Michael Burgess: When I realised sport wasn't fair

Wally Lewis. Photo / Getty Images.

Thirty years ago this month I learnt an important life lesson.

Sport ain't fair. As much as we want it to be, it often isn't. And it never will be.

At the time, in 1985 it didn't mean much. I was walking out of Carlaw Park in Auckland, New Zealand, a primary school kid shedding a tear. And I wasn't the only one - that afternoon was possibly the first time I had seen grown men cry.

The reason for our misery? A sellout crowd had just watched an almost perfect performance by the New Zealand rugby league team (the Kiwis) in the second test against Australia. After a narrow loss in the first test, great names like Mark Graham and Kurt Sorensen set out to make amends.

The home side had played superbly, completely dominating the Kangaroos. There was a sense of excitement at half time around the ground, as we knew New Zealand were going to win and looked forward to the series decider the following week.

The Kiwis blew a million opportunities, had other tries ruled out for a variety of reasons but it didn't matter. They were still going to win. They were too good, and by far the better team. They led until the final minute, when Australian captain Wally Lewis took advantage of a mistake on halfway to put fullback Garry Jack in a hole. He raced through, and unfortunately all of the New Zealand cover defence went after him, leaving John Ribot unmarked to dive over in the corner.

10-6 Australia. Game over. Series over.

"But...but...they can't win," I said to my Dad. "It's not fair."

It wasn't 'fair', and to this day ranks as one of the most unfortunate sporting defeats I've witnessed. Even the parochial Australian newspapers realised the injustice, with headlines like "The best side lost" and "Millionaire Kiwis lament rough justice."

But that's sport, that's why we love it. The uncertainty, the unpredictably, the fact that for every 'Cinderella' story or well-earned triumph there will always be moments where the 'best' team or player loses.

Look at Brazil at the 1982 World Cup. They were one of the best teams to ever grace the event, with incredible flair and sometimes fantasy football. Yet the Selecao were gone before the semi-finals and Brazil took a generation to recover from the shock.

From days long past - think of Devon Loch coming to grief metres from the winning post in the 1956 Grand National - or more recent, with Steven Gerrard's slip against Chelsea during the climax to the 2013-2014 English Premier League season - sport has always provided incredible, and sometimes sad story lines.

That's also what makes sport such a worldwide passion. Fans can celebrate the highs of a victory but often the despair - and shared grief - of a defeat is just as unifying. And it also makes an eventual triumph that much sweeter.

Up until that moment in 1985 I had lived a sheltered sporting existence, yet to experience too many lows. The New Zealand cricket team of the early 1980s had a good record and I was too young to appreciate the infamous underarm incident in 1981. Our All Blacks won most of the time and the All Whites had improbably qualified for Espana 82. And like many young kids in New Zealand, I followed Liverpool FC, who were a great team to support via Big League Soccer during the early 1980s.

However, from 1985 on, there was plenty of heart break for a sports nut. The 1987 America's Cup springs to mind, as does Liverpool's last minute loss to Arsenal in 1990, which inspired the book Fever Pitch. Then there was New Zealand's failure at the 1991 Rugby World Cup, and the cricket equivalent a year later.