Footy legend Graham Cornes has compared Aussies’ love affair with the Socceroos to a holiday romance that ‘lacks substance’ and claimed football ‘is a better game to play than to watch’ in a column about the national team’s chances at the World Cup.
The veteran of more than 369 matches for Glenelg, North Melbourne and South Adelaide praised the Socceroos’ efforts at the tournament, where they scored a stunning 2-0 underdog victory against Turkey and a draw against Paraguay to progress to the knockout stages.
However, he also pointed out the fleeting nature of the spotlight Aussies put on the team once every four years as they compete on the sport’s biggest stage.
‘For the briefest of times we even fall in love with it [soccer],’ Cornes wrote for News Corp.
‘But like that holiday romance, it lacks substance; reaches a peak of passion, then fades as life resumes its normal cadence.
‘But for those few weeks, we are captivated.’
Aussie Rules footy legend Graham Cornes (pictured with wife Nicole) loves what he’s seeing from the Socceroos at the World Cup, but believes fans’ infatuation with them won’t last
The former Adelaide Crows’ coach said Aussie supporters’ current love affair with the team will fade once again because it ‘lacks substance’
Cornes praised stars like Nestory Irankunda (pictured) but pointed out that the team lacks genuine household names
The 78-year-old said watching the Socceroos sharing the stage with superstars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo makes national pride swell, but our infatuation with the team is limited.
‘Sadly, unless you are a fanatical fan, the Aussie names are not household. We know a couple of them,’ Cornes said.
‘We’d seen Nestory Irankunda in action here in Adelaide but he wasn’t well known to the world. We knew Matt Ryan, the goalkeeper. After all, he has played for the Socceroos 104 times and has been the captain.
‘But unless you were a complete aficionado, you would not have heard of Patrick Beach, let alone believe he would be the starting goalkeeper against Turkey in our first game of the tournament.’
Cornes went on to praise the Socceroos for reflecting multicultural Australia with the make-up of the team, before reflecting on why the sport hasn’t made bigger inroads in the country despite the national side first appearing in the World Cup back in 1974.
‘Always there was an undercurrent of belief that Australian soccer could be as popular and match it with the other football codes,’ he said.
‘That may prove to be right but they’ve been saying for more than 50 years now that soccer will take over.
‘The reality of soccer is that it’s a better game to play than to watch.’
Cornes said football has been an empty threat to ‘take over’ Aussie sport for 50 years
Despite the quality of what Jackson Irvine (pictured) and his teammates have produced at the World Cup, Cornes believes the sport isn’t a great spectacle
Watching the Socceroos at this World Cup has been a big attraction for a record number of Aussies.
Their draw with Paraguay last Friday broke new ground when 4.84 million tuned in to watch the clash on SBS, making it the most-watched World Cup match in the broadcaster’s history.
SBS claims the cumulative total for World Cup viewers sits at 13.9 million, ‘which means almost half of Australia’s population has watched some of the tournament’.
However, Cornes’ stance that the attention is only fleeting is backed up by how the game rates when the global spotlight fades and the A-League is the peak of the sport Down Under.
The top-flight competition is notorious for struggling badly for TV ratings, despite recording growth in recent years.
