A grand tradition
* Rebecca Wilson, writing in The Sunday Times
* From: The Sunday Times
* May 25, 2007 10:00PM
SINCE I was a kid, Australian rules football has held a special place in my heart.
I am not a Victorian. I am from the Gold Coast and was introduced to the wonders of Aussie rules at the age of five by a Saturday afternoon television replay which invariably featured Carlton or Collingwood.
We became Carlton fans for three reasons: Mum's favourite colour was navy blue, Dad lived in Carlton and Mum reckoned Collingwood players were thugs. Her opinion of the Pies remains with me to this day.
On Sundays, Mum would take us to the local footy ground where we would watch the Surfers Paradise Demons take on their arch enemies from Southport (suitably wearing Collingwood colours) or the Palm Beach boys in purple and gold.
We sounded our horns when we scored a goal. My red and blue crepe paper streamers would last an entire season because it never rained in Surfers Paradise during winter.
The highlight back then was grand final day. Even if Carlton didn't make it to the last Saturday in September, they had invariably gone close.
In fact, one of my first memories of any football was actually not caring who was in the VFL Grand Final because it really didn't matter one zot who played in this amazing match.
Mum always did something special for her three kids on grand final day. She made a big fuss of it by whipping up a favourite toasted sandwich or making navy and white streamers if the Blues were playing. She would even take the phone off the hook for the whole afternoon.
My memories of those grand finals all fade into one because very little has changed in the 40 years I have been watching them. Sometimes change can be good. In the case of the AFL Grand Final, change is a terrible, terrible thing.
My memories of those Saturdays would be no different from most footy fans. Some of you might recall barbecues or breakfast picnics, or backyard re-enactments at half-time on grand final day.
Others will remember vividly the one time you got the chance to go to one or when your team finally won it.
It is one of those constants of Australian cultural life that I reckon stands above the Melbourne Cup.
I remember where I was sitting in my lounge room when the Blues made that miraculous comeback in 1970. I remember my devastation when Richmond won in 1973. I actually cried over a sporting event for the first time during a VFL grand final.
The National Rugby League succumbed to pressure from television when it moved its grand final from a Sunday afternoon to Sunday night six years ago. The NRL argues hundreds of thousands more fans watch the game now than when it was played during the day.
It is now held on a long weekend in the first weekend of October – another incentive, it says, to watch the game.
It tells you the entertainment, fireworks and atmosphere are much better at night. This is all stuff AFL fans will have to cop in the next few seasons as TV executives sink their claws into the AFL before the next rights deal is up for grabs. It is, of course, all rubbish.
Network Ten says this is not about TV ratings, it is about allowing people more access to the game. These two things are exactly the same. Whatever way they want to sell it, TV types want the ratings and the advertising revenue that only night-time sporting events can muster.
The AFL Grand Final is perfect in every way. It starts for me with work at the Sydney Swans breakfast in Melbourne and ends with the same people from the morning looking slightly worse for wear in a pub near the MCG.
My mum and my youngest son, 13, come with me now and plan the day down to the minute from around June each year.
We hold hands as we walk into the MCG (I think this could be the last year of that), my son in his Swans scarf, clutching his Record, and me with goose bumps, pinching myself that I am privileged enough to be able to call this work. Mum can't believe she isn't watching it back in her lounge room.
We cannot let this great day disappear into the ether of evening sport. It is the most wonderful sporting event in Australia every single year.
The AFL Grand Final is about holding on to something from our childhoods and never letting it go.
It ain't broke, so let's not fix it.
