the head, knocking him out.

Don't get me wrong - I'm as big a fan of the biff as anyone. There are, indeed, aspects of the on-field game that have been oversanitised.

But players such as O'Meley and Willie Mason take their aggression too far and Nine's commentary team would do well not to relish the Dogs' thuggery so much.

The team is already on the nose not only with fans of other teams in the NRL but also with many who don't give a damn about football but are fed up with hearing of bad behaviour by players.

The text messaging indiscretions of cricket's Shane Warne pale in comparison to the trouble league footballers get into on a regular basis and these days you can almost guarantee it's the Bulldogs who will grab most of that spotlight.

Two years running, members of the team were accused of gang rape at the same Coffs Harbour resort. The cases against the accused did not proceed due to lack of evidence in the fraught 'he said, she said' scenario of rape allegations. But the more recent of the two incidents resulted in job losses by club executives and a withdrawal of $1.5 million in sponsorships.

More recently, a Bulldogs player got away with it again after he made a joke about bombs on a plane flight that would have had Joe Public arrested:

Forward Nate Myles was overheard asking (Muslim) teammate Hazem El Masri as crew prepared for take-off: "Have you got the bombs strapped on?" The bomb jibe should have resulted in Myles being charged with a federal offence under new security laws.

The FAA is now asking Qantas why he wasn't.

-- Nick