On hallowed ground

By David Sutherland.

There’s nothing quite like standing a few metres short of the fifty metre line, right where it meets the boundary, and lining up for goal from the EXACT SAME POINT that your favourite player had a shot from during the match you’ve just seen.

The goals look so far away! And you think: How did Daics/Plugger/Sticks/Dermie slot it all the way from here? 

But you go back, line it up and have a shot anyway. Usually the ball drops short; sometimes it skews off the side of the boot; occasionally it flies low and hard into the back of some poor kid’s head, knocking his beanie off.

(lucky he barracks for the opposition. You turn the other way and whistle to yourself, all innocent)

Booting the footy on the hallowed turf is a wonderful feeling. You can imagine the crowd cheering your every move. You can see (in your mind’s eye) your teammates streaming out of defence in numbers, running through the midfield and looking for your lead. You can smell the grass beneath your feet, and see the chunks torn from it where your heroes fought for the pride of their club.

It doesn’t happen much anymore because most AFL grounds struggle to cope with any more traffic than they already receive.  But last weekend tens of thousands of people got their chance to have a kick on the hallowed turf of various AFL grounds around the country, as part of the AFL’s build up to Kick Around Australia Day tomorrow (Thursday August 7).

On August 7 it will be exactly 150 years to the day since the first recorded game of Australian football. To celebrate the day the AFL is encouraging people around the nation to kick the football. Schools, organisations and individuals are all encouraged to bring a footy to school or work, and boot it around with their mates, family or colleagues.

Since last weekend was the last round of AFL footy before Kick Around Australia Day the league provided the opportunity for people to kick the footy after four AFL matches.

The North Melbourne versus Brisbane Lions game at the Gold Coast Stadium; Adelaide vs Carlton at AAMI Stadium; Western Bulldogs vs Sydney at Manuka Oval; and Fremantle vs West Coast at Subiaco Oval all saw kids and adults, men and women, boys and girls, pouring on to the ovals once the final siren had sounded to enjoy the simple pleasure of sinking the boot into leather on the hallowed turf.

And at half time in the Essendon-Melbourne game at the MCG Essendon duo Scott Gumbleton and Melbourne players Brent Moloney and Jared Rivers had a game of kick to kick on the ground with four young kids who have recently suffered from cancer. The players took the kids through a number of drills and they also got to meet the club mascots.

Heaps of fun for the kids, and what a great way to mark the last weekend before Kick Around Australia Day.