The new San Francisco 49ers NFL player is a pioneer but the fascination with him isn’t just down to him being an Australian succeeding in the StatesSo the sport editor of this journal emailed me: “I want a piece on the fascination with Jarryd Hayne over here and his success over there. I reckon it has something to achieve with the way Australia looks up to colossal brother the US,and the way that success in the States kind of validates someones talent. It’s more than a sports star swapping codes and doing well, it’s about him doing so in America. Thoughts?”Indeed, and there’s something in that,though there are more layers to it. Australia and the US achieve have something of a fraternal bond. In 1985 when Crocodile Dundee went to New York – and there was no more Australian Australian than Paul Hogan – and charmed America by being knockabout and friendly and Australian, and the people of New York, or Americans,liked him and by extension us, that made us feel pleasurable, or you bet. Because for Americans to know about Australia,when they barely had maps much less the internet, it was a bit of a thing.
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Source: theguardian.com