Crows and Power clash deserves to take its place in pantheon of derbies

Tick-tock, tick-tock, the clock is edging ever closer to the only sporting show that matters in Adelaide this weekend. I am referring to the AFL Showdown between Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide, scheduled to be the first such dogfight at the revamped Adelaide Oval on Saturday afternoon. As an outsider looking in, I shall watch proceedings as a highly interested observer.  I’ve lived in Adelaide for eight years but don’t feel any spiritual allegiance to either side.  To  suddenly jump on a bandwagon just because it’s there smacks of a manufactured belonging. Besides, I am already spoken for – having watched the Sydney Swans  with initial bemusement but growing empathy during my days in the harbour city in the 1980s. Neither am I a tactical expert on Aussie Rules but this does not mean I won’t be  keeping  a keen eye on what unfolds in the Adelaide confrontation.  It has been fascinating to monitor the build-up to this historic encounter at a remodelled venue and wonder where it stands in terms of other global derby tussles in various sports.  So far, from what I have seen,  it doesn’t seem to have registered much attention in the national sporting media. Maybe Adelaide has a problem in that it seems too “nice” a place to generate any genuine sporting hostility. The eastern states often look down on the city as being total Hicksville. This week my good mate Jim Nixon, of ex-Sydney Morning Herald days, phoned up and during our conversation referred to Adelaide as the ‘big old country town.”  It’s what many folk in Sydney use as a reference point towards Adelaide.  It is never imparted with any malice just taken as read.  Melbourne fans have their own AFL traditions, which is probably what the Crows-Power collision lacks.  The Adelaide Showdown is a relatively recent phenomenon compared to the ancient suburb v suburb Melbourne inner city squabbles bubbling through the former VFL years. Melbourne people also take a more disparaging view of Adelaide when it comes to life in general. Only on Friday morning, the English comedian Sara Pascoe was the guest on the Triple J “Taking Five” segment with Zan Rowe. The Essex lady is in Australia for the Melbourne Comedy Festival.  She had appeared on a Melbourne radio station earlier that morning and told Zan that when she revealed her English dad lived in Adelaide, the whole station crew offered their sympathy. What a shame, nothing happens in Adelaide, they apparently told her. Of course, that isn’t true.  However, that’s the typical Melbourne angle and they probably take a similarly patronising stance towards the Showdown. Adelaide’s colossal game probably won’t rate a mention in the English media, but then again Australian Rules rarely does. And the Showdown would not register on the same plane in terms of passion as some of the malevolent English football derbies.  Besides the traditional blockbusters such as the Manchester and Merseyside dust-ups, there are hidden gems on the parochial calendar which the rest of the country is aware of.  My own personal experience is of the bile of the Blackburn v Burnley warfare.  However, there would hardly be cucumber sandwiches between rabid tribes when it’s Newcastle v Sunderland, Portsmouth v Southampton or Cardiff v Swansea.  Maybe it’s as well there will be sausage sizzles going on in Elder Park before the Adelaide showpiece. The rival fans will be able to mingle with, no doubt, the odd words exchanged. I think the expression is friendly banter.  However, stories of Crows fans meeting this week to compose chants and practise singing them like English football crowds is positively naff.  Such fervour is spontaneous and has evolved down decades from the now long-gone standing terraces .To try to whip up similar sparks in a couple of night-class forums is laughable.  Good intentions, but doomed to miss the mark. Anyway, who cares what I think. Who cares what the eastern states think, or the rest of the world thinks. Saturday afternoon is Adelaide’s big day. So let’s look on and hopefully enjoy a truly spirited spectacle. I can’t even take sides through my tipping interests.  This season I have joined two pubs’ tipping competitions – the Alma on Magill Road, as usual, and the Stag at the bottom of Rundle Street.  In supposedly close games, I will be hedging my bets by tipping one team in one pub’s stakes and the opposition in the other. That’s the case for the Showdown. No matter, I will relish the game anyway. There is nothing like a shouting match between neighbours to keep those involved at fever pitch and have the rest of us looking on like nosey-parkers. Great stuff…