101 Things I Love About Sydney

With the current shitstorm about the Melbourne Storm breaching their salary cap and losing all their trophys filling our airwaves it's worth noting that really, no else in the country (let alone the world) probably cares. Ever try explaning the state-by-state break down of our football codes to an American? Their eyes glaze over like a Dunkin donut and they the subject soon changes to Superbowl half time shows. The whole idea of a salary cap in the land of the free is a concept about as foreign as universal healthcare or nationalised public broadcasting.

In Melbourne too, no one probably cares. I bet it's on page 14 in The Age, next to the ad for a new slow-core, shoe-gazing post-folk gig at the community cafe latte gallery (with potato cakes) - accessible by privatised public transport.

Rugby League is a predominantly New South Welshmans infatuation (the league itself was called the NSWRL up until as recently as 1994), and the rest of the country is pretty much Aussie Rules dominated (except with the World Cup is on, and then we all love football football - or soccer as Americans call it).

And with a second Sydney AFL team on the way, the Melbourne Storm fiasco could possibly send a lot of League converts back to other codes in all the southern states. So get ready for a return of the North Sydney Bears! And heaven forbid The Footy Show and Matty Johns might have to actually say something for a change!

Keep loving your Rugby League Sydneysiders, you're the only ones.

The best thing about Rugby League remains Tina Turner's brief infatuation with the sport in 1989/1990 as demonstrated in this spontaneous show of appreciation:

And Rugby League player aren't known for their political stances either, as Mal Meninga shows us: