As the days grow gradually shorter and the first hint of cooler morning air appears, footy fans are turning their attention to the season ahead. The NRL kicks off this week in Vegas (I know!), and the AFL the week after.
There are plenty of us who consider this a significant part of the rhythm of the year. We’re alive with anticipation of the spectacle to come and the Monday morning post-mortems. There’s a buzz of excitement accompanying the ritual marking of the calendar to see where and when our teams will play.
Deep down we know it probably won’t end well, but in the month of March the players are rested and injury-free, bursting with youthful energy and high expectations. Could this be our year?
The lot of the committed footy fan is a drama marked, more often than not, with dashed expectations, periodic brief triumphs but mostly bleak tales of ‘what ifs’ and ‘if onlys’. The times when we do taste the ultimate success are frequently followed by years, even decades, of wilderness wanderings.
It’s all part of the fun and of course it’s not too serious. Somehow the tortured footy fan seems able to hold on to hope for something better despite all evidence to the contrary. Even as the winter months roll on and our favourite team succumbs to injury, dreadful luck or ‘off-field drama’, we are still able to imagine a better future.
Footy might not be your thing, but at their best, sporting contests offer gripping drama, breath-taking feats of athleticism, courage and skill. Pointless joy. And perhaps most significantly, community and the camaraderie of a shared narrative.
We are story-telling beings and our love of sport reflects a sliver of all that makes humans unique and special. And probably a bit weird.
This column was first published on Facebook.
Image Source: “Parramatta Eels and Newcastle Knights competing in a 2021 NRL elimination final at Browne Park in Rockhampton, Queensland,” RegionalQueenslander, licensed under CC BY 4.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EelsKnights5.jpg
