Anthony Mundine – The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

Please only read this if you understand sarcasm.

Anthony Mundine and Rugby League (see below for boxing)

If you’re reading this I am going to take a stab and say that you don’t like ‘The Man’. This is fine. I mean he has hurt so many people over the years, just like Julian Assange…Some people would probably even classify him in the same context as Eddie Maguire, Earl Page College or Sarah Palin, such are his crimes against humanity. Now you could hate him because he hogged the ball and bombed a try so St George didn’t win the Grand Final. Not that any player has ever done this previously or since. Shame on him! I know I hate the fact that he dramatically assisted the Dragons' run to the Grand Final, with a hat trick against the Sharks in the Major Semi-Final, I loathe him for that, and the fact he remained injury free the whole time and was signed by St George when he was 15.

What disgusted me the most was when he represented the Kangaroos in the under 19’s that beat Great Britain and when he played three games for NSW in the drawn State of Origin series. I loathed when he won a Grand Final with Brisbane in the Super League years.

Now people will probably point out that Anthony thought he would have played more representative football if he wasn’t aboriginal. I mean of course he was the only aboriginal player to suggest this- not. To make matters worse Laurie Daley later revealed (after he played representative football) that he was Aboriginal and he was the person that Anthony thought he was better than and Brad Fittler, in N.S.W. Now this is all well and good and you could say Anthony was an idiot for suggesting such a proposition. When we look at the statistics and recent allegations we see some home truths, since 1980, 30 percent of players who have played for the Maroons have been Aboriginal. http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/state-of-origin/indigenous-stars-get-better-deal-in-queensland-says-mundine-20100613-y63k.html . When it is all said and done Greg Inglis is from N.S.W. and played his first junior representative football in N.S.W. However, he has stated that he wanted to play for Queensland and has no desire to play for N.S.W. Tom Learoyd-Lahrs, the only remaining indigenous player in the NSW squad after Timana Tahu walked out (and supported by the people who voted in a poll http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/state-of-origin/indigenous-stars-get-better-deal-in-queensland-says-mundine-20100613-y63k.html ) also wanted to play for the Maroons but was knocked back. Why would aboriginal players, born and bred in N.S.W. not want to play for our State? Surely, there are accommodation and culture issues at work here. But hey let’s all remember Anthony Mundine’s rants and falsehoods and I mean it’s not like Queensland has been beating us lately or anything….right? Over the years we did choose to play Nathan Blacklock, Merritt, Beau Champion and Preston Campbell right…mmm No we didn’t. Apart from Lahrs and Tahu, Greg Bird and Jamal Idris are the only other aboriginal players to represent N.S.W. since 2006. I know when I was growing up the aboriginal players allowed us to be way more competitive than we would have otherwise been. All I had to do was run fast and step occasionally, happy to accept any off load that came my way in open space, which 99.9 percent of the time came from one of my aboriginal friends. One of them even went on to play for Souths. 

Anthony Mundine and Boxing

Anthony Mundine is not as good a boxer as he says he is. But he is not a bad boxer. If he were a bad boxer he wouldn’t have won any fights or beaten Danny Green or challenged Mikkel Kessler. I also give him credit for not being one of those sports people that retires and comes back. Danny Green stated "You won't see me come back. I am turning down millions and millions of dollars ... a lot of fighters stay in the game too long and that is not going to be me."…” 'I'm not going to be one of these dumb fighters that come out of retirement”. Thanks for helping me point out the obvious Danny. I’ll stop quoting you now, but I could go on.

Anthony is 36 years of age and is getting long in the tooth for a boxer. He is probably in a lot better shape than most footballers that retire who are 36. To put things into perspective Darren Lockyer is 33. I expect both sports are pretty brutal on your body. He also respects other boxers in proper interviews http://www.fightnews.com/Boxing/qa-anthony-mundine-2-68869 . But you wouldn’t know it, with what the media portrays him as. It was interesting to see him after the press conference with Garth Wood before the fight. Obviously, at the Press Conference Mundine was talking himself up, just like a lot of American Boxers do- after the Press Conference Mundine was joking around with Garth Wood, but that doesn’t make for good television.  

I think a lot of Australian’s don’t like him because 1) They don’t like Aussies who mouth off 2) They have tall poppy syndrome 3) They’re racist but won’t admit it (if you go on youtube- count how many racist remarks are made on any Mundine clip). It almost makes me want to go back to Canada, which like Australia has a less than impressive record with their First Nations people, but seem less inclined to mouth off about aboriginals in everyday language, for no apparent reason. When I was overseas people would ask me, ‘I have heard Australian people are pretty racist’ etc. These people didn’t know a lot about Australia but one thing they had heard was that we are racist! What am I supposed to say? It’s only a minority of people? It was all in all pretty embarrassing for me to admit that a lot of Australian’s were racist in comparison to other places I have been.   

Does the end justify the means? He is a brilliant self-promoter who knows the value in polarising opinions in order to separate himself from the rest of the pack. People are fascinated by him. People can’t escape him. He is a marketing genius. He doesn’t care if you buy tickets to see him get smashed or watch him succeed. He’s laughing all the way to the bank. Now, if he didn’t talk himself up like Ali would he be selling as many tickets and for as high as they are? Of course not! Do you think he would be able to do as much for the Charities he works with if he didn’t promote himself to make more money? Of course not! You could say, well he makes a lot of money so he should support Charities. But it has been stated by leading Charity organisations that they don’t even call some rich Northern Suburbs of Sydney but tailor their calls to the Western Suburbs, because they are more likely to give. http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/12/23/costello-name-and-shame-not-the-way-to-the-richs-pockets/ He has done a lot of work in South Sydney. For this I am thankful.

He creates interest and in turn people become interested in him. Garth Wood ended up being on Main Event instead of the Greek Club. Only recently 'Choc' at very short notice made himself available to attend a fundraising night for the Steve Waugh Foundation where he addressed a large group of people and then went around and personally met each one. Waugh likes him because he is a good person that decides to act like an idiot to make us more aware of him. It’s not like Waugh likes everyone- I’m sure he doesn’t send Ranatunga Christmas cards.  He often hands out free tickets to his fights at great expense. He lets you into his South Sydney gym to watch and learn to fight- so people aren’t on the streets. When Mundine was playing for the Brisbane Broncos, he had a driver. The driver's daughter was living on the streets of Sydney and taking drugs when Mundine moved back to town. He found her, took her to his home and put her through a detox program, nursing her back to health. http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/our-most-divisive-star/2007/03/10/1173478728247.html He doesn’t drink or take drugs. He is passionate about children receiving opportunities and preaches the virtues of staying away from drink and drugs.

It is little wonder that people like Steve Waugh and Danny Weidler like him.