I know exactly why football is turning its back on welcome to country. The dam could be about to burst, writes PETER VAN ONSELEN
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The Melbourne Storm has moved to limit the number of games it opens with a welcome to country next season. The decision has received both applause and condemnation, such has become the polarising nature of the traditional ceremony. Personally, I don't have a problem with performing a welcome (or acknowledgment) to country before NRL games. Nor do I particularly mind if anyone hosting an event feels inclined to commence proceedings with one either.
![[Brendan Kerin, a cultural educator with Sydney's Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, gave a blunt Welcome to Country at the AFL which he said was not for white people]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/23/93161675-14211789-image-a-15_1734650838968.jpg)
Whether any occasion is significant enough or not to do one is a subjective assessment which ultimately should be made by whoever is hosting the event. What's interesting is that this fairly simple recognition of Indigenous heritage has become as controversial as it now is.
![[Welcome to countries are now commonplace at football games. Fans are broadly supportive of them but concerns are sometimes raised if they come across as too 'preachy'. (Pictured: Melbourne Storm players at AAMI Park on September 27)]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/23/93161559-14211789-image-a-16_1734651362576.jpg)
Politicians, activists and the smug self-righteous have to share the blame for that. They can't simply put the backlash down to mainstream intolerance, because that's dead wrong. Firstly, the divided opinion isn't about race. We watch the All Blacks perform their Hakka prior to matches and love it. Australians have embraced other Pacific nations doing similar ceremonies as the international game has grown.
The problem with welcomes and acknowledgments to country is the sometimes preachy nature of how they are delivered. Also, when every single speaker at an event does one - which is entirely unnecessary, by the way - they lose their significance and start to grate.
