Hero formation and the myth of national identity in Australian football

Conference: Official heroes and contested guerrillas: the role models of football fans’ patriotism

Dates: 1 April 2022

Abstract:

Australia has a complex history but constructions of national identity have been particularly significant for the majority of its (White) population. White (1981) states that, while many nations go through a period of inventing national identity, Australia has long supported a whole industry devoted to informing Australians of who they are, and that a sense of Australian identity was first developed in the nineteenth century. Sporting success has been a significant part of this identity and the top sportspeople have risen to venerated status as a result.

This paper discusses sports hero formation in relation to national identity, arguing that it can be a critical component of the development of a hero. A netnographic approach, that encompassed a number of virtual spaces and methods of analyses, was utilised to examine the formation of sports heroes within the setting of a new professional Australian rules football team. Australian football can be a site for the construction of local, regional, and national identities. It is frequently subject to negotiations and struggles for power and acceptance, particularly with regards to who and what is considered Australian and the place of Aboriginal Australians.

Drawing upon the work of Joseph Campbell and Orrin E. Klapp, this paper contextualises the sporting hero in the wider narratives of hero typologies. It argues that the formation of sports heroes is shaped by established notions of national identity and longstanding mythological archetypes rather than heroes’ personal traits or deeds. Universal hero myths, furthermore, provide recognised narratives that frame the emergence of new heroes in otherwise very different societies.

Source: Manual