Rugby league veteran Kyle Amor brands club songs ‘childish’

A rugby league star has sparked a huge online debate after making a bold declaration about a tradition he absolutely hates.

Melbourne's Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater sing the team song after the Storm’s premiership win in 2018. Picture: Brett Costello

Debate has erupted after a much-loved tradition of Australian sport, the team song, was slammed as “childish” by an English rugby league star.

Former St Helens prop Kyle Amor ripped into the practice, which typically involves players belting out a hoarsely-yelled rendition of an age-old song, often while banging on eskies and walls, saying he “hates” it.

Amor has won four Super League Grand Finals, and has won over 160 Super League matches, but has no interest in singing the club song after games, telling the Bench podcast he would put the tradition “on the bench”.

“I hate it,” he told hosts Jenna Brooks and Jon Wilkin.

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“You’ve got a bunch of grown men and somebody bangs a metal container and they bang and sing like an under-11s team.

“I just hate it, I just sit there and tap something on the side as if you’re involved.

“I’ve hated it for years and not really mentioned (it) so I’m glad we’ve mentioned it.

“If any of my teammates at Widnes see my not joining in now, they know why.

“I like winning but I find the song very childish, and then they all go ‘wooo’ at the end of it.”

Amor’s remarks come after Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett revealed the meaning of the Dolphins team song, with the expansion club singing it twice in two games and stunning the NRL by getting up over the Roosters and Raiders.

Kyle Amor of St Helens is not a fan of team songs. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Dolphins captain Jesse Bromwich and coach Wayne Bennett. Picture: Patrick Woods.

“We went away on a pre-season camp for three or four days and I said to them, ‘We haven’t got a team song’,” Bennett told reporters after their win over the Roosters in round one.

“And a couple of hours later the senior players had a great song.

“We’ve sung it 10 or 12 times now at things we’ve done.

“It’s a tremendous theme song, it’s a real credit to them, it’s theirs and they own it, we had one today and we sung it. It was great.”

The Dolphins club song appears to resemble the song used by the original Redcliffe Dolphins, who now play in the second-tier Queensland Cup.

Amor’s comments sparked a huge debate on social media, with Manly first-grade cricketer Jake Carden remarking sarcastically that he “must be fun at parties”.

The Geelong Cats sing the team song after the 2022 Toyota AFL Grand Final. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Melbourne's Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater sing the team song after the Storm’s premiership win in 2018. Picture: Brett Costello

Another social media user agreed, saying modern songs tended to be “devised by marketing teams for social clicks rather than a spontaneous outpouring of team pride.

“All a bit unoriginal and so defeats its purpose,” the person wrote.

Another said it depended on authenticity, saying “if it’s a bit manufactured like (simply) singing ‘ole, ole, ole’, than I agree with (Amor).”

Club songs, a long-time tradition in Australian sport, became the centre of internet comedy for a brief period in 2019 after expansion-club Greater Western Sydney Giants made their first AFL Grand Final.

The Giants’ rollicking brass-heavy song was composed by The Cat Empire’s Harry Angus, and went viral for its easily parodiable lyrics, and strong brass line.