A TRUE sports fan does not watch games to see the favourites cheerfully wipe the floor with the underdogs again and again.
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The glorious uncertainty of sport is that, on their day, any side can beat any side. The ending is never certain, even though pundits, Monday morning experts and gambling agencies would have you believe otherwise.
It’s what keeps us interested, what keeps eyeballs trained on fields, stadiums and televisions as athletes chase a ball around.
The beautiful uncertainty of sport is Leicester City’s win in the English Premier League, Steven Bradbury’s gold in the Winter Olympics, the Japanese beating the South Africans in the Rugby World Cup.
It’s Tendulkar and Dravid’s 376-run partnership to turn the tide and win the Test after India were forced to follow-on against Australia in the Test match in Kolkata and Western Division’s boys from the bush winning the rugby league Amco Cup.
Long-suffering Cronulla Sharks fans must have wondered, over the years, if their moment of glorious uncertainty had come and gone.
They made a grand final within their first decade in the competition, but lost. They drew their second grand final, but were soundly defeated in the rematch. They made a Super League grand final, during some of the game’s darkest days, but lost that as well.
They have had their class players, their class coaches, their minor premierships. They had their years when they were thought to be one of the best sides in the competition and their years when they overachieved, but did not overachieve enough to make the fairytale complete.
And now the Sharks, and their famously patient fans, stand on the cusp of an historic first premiership as they play the Melbourne Storm in the NRL decider on Sunday.
Rugby league fans tuning in to Sunday's grand final, who do not support either side, will be hoping for more of that glorious uncertainty this weekend.
History says Melbourne, oozing big-game experience and boasting future Immortals, will be untroubled by the Sharks, who are weighed down by the burden of history.
But true sports fans will be hoping for a game that’s in doubt until the final moments, where each side has every opportunity and both the victors and defeated can hold their head high at the end.
In sport, as in life, you never know what’s going to happen – and that’s what makes both so endlessly fascinating.