“Ah, mate.”
Feel free to read these few words in Ange Postecoglou’s voice. Even if you don’t have any great affinity with soccer, you’ll know it. One of his achievements over these past three years with Celtic, and most recently Tottenham Hotspur, has been to regularise his Australian outlook and accent on the world football stage.
Ange Postecoglou at the helm of Tottenham Hotspur.Credit: Getty Images
His Premier League press conferences have become compulsory viewing, win, lose or draw – just like Ross Lyon’s at St Kilda. Oops, here’s the trap. Now that Postecoglou is making a fleeting return trip to Melbourne with his all-but-conquering Tottenham, he and we stand to run foul of the “No Sherrin” rule.
The No Sherrin rule is not an official statute, but it is written on the hearts of Australian soccer people. It concerns the way that when international teams visit these shores, the AFL manages to insinuate some artefact of their game – most commonly a Sherrin – into the imagery and dialogue.
Not without reason, it irks soccer stalwarts (so does calling it soccer, but it’s used here to distinguish one code of football from another).
Football Australia does not have the power to outlaw this practice,........