Teammates

by Matt Zurbo

I was dragged out of retirement early this year. All up I missed three gloriously injury-free games. The memory of them and my total playing absence, was sweet.
But, before long I was back playing my 25th year of adult footy for the not so mighty Otway Districts Reserves. (Second last on the ladder. One up from last year!)
After the game there were only two showers working and five of us left in the rooms. Baum, Nibblet, the Craddock brothers and me. The rooms backed onto the best view of the oval, so we could hear people milling and barracking and talking farm talk just three or four meters behind us.
The simple thing to do would have been to have our showers and walk out and watch the footy while waiting for the others, but the boys lingered until all of us were ready, so we could walk out together.
It’s a small thing. The smallest. But it said more about teammates and the nature of footy than just about anything.
Four meters. Yet the boys who finished their shower first, without even thinking about it, second last on the ladder, nobody watching, waited until we were all ready, so we could leave/walk through that door as a team, as mates.
It was just magic! And made me feel invincible. A few of us went to the canteen, after which we went our own ways.

Comments

  1. Andrew Starkie says

    so true

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