Fans don’t buy clean new looks

SYMPATHY is an ungamely and unpredictable beast in sport.

Cronulla, for years under the watch of an ASADA drug probe and question marks from punters, have garnered an undercurrent of foolhardy backers now wishing the plucky little underdogs an NRL grand final breakthrough.

Their opponents are the Storm, stripped of two titles and millions in earnings, achievements all the more commendable in a Melbourne market saturated in AFL footy.

Rorting the salary cap, strangely for punters, doesn’t earn the same sympathy as a team from Cronulla injecting unknown drugs into players in a bid to earn that 1 per cent edge.

Cheating, apparently, wears two layers of makeup.

We’re yet to hear of the wave of support for the Storm, a club ripped apart – albeit by their own doing – after the salary cap rort.

Yet the Sharks are the feelgood boys of the NRL.

Redemption is one of sport’s most loveable traits but it seems punters aren’t buying the badboy-turned-good image the Storm has presented.

Footy thugs Paul Gallen (above), Andrew Fifita and Wade Graham, meanwhile, deserve our endless support.

I’m like many and don’t have a preference for either club. May the best team win.

Yet I won’t be feeling too sorry for whichever team loses.

– RHYS O’NEILL

AS A BULLDOGS FAN, THE SIGNING OF TOM BOYD IS ONE OF THE BEST THINGS THE CLUB HAS EVER DONE IN MY OPINION.