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Last week there was an interesting article published in the Fairfax press. Titled “Arabs and Israelis learnt to kick a footy“, written by John Harms who attended the pre-match dinner for the Round 21 Collingwood vs Sydney match. There he met two people in particular associated with the Peres Peace team (attending the AFL International Cup).
Simon Jacobs, the team coach from Brighton England is a Gunners fan, with a degree in PE. He fell in love with an Australian woman and with Australian rules football. He married the woman. He now coaches footy. He raves about the game; about the opportunity it gives players to demonstrate sporting skill, athleticism and courage.
The other person was Tanya Oziel, a Sydney mother. She described he young son suddenly taking up footy: “The other kids had never met a Jewish boy,” she says. “It was brilliant. Hiam’s footy friends became his friend friends. He just loves it, and I could see the power of this game.”
“Team sport?” I suggest to Tanya. “No, footy,” she insists. She is adamant, “Just footy.”
“Why just footy?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” she says. “There is something in this game. No other game will do it.”
This sparked some little discussion on another thread, and a couple of us came to the conclusion that 1 percenters as they are called in Australian Footy, and in particular, the shepherd, might be the (an) explanation of where she is coming from.
In last week’s Fairfax press, another article was published pertaining to women and footy. Titled “Girls just wanna have fun … with a footy“. This time it focused on a Turkish immigrant’s daughter who, along with her father, fell in love with the game, and so she played it and is now an AFL women’s development officer.
And, in this article, we find the following paragraph:
“Then she found it was the sport she was best at and also the place where she made the most lasting friendships of her life. The symbolic act in footy for Chyloe is the shepherd, putting your body in line for a collision to protect a team-mate in the knowledge that she would do the same for you.”
Yup!!!, I think we’ve narrowed it down. What is regarded a ‘sacrificial act’, because, in a stats and scoreboard outcome oriented game, to provide a shepherd effectively removes yourself from the ball, and the chance to take possession – and to score yourself – rather, instead, you put yourself in line to take a hit, and you clear the path for your teammate. It’s a selfless, often a courageous action, and is perhaps the epitome of ‘team’ sport.
Perhaps.
And perhaps I’ve satisfied my personal search for the ‘spirit of the game’.
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