Football is no laughing matter

from w
Well, I'm laughing because I don't really worry one way or another who wins the Aussie Rules Football final at the MCG in Melbourne. However I did listen to the last fifteen minutes on the radio and others in our household watched the TV. The players were stunned at the final siren and many of them just lay on the grass not knowing what to do.The winners? No winners. It was a draw. Just like our recent parliamentary election. Julia in her occasional wisdom had said earlier in the day - prophetically I suppose - 'Well, as long as it's not a draw!' So Collingwood (the team almost everyone hates) and St Kilda will do it all over again next Saturday. The papers have been so full of football - a gladiator kind of sport - and even the cartoonist/philosopher Michael Leunig had his say, but his view is radically different. His article and painting were in today's Age newspaper.

I still think at there's a lot in common between locusts and people when the seretonin kicks in. Over a hundred thousand people were at the MCG watching the game, screaming their heads off. At the end of the day, the two teams had no change-rooms as the Collingwood rooms had a sewerage breakdown, aka Delhi revenge. Then the storm clouds arrived and the 100,000 people all had to run for their cars and trains and buses! It's a lovely life eh!

It would have been nice to have a shared trophy - six months each. No loser. A reminder to our youngsters that winning isn't what sport is about. Hmmm.