I love autumn in Melbourne; the crisp mornings, the clear afternoon skies, the cool, clear nights, and the city’s leaves yellowing and returning to the earth.
Despite its beauty, the earlier setting of the sun and its later rise, autumn also reminds me of the long, cold, impending Melbourne winter. Every warm autumn night is met with a flurry of activity, a final late night run, and final barbeque with friends; the last warmth of summer fading fast.
In stark contrast to the melancholy of autumn, and then winter, for many people, this time of year is a time for hope. And not because people have now settled in to the year, and there is still eight months to make good on those new year’s resolutions or to push for that promotion. There is hope because the footy season is about to start.
It never ceases to amaze me how much importance fans place on the news coming out of their club over the preseason. Every year, the new draft pick is setting the track on fire, the new arrival has really lifted the standard and set a new benchmark, and the elder statesman has never been fitter or stronger.
PBs are being smashed and spirits are high; even the coach has trouble keeping a lid on it. We hear the same thing every year, from every club. Hopes are high, and the year ahead is full of hope. Every year, however, some teams struggle, some teams are terrible, and one team must finish last.
When footy season finally arrives, after months of pre-season, you can almost sense the small knot that begins to form in the stomach of every footy fan.
I felt it last Sunday afternoon at the beginning of the World Cup final, and it didn’t really leave until the final few overs of the match. There is the sense of so much hope, the feeling of deserving more, but the fear of the hurt that will most certainly come if the results don’t fall our way.
In many ways, it would make more sense, symbolically at least, to begin the footy season in Spring; a time of new life, new beginnings, and a time when Melbourne, and the rest of Victoria come alive.
Instead, the city begins to slow down, and the bright green of the parks and the bright blue of the sky are replaced with the dull grey of the cityscapes and the clouds. Yet within the gloom, the AFL, and football more broadly, creates its own spring, where life and hope become reflected in the colours of a jumper and the roar of a crowd, and in footy’s heartland, by the smell of a pie and the tooting of a horn.
There’s always hope, for all fans. (Photo: Michael Willson/AFL Media)
For me, I’ll be happy to get along to a couple of games, and watch the few remaining friends I have still playing battling out yet another season.
I won’t necessarily be donning the Red and White of the Swans this year, but I’ll be following them closely. There is hope that they can redeem themselves from last year, and prove that they remain the proud club we expect them to be.
Even the most diehard fans of some clubs know that they will not win the premiership this year, or even next. It could take a while. At the other end, the fans of the more successful clubs of recent times know that the inevitable fall down the ladder will come eventually; maybe not this year, but soon. The fear and that knot are always there.
AFL fans from across the country have bought their 2015 membership, have bought this year’s jumper, and are ready for whatever this season has to throw at them.
They will support their club in every way they know how. Their weeks will be defined by the result on the weekend that has just past, and the game that is approaching. But regardless of whether those games result in wins or losses, and regardless of whether the season is proceeding as planned or not, there is always next week, there is always next season.
And although it can be often hard to find, there is always hope.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.
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