If Michael Ennis was a hamburger, what kind of hamburger would he be?
I guess you’d say small. And not to everyone’s taste. But if you sold it at your shop, you’d love it.
Poor hamburger analogies aside, the Cronulla hooker has been on the end of a fair bit of bad press over the last week.
It all started when Ennis, after helping the Sharks to one of the gutsiest victories in the club’s history over Canberra in the qualifying final, was accused of mocking the Raiders’ fans viking clap on the field after full-time.
Firstly, a little context.
The Leader was fortunate enough to head south on Saturday to cover the clash at GIO Stadium. About 20kms out of Canberra on the Federal Highway was a bright green banner attached to an overhead bridge.
The target audience was clearly the Sharks fans heading to town from the shire for the game.
It read: “Raiders ‘89, ‘90, ‘94. Sharks HAHAHAHA.”
Another few k’s down the road was another banner. This one was more straight forward and to the point.
“Cronulla SUX.”
On arriving in Canberra it was obvious it was going to be one of those semi-finals to remember.
We knew it was going to be a sellout crowd, but by kick-off there were more than 25,000 fans packed into the ground. The locals and the two bays of travelling Sharks fans had created one of the most hostile and intimidating atmospheres I can remember at the footy.
It was great.
As part of that atmosphere, the Sharks players were made to wait on the ground for well over a minute as the Raiders fans produced their viking clap. Of course, when I say ‘their’, I mean the viking clap they shamelessly stole from Icelandic football fans who brought it to global attention at the European Championships earlier this year. And the idea of it was to intimidate and unsettle the Cronulla players.
Then there was the game itself. It was a breathtaking finals match. It had a bit of everything. A couple of great tries, a little bit of controversy, injuries and a grandstand finish.
Ennis said in the presser after the game that earlier in the day on the team’s walk they were heckled on the street by Canberra fans.
He didn’t whinge about it. And he didn’t really go into what was said. He just said it as fact. This is the kind of environment Cronulla players and fans had thrown at them in Canberra.
So what was Ennis’ crime that was so great that he copped a barrage of criticism from a high profile coach and a high profile ex-player this week?
At full-time, he went and took the piss out of the Canberra crowd and their ‘viking clap’. He gave back a little bit of the stick Cronulla players and fans had copped. Not in a malicious way. It was a bit of a laugh. It didn’t hurt anyone.
He literally clapped them back.
Because of his one-man viking clap, Ennis had to suffer yet another unfair character assassination, one of the many he’s had to wear over his illustrious career.
Obviously I’ve never played football against the bloke. So I can’t speak for the reputation he has as a ‘niggler’. I don’t know what he says, if he goes too far. I’ve got no idea how bad he is, if he gets personal or what.
But just because you have an ability to control your emotions while ruffling the feathers of an opponent in professional sport doesn’t make you a bad bloke.
Rugby league is a tough sport, even more so at the professional level. Ennis does what he needs to do to win games. To do what his club pays him to do and what his club’s fans demand that he do. It irritates me when people label him a ‘grub’. Ennis is anything but grubby. He’s simply smarter than 99 per cent of the players he plays against.
I can only speak of the Michael Ennis I’ve had dealings with as a reporter. And I must admit he’s one of my favourite players I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing.
When you ask him a question he generally pauses. He actually thinks about the question and tries to come up with an honest answer. He doesn’t just recycle the same media-trained dribble you have to endure from some athletes.
He then looks you straight in the eye and answers.
Even when he sees you around training when he’s not doing media he’s quick with a “g’day boys, how’s it going?” He’s polite, well-mannered and articulate. The polar opposite of this image of him that is painted by people who watch him play football.
Granted, the Michael Ennis I’ve seen could all be for show. It could simply be a savvy bloke doing his best to schmooze the media. And if it is, fair play to him. He’s very convincing.
But I suspect it’s not. I reckon it’s the real Michael Ennis.
For those that were offended by Ennis and his viking clap, I quote the great Ricky Gervais: “You have every right to be offended. Just don’t cry when no one cares.”
You may be offended by one man clapping in front of 25,000 people. But so what?
Seriously, what has the world come to when something like this actually gets people riled up?
Yes, we live in a world where every day someone is outraged about something. Someone, somewhere, is so offended by something.
But come on. This? Surely the world has bigger problems.
As the Sharks are sitting around with their feet up this weekend, it’s important to remember that Ennis only has a maximum of two NRL games left in his career.
I for one hope Ennis gets the farewell to his career he actually deserves.
The real Michael Ennis deserves to stand up on the first Sunday in October and do a lap of honour with the NRL trophy.
He deserves it for his toughness. For being the rugby league embodiment of the old saying “it’s not about the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.”
He deserves it for being an excellent and largely underrated player, who has had the durability and ability to play 271 NRL games and 11 State of Origins.
He deserves it for what it would mean to him, having suffered the devastation of missing two grand finals through injury and defeat in the 2012 decider.
But most of all, he deserves it because of the man he is.
The real Michael Ennis.
