footys_glory_days

FOOTY'S GLORY DAYS by Elliot Cartledge

2013. Hardie Grant books. Paperback.

Yimmy and I took a 2 night trip to Melbourne either side of Christmas
Day so as sparetime reading I took a book that argued the point that
the best period for Australian Rules Football was 1960-1982, when Men
were Melbourne Men and the competition was the VFL.

I used to own a small hardback book about the VFL in the 60s with the
excellent title "Six games on a Saturday". Before floodlit grounds and
live TV coverage, all games took place at the same time on a Saturday
afternoon, the way that the best horseracing takes place on a Saturday
afternoon today. I'm fond of telling my friends that throughout my
life, the happiest time of the week for me has always been Saturday
afternoons.

Depending on my age and the time of year my Saturday afternoon
entertainment was golf caddying for Dad, playing seniors cricket,
watching rugby league games, watching AFL games, or going to
horseracing. I am most nostalgic for the afternoon cricket of my
University years, and I especially remember some good batting on the
now-defunct University Number 2 oval. The golf caddying with Dad was
great also, though I never took to playing golf myself.

I used to think that there were no VFL games on Sundays because of no
Sunday trading respect for the churches laws, but in fact there was a
second string competition, the VFA, who played their matches on
Sundays. Some of the VFL players would relax on Sundays by spectating
at VFA games and getting drunk there.

I didn't read "Six games on a Saturday" and tossed it out many book
culls ago. Footy's Glory Days was much racier and brought to me by the
kings of sports book publishing, Hardie Grant.

I've long argued with friends that footy was better in the days before
all the television and sponsorship money flooded in. Nowadays players
are fulltime employees of their clubs. Back in the good old days, they
all had day jobs and come Saturday they'd shake off the frustrations
of their Monday-Friday jobs by smashing each other up on the footy
grounds on a Saturday afternoon. This goes for both Rugby League and
Australian Football. With all of the TV coverage and corporate
sponsors, the game is now sanitised and the really rough stuff is gone
forever.

A further regret is that there are no footy-cricket dual
internationals anymore. Keith Miller is probably the champion
VFL/Cricket personality, in my day Simon O'Donnell was ex-VFL and
Shane Warne had played Under-19s and a single Reserve Grade game for
St Kilda. Perhaps the last of the VFL/Cricket stars was Jamie
Siddons.

Just about the only interest of women's sports to me is that some
women players can maintain international representation in two
different sports. Once the money gets too big, clubs will sign them up
fulltime and they'll be forced to choose their single sport.

The athleticism in AFL is now amazing and the game is so much more
skillful. Elliot Cartledge concedes this, but argues that today's
possession and overcoached style of footy isn't as good as the
one-on-one beat-your-man battles of Footy's Glory Days.

Everyone thinks the pop music of their high school years is the best
pop music era ever (for me, the Eighties) and perhaps everyone thinks
the footy of their teenage years is the best era ever. Nostalgia is
different for each of us. I'd be happy to date my footy glory years to
coincide with the career of Tony Lockett (1983-1999) but then what
about the career of Adam Goodes? (1999-2015). There are new stars and
new heroes to follow. The newest club in the competition, GWS, is my
team through and through and soon Tasmania will be in the mix also.

Because I'm a late convert to AFL, in my twenties, I don't have the
youth and teenage attachment to an earlier era. For me, footy is still
very attractive and there are many pleasant years ahead. Footy's Glory
Days are still going.

                                            30th December 2024.

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