Maybe another poem

_________________
This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Some like to be in control, some are happy to be led........Barb Carlson is happy to keep it simple and enjoy the game as it used to be enjoyed back in the old days...a couple of adversaries called Verbs and Synbad are more interested in debating how much Campo gets paid and disecting the salary cap and proving the other wrong.....its the challenge of the debate rather than footy thats interests some...you need the mental stimulation and challenge...
Why do some take in interest in the things they cant control about the game and get fired up about it.?..I guess everyone likes to dream they can do a better job than those in charge of making the decisions and challenge themselves to prove it in front of others.....its mentally stimulating and challenging....and satisfying when your ideas and thoughts are proven correct.....the trick is to not ot take it too seriously and still enjoy the game for what it is...a game.

_________________
"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

It's been interesting to read those replies that have addressed some of the questions I had. It all began with me trying to understand why every week, like I always am, I am so eager to watch the Blues and am enjoying the season whilst an overwhelming number of supporters seem to be in a living hell. Afterall, every season is pretty much the same. We have only two premierships in the last 20 years, and the difference between coming second and coming last is fairly similar.

Mention of footy being like religion is interesting. They share a degree of similarities as do both with politics.

But what I've thought about is how the psyche of a supporter is not much different to a particularly zealous religious fanatic, or someone who has a very strong political bent.

For instance, a religion may highly discourage smoking, drinking and gambling. Someone who believes strongly in that religion may look less than favourably on other followers of the religion who choose to smoke or drink. The devout follower may take it upon themselves to continually point out that those who smoke and drink and gamble are "wrong" even though in reality there is nothing they can do to stop people all around the world who follow that religion from drinking and smoking.

Likewsie, there is often one or two people at a dinner party who want to talk politics and are quite vocal at explaining what they think should be done. Of course, sitting around talking about how to run the economy is going to have absolutely no influence on actually how it is run.

But the link for all three is that they all allow people to hold up an ultimate ideal, and when the path on how to get there has identifiable aspects which differ from an individual's expectations, people feel the need to point out how these aspects are not in align with their own beliefs. As Elwood says, it's human nature to want to be heard. Some want to influence -- to try and bring others into alignment with their own beliefs. Others merely want to feel like they are contributing to something meaningful. And even though all the debate in the world will never change a thing, it strengthens human spirit to reafirm your beliefs in sometheing you feel strongly about.

So where do I fit in? Since posting yesterday, I have noticed striking similarities in my approach to spirituality, politics and footy. And that just happens to be how I approach life, and everyone is different.

The basic skills that make up footy, when executed to a supreme level, are pure entertainment. A soaring mark, a crunching bump at the start of the '89 Grand Final. Earl's smother and goal in 95. All these things only happen once and live on in the memory. They are in the moment things, so much so that can not possibly even happen again. I like to look forward to knowing very similar things will happen again, and when they do they will be a complete surprise...which is what makes footy so entertaining.

Then there are the combination of skills which form an underlying part of the game like teamwork, courage, mateship, power and passion. When these things come to the fore, entertainment levels rise. We cheer and clap and scream. When these things are combined with supreme skill level, we are in paradise, and that is the ultimate of a game being entertainment. Miost of '95 was just like that.

When these things go missing, entertainment levels decrease. We cry and rant and swear. The lower the ratio of these things to total game time, the lower our entertainment levels, which has been the case this year. But this ratio is never zero, hence the "positives" threads. Putting this ratio into perspective and knowing it is a fluid notion adds to the enjoyment of watching a game of footy.

The day footy transcends entertainment is the day when those elements such as teamwork, courage, sticking up for your mates etc intentionally entwine themselves into our lives as a result of watching football. Yes we can learn and identify these things from watching footy, even moreso by playing it, but do we actually, as supporters, apply these things in our lives because of footy? I would think not, but I would like to be proven otherwise.

And whilst it's a romantic notion to think that footy possess a number of metaphysical characteristics, it is not a particularly practical notion.

As jenx pointed out, we all need our pastimes.

They've sanitised most of the theatre out of the game - once they sanitize the abuse towards the umpires out of it I'm out of here.

_________________
"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Me?
I like football

_________________
This might sound extreme in the context of alleged sexual assault, drunken violence and a drug trafficking charge...

Kouta's one hand grab - anything is possible

Jezza mark - dare to dream


Big Nick's fall - no one is immortal


Hudsons goalkicking - sometimes the total is far better than the sum parts.

and so on.

Football teaches us many things; it is not just an entertainment package (neither is a good film by the way, or a good poem) but if those in power succeed in making football imsply an enterainment then it will have lost something important. Much like a church lost something when they began singing Cat Stevens songs to keep the youth interested.

In chatting with my son I often refer back to football because we share that language - it helps illistrate points, doesn't mean its the only thing that does, or even the best thing, just that it does.

As for the need to have an effect, well gee I wondwer why. Why does the garbo have an opinion on what she might do as PM? Why does a 15 year old think they know better than an 80 year old?

Opinions define us, clarfy us, keep us from being swamped.

_________________
This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

We all have an identity. We have an internal view of what makes us up, what we see defines us. Others may see us differently to how we see ourselves but that is a whole different argument.

We also all want to belong to something, a family, a religion, an ethnicity, a tribe, whatever. The two go hand in hand. Part of what makes us up and part of how we see ourselves are the things that we belong to.

When I was a kid in Ringwood in the 70's and 80's, there was no more important element in that bag of things that made up who you were than the footy club that you followed (except for maybe yo-yo's). You chose a tribe and that helped to define who you were. Once that choice was made your commitment and dedication to that support strengthened your association with that part of your makeup. That has continued, for me to this day. To change to another team now would mean giving up a little part of what defines me.

I have had periods of my life whilst living interstate or overseas where I didnt follow the footy closely and where my association with that part of my makeup was weaker but generally then there were other factors that filled the gap, such as the association that I was: a victorian, an Australian etc.

Then again maybe I dont know, maybe its a primal thing, maybe it is like: we're going over to punt road and raiding the bison carcas from some other Neanderthal's cave. Whilst we are there we are going to club their women and drag them back with us. On second thoughts I'd probably get well towelled up by a Neanderthal chick!!!

Maybe also I have lost the plot!!!

_________________
"Who discovered we could get milk from cows, and what did he think he was doing at the time?" Billy Connolly

And there's a lot of things around

_________________
|♥♥♥♥♥♥| http://www.blueseum.org |♥♥♥♥♥♥|

I'm only in it for the chicks

_________________
Love Cricket? Love me

St Elmo's Fire is one of my all time favourite films. THAT's life!

Ridin' high pre-season
Shot down in May.

_________________
THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.