Australia's Historically Working Class Sporting Underdogs Both Defeated In Fitting Metaphor For State Of The Nation

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT

The people of the New South Wales port city of Newcastle are now entering a period of mourning, after a heartbreaking and cruel 18-19 loss in the 2026 NRL Grand Final.

Not only did it sting to lose by one point, but it was especially painful to lose to the cashed up Eastern Suburbs rugby league machine.

The Sydney Roosters fans take great pleasure in the fact that they cannot remember the pain of a premiership drought, and make no apologies for supporting the only club in the competition that can manage a checkbook.

But the Roosters aren't the only fairytale killers in Australian sport this year, as the exact same heartbreak took place just a week earlier when the Fremantle Dockers were robbed of their first ever AFL Premiership by the Brisbane Lions - who went on to seal their second ever three-peat.

Again, the pain was magnified by the Lions snatching victory in the dying minutes.

Across both codes, these losses are being felt as just another body blow in the height of a cost-of-living crisis.

With both towns once held up as examples of a decentralised regional economy, continual lay offs and automation in both the steel industry and maritime sector means that sporting victories are the only way to boost morale for a good portion of locals.

And still, the Brisbane Lions and Sydney Roosters were not going to let them have that.

This comes as these same people are being gouged by the big Four Banks, supermarket duopolies, airlines and every other once iconic Australian institution that is now beholden to bloodythirsty shareholders.

And with billions of dollars being poured into grievance farming politics by mining oligarch Gine Rinehart and her sinister friends, recent data shows these same towns are increasingly likely of being robbed of decent political representation - as far-right populism thrives in towns with no jobs and no premierships.