ABOUT FOOTY

I love my football.  Always have but boy has it changed.  It used to be black and red rosettes, gonks, beanies, scarves, gloves, socks, streamers, banners – you name it and my friend Sharon and I made it.  Those were the days, and not just because you could make team golliwogs without being vilified.  We loved the Perth Demons and were lucky enough to celebrate a couple of premierships during our teenage years.  Back then, the WAFL was huge and for the big games you would need to sleep out overnight to get a ticket.  Back then, the only way to get a ticket was at a turnstile and the only way to get the best spot on the ground was to sleep in that turnstile, so that’s what we did.  And so did lots of other people so there was never any danger in doing so.  In those days, the best seat was not a seat – it was standing at the fence, streamers hanging over the rail, gonk in hand, rosette with favourite player pinned proudly to chest, scarf around neck, beanie on head – you get the drift!  In those days, everyone was allowed onto the ground at the end of the game and even during the game if something spectacular happened!  In those days, you could have a chat with the players, have access to the coach (because he was usually doubled as the captain), get a stack of autographs and even hang around afterwards for a beer and a BBQ. In those days, it would be fair to say, football was fun, lots of fun, and with 8 teams in the local competition it was a huge and affordable community event. 

Fast forward one generation, (albeit quite a long generation because I had my babies very late in life) and things are very different.  For a start, most football fans now follow the AFL and so do I.  And my colours have morphed, I’m now wearing blue and gold! Training is not Wednesday afternoon after work with all the local kids joining in.  You definitely can’t take a gonk to the football – you can’t even make a gonk in the privacy of your own home for that matter!  These days you need to sell a kidney if you want a club membership and without membership it is all but impossible to get a ticket to a match.  Football players are professionals now, cleverly marketed and handsomely paid, (and downright handsome in some cases) and strictly off limits except for organised and brief ‘meet the player’ opportunities.  Football is big business, very big business, corporate business.  It’s about trophy nights and trophy wives, corporate functions and big, big money.  Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not better nor worse, just different.  I still love football but these days I am a mere spectator –‘standing on the outside, lookin’ in’ – (with apologies to Jimmy Barnes).  And at my tender age that’s a blessing because there is no way I could sleep in a turnstile or defend going publicly armed with a gonk.