Convincing the Willing
July 9th 2008 23:56
The choosing of a football club is made whilst one’s mind is impressionable, and as a loyal, long suffering supporter of my club, I put it to a batch of newly arrived International students at my place of employment that Melbourne is football mad and there is only one team worth barracking for. Mine. My father conveyed a similar sentiment to me during my formative years. “The team I barrack for is the only team you’ll be going to watch so you might as well go for them”. Looking back I am incredibly thankful that my mind was so fertile to the ideals of my old man. And one day I hope to be able to limit my son’s own ambition to follow a side.
Had I adored my father less however, he would have had quite the battle on his hands to convert me. As it was, at the time of conversion there was a bloke running around in blue and white hoops whom commanded the attention of the most ardent football follower, let alone a kid whose kicking style still involved a two handed drop and was yet to appreciate the benefits of the opposite foot. John Harmes, writing in The Age this week as part of their series on the greatest footballers in history, called the number 5 from Geelong “an untamed colt; the rawest brumby. And the most talented.
“ It is safest to say this: people - a lot of people - went to the footy to see Ablett play. They were drawn to him, beckoned by the promise of a dazzling performance.”
When I was jumping on the back of the couch yelling a name and catching a balloon whilst wearing a footy jumper – a jumper I assume I never took off based on the regularity of its appearance in any and every photo of me at the age of 6 - it was Ablett’s name I was calling, it was Ablett’s number five on my back and it was Ablett’s sherrin that I was spectacularly snatching from the stratosphere such was the way he seemed to own the football when he played.
Today I imagine the man they call ‘Buddy’ is the man that may steal some of my potential fellow followers. I hope that I have planted a seed, I hope that the boys can deliver on my statement when they next step out to do battle, but I fear that although these new students seemed to warm to me and my patriotic ways, I did not command there affection in the same way that a father does his first born son. Thus the plenitude of stars that are currently plying there trade in the AFL will hopefully convert some new fans to our wonderful game - be they brown and gold 23’s, the new breed of Ablett from Geelong, or one of the Navy Blue superstars – football will continue to convert people through affiliation or by the sheer brilliance of the actors that grace our glorious stages.
Had I adored my father less however, he would have had quite the battle on his hands to convert me. As it was, at the time of conversion there was a bloke running around in blue and white hoops whom commanded the attention of the most ardent football follower, let alone a kid whose kicking style still involved a two handed drop and was yet to appreciate the benefits of the opposite foot. John Harmes, writing in The Age this week as part of their series on the greatest footballers in history, called the number 5 from Geelong “an untamed colt; the rawest brumby. And the most talented.
“ It is safest to say this: people - a lot of people - went to the footy to see Ablett play. They were drawn to him, beckoned by the promise of a dazzling performance.”
When I was jumping on the back of the couch yelling a name and catching a balloon whilst wearing a footy jumper – a jumper I assume I never took off based on the regularity of its appearance in any and every photo of me at the age of 6 - it was Ablett’s name I was calling, it was Ablett’s number five on my back and it was Ablett’s sherrin that I was spectacularly snatching from the stratosphere such was the way he seemed to own the football when he played.
Today I imagine the man they call ‘Buddy’ is the man that may steal some of my potential fellow followers. I hope that I have planted a seed, I hope that the boys can deliver on my statement when they next step out to do battle, but I fear that although these new students seemed to warm to me and my patriotic ways, I did not command there affection in the same way that a father does his first born son. Thus the plenitude of stars that are currently plying there trade in the AFL will hopefully convert some new fans to our wonderful game - be they brown and gold 23’s, the new breed of Ablett from Geelong, or one of the Navy Blue superstars – football will continue to convert people through affiliation or by the sheer brilliance of the actors that grace our glorious stages.
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