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One of the best weekends of football in ages

1K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  Swade 
#1 ·
OK, I know virtually no-one visiting this site cares about footy except me, but this weekend saw one of the best weekends of football in ages. As I don’t have a personal blog to write this on, it’s going to have to go here. It won’t happen again, but I just had to write about it.


——


For almost all of my 38 years, I’ve been a rabid fan of the Carlton Football Club. Carlton is one of the oldest and proudest clubs in the country, having won the most premierships (championships) in the competition (a record that’s tied with one other club).


When you grow up in Melbourne, it’s impossible to ignore Australian Rules Football. The game was invented there and it’s like a religion. Some people may hate the game and the prominence it takes in the Melbourne psyche, but they can’t ignore it.


I love it. When the premiership game is finished on the last Saturday in September I’m already waiting for the first preseason game the next February. I played the game (rather poorly) at school, socially, and I’ve even played it with a team that volunteered to go into Hobart’s Risdon Prison and play against the prisoners!


Carlton have been a very successful club during most of my lifetime. They won seven of their sixteen premierships between 1970 and 1995. The last five years, however, have been a disaster. Carlton finished last or second-last 4 out of the last 5 years. Prior to 2002 they had never finished last in 100+ years of competition. To say that Carlton people were unaccustomed to failure is an understatement. Our collective arrogance and swagger makes Bob Lutz look like a choirboy.


We hate failure and the last five years have been hell. That’s it in a nutshell.


Carlton have one club in the competition who can be regarded as mortal enemies. Their name is Collingwood and they’re known as the Magpies due to their black and white uniforms. Carlton have always been a reasonably wealthy club with a bit of continental flair (Carlton is the heart of the Italian community in Melbourne) whereas Collingwood is a blue-collar ******* club.


They hate us. We hate them. They’ve been reasonably successful in the last five years while we’ve been languishing. Actually, languishing isn’t quite the word. If Carlton had lost today it would have been their 15th straight loss dating back to the middle of last season - the longest in Carlton’s considerable history.


You might have already guessed that it was Collingwood we played today. Carlton had a great off-season. They recruited well and have a lot of promising young talent. Despite this they were yet to win a game this year and the thought that Collingwood could cement this record into club history was truly unbearable.


Thankfully, our boys lifted. They gave us all a glimpse of greatness. Our defence was solid and our forwards were everywhere. Our midfield, the engine room of any club, was committed and quick. The combination of youth and experience finally clicked. Finally. They were challenged and where in previous weeks they would have folded, they kept their composure. The final siren brought a collective sigh of relief, rapturous joy and a rendition of the club song that would have lifted the roof off the stadium if it had one.


A year of hell has been forgotten in an afternoon and happiness reigns again.


Until next week.


——


Second, this weekend finally saw one of the game’s livewires finally blow a fuse and show everyone why he’s touted as a possible future boxing champ. He was a champion junior boxer prior to switching full time to football.


Unfortunately his opposition wasn’t expecting what he received here and our protagonist is likely to be suspended for around 5 weeks (which won’t matter as he broke his wrist later in the game anyway).


His name is Barry Hall and don’t be surprised if you see him fighting for a title in the next five years or so. You heard it here first.








As mentioned, I won’t do this again. I just needed to write it down somewhere. I’ve been driving Saabs since I was 23 and have owned one since age 29. I’ve been cheering for Carlton since I could first talk.



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