PUFWE 06

I’m trying to start a tradition. A tradition celebrating friendship through football. Since having friends move to Melbourne (the home of the AFL) I thought it would be good to take some friends down to visit and to see the Swans play in Melbourne. This is its second year in existence. After last year’s trip I thought it needed a dodgy acronym, and I found one. PUFWE stands for PenUltimate Footy WeekEnd. It’s called penultimate because the ultimate footy weekend would comprise of 4 matches in 3 days but that was too much for my AFL rookie friends. Fair enough too, I’m unsure whether I could stand that much footy. But I’m willing to give it a crack.

Last year we saw Sydney play St Kilda. As it turned out this match just happened to be their worst for the whole season. Just our luck. We drowned our sorrows at the Retro Café in Brunswick Street on some of the best cake we had ever seen.

This year we watched Sydney play Hawthorn at the MCG. Sydney were on their way up, finally showing their premiership winning form with greater consistency. Hawthorn, on the other hand, were on a downer after a blistering start to their season. Less than 30,000 people attended the match which meant for a lack of atmosphere but we made up for that with our spirit (and sledging). In the end Sydney were just too convincing and skilful, winning by 65 points.

Here’s some more details of the weekend:

• Queen Victoria Markets are huge and are mainly geared towards the females. A lot of repitition with the content of the stores. In the end me and Nathan spent more than Sara and Alison. We each bought a replica Socceroos jersey.
• The Esplanade Markets at St Kilda have completely different shops. Lots of artwork and handcrafts, I was impressed.
• Acland Street in St Kilda has a few shops where you can’t help but drool. So many cakes to choose from. I recommend trying one at a time.
• Melbourne Central is a big shopping centre centrally located in Melbourne (hence the name). However their Myer outlet feels a bit disjointed and all over the place. We were searching for a male toilet for 10 mins.
• Trams are the way to go. At times they may appear slow but they are very reliable and cheap. A daily ticket costs $5.50 ($2.50 on Sundays), which gives you endless trips on the rail, tram or bus services.
• Don’t be shy saying you’re a Sydney supporter in Melbourne as we outnumbered Hawthorn supporters on Saturday night. I don’t think all of them would have flown down like we did.

Aboriginal Agenda

I heard Senator Barnaby Joyce on the radio this afternoon as I was driving home. He was talking about the problems in Aboriginal communities. He has an idea of encouraging mission groups to go “back into the area” (I didn’t know they were there in the first place let alone gone). This, he predicts, will teach some “social mores” to overcome the culture of child molestation and substance abuse. It’s a shame that, and Joyce acknowledged this himself, that this sort of plan would be shouted down as “politically incorrect.” Apparently when mission groups were in these communities there were far less issues. I’d be interested if someone knows more facts about the situation.

Footy Season Do’s - Mark 2

I thought that the blog on Footy Season Do’s was slightly taken out of context. Most of the fault for gaining that result is mine. The tongue in cheek tone was lost and perhaps I didn’t explain well enough. Not that it’s that big a deal in the scheme of things.

But anyway, in regards to weddings, I understand that these are hard to nail down a date to suit everyone you want to invite. So I have in the past and will gladly in the future miss playing any footy fixture for anyone willing to invite me to their wedding.

It’s more the less important do’s I was referring to. This doesn’t mean they’re not important, just less important than weddings. Saturday afternoon is a conflict of interests if close friends play sport. So Saturday night is preferable.

This whole blog came about after a team-mate, a vital element in our team, missed a game because a cousin had a do on a Saturday afternoon. We were a bit perplexed as to why it wasn’t on Saturday night. Perhaps there were mitigating circumstances, we can only speculate.

Footy Season Do’s

There was a debate early last season after an AFL player was going to miss a game to attend his brothers wedding. He ended up missing the wedding to honour his contract. We also hear occasionally of professional athletes sticking around while their pregnant wives give birth. If football wives could plan when they give birth I think they might. But parties are much easier to plan. So why have them conflict with a game?? Apart from the obvious inconvenience it is promoting a sedentary lifestyle by segregating your footy playing buddies in social circles.

If there was a party during footy season that collided with one of my games, I would have to say I would decline. However it has never come up as yet so I don’t really know how I would react in such a conundrum. There have been some do’s on a Saturday night, which is achievable and much preferable.

I was disappointed enough when not one, but two friends had their wedding during the AFL finals series, one of them on Grand Final Day. Although Sydney weren’t playing it is still a must see for any supporter. I sacrificed, but compensated for the lack of television by checking the scores on my phone constantly. Don’t worry, it was on silent.

So I guess this is a word of advice for those organising parties. Consider your football playing friends (of any code) and don’t organise things such as a Saturday arvo barbie, wait till the evening. Or better still, don’t plan any important do’s in footy season. This will be hard for anyone who has his or her birthday between March and September however. I guess they will just have to arrange an alternate date:).

Hamstrung

Hamstring, noun: group of muscles in the back of the thigh
Heartlage, noun: a supposed trivial injury, i.e. no heart
Hamstrung, verb: having a hamstring injury that is deemed to be a heartlage by team-mates

Very annoying and frustrating it is too. Team-mates tend to mistake a slight injury for not wanting to play. It is usually very much the opposite. It’s very frustrating to be watching team-mates play when injured.

I have been struggling with minor hamstring injuries for a few years now. I initially thought it started from when I did a gymnastics subject for University. The coach suggested we do this stretch everyday for a month and by the end we should be able to do the splits, regardless of our size. I though I’d test her out, but a few days later at training I twinged it for the first time.

However another thought has crossed my mind after hearing about the plight of Swans player Heath James. He has suffered 13 hamstring tears and it was thought that this was in some way due to the disproportionate strength between his quadriceps and hamstrings.

So if I am able to finally get some time when I don’t have to recover from hamstring strains I might be able to do something about that. But for now I guess I just have to put up with the supposed ironmen who are unbreakable. Pride comes before a fall a wise man once said.