Almanac Footy: Finals Diary, Chapter 4 – Stories to Savour in the Shadow of Barassi

 

 

It took me too long to discover The Footy Almanac. This community of writing, writers, ideas and stories embodies what I love about the football. It’s about our game as a cultural driver and our game as stimulus for story. That’s what I love about football. The stories and narratives that it drives. One certainty awaits, it will be a new premiership coach this year.

 

I don’t have a Ron Barassi story, not a personal one, not a specific one. In that, I feel a little bit unusual. For every one of his former champion charges who have fronted the media this week with their recollections, there has also been several smaller stories that people I know have told me. They’re interactions with Mr. 17-4-10 as fans. Him being a friend of their neighbour’s dad when they were kids and giving them all the time, energy, and attention in the world. People I know who remember him visiting his ailing mother in the nursing home they work in. The common thread that in all of the Barassi stories being told is his ability to connect. Here was a man, our biggest ever name, who was comfortable with his legend status but who was also eminently accessible. And what better personification of our game is there than this?

 

The next ten days will see some stories to savour unfold. And they are all stories that I can find a way to connect with and cheer for. The Giants once symbolised everything that I, as a Fitzroy supporter, struggled with about the new AFL. They were more strategic deployment than they were a proper football club, an exercise in future planning. Gently mocked by the Bulldogs’ banner some years ago suggesting that they (the Doggies) were “born in blood and boots” unlike the Giants who came from “AFL focus groups”. But they’re a gritty proper mob now. They must have fans with a spirit of their own, their banner a few weeks ago reminded the once mighty and certainly historic Essendon that “Last time you won a final, we weren’t even created”. Outpost they may still be, yet to really cement a sizable fanbase or become a destination club. But a flag would frank the experiment and give a marker that may echo through future generations. One feels Toby Greene is a player that Barassi would have admired.

 

Collingwood may well join Essendon and Carlton with sixteen premierships. Giving the Daicos name even more legendary resonance than it already carries. If the universe turns Craig McRae into a premiership coach, it would be a win for the type of society we should be building. ‘Fly’ needs no introduction to Lions fans like me. The whispers were that it was he who ran the footy trips at the end of each year in that great era. His old teammates speak of his humour, his ability to build and shape community in the same way his current charges do. The football seems almost and afterthought. He has brought a joi de vivre to not just Collingwood but our game. Even the most rabid Magpie hater would surely not begrudge ‘Fly’ saluting, Pendelbury bookending a fabulous career and Captain Darcy finishing some Moore family business and bringing a premiership medal home?

 

There’s a new kind of Carlton too. Success starved. It’s hard for fans of my generation to admit but they have become almost lovable. I don’t want it to be this year, but I do want to see Vossie succeed. One of my earlier Almanac pieces opined that a premiership as coach would see Voss on his way to becoming the Matthews or Barassi of our time. https://www.footyalmanac.com.au/voss-does-a-second-act-beckon/

 

Shakespeare suggested that the head that wears the crown rests heavy, the British Empires that inspired the great bard perhaps never produced in their monarchs a figure quite like Michael Voss. It is easy to forget that Sam Docherty started as a Lion rookie under Vossie. Patrick Cripps is the Robbie Flower of our time, a mighty and lengthy career before finally playing his first final. Honestly, if it can’t be us, I hope it’s them.

 

And my Lions. What can I say? Nothing yet, I’m trying to be magnanimous, a statesman like fan who just wants to see football to be the real winner. Trying to not get ahead of myself and imagine what could be. When I return to work after these school holidays, I will either be the only fan whose team won a premiership or ruing opportunities missed. More finals diary entries await before the week is out.

 

 

 

 

My daughter stood alone last week as the only Lions fan at her school, as such, she created and marched alone with this banner. A girl from old Fitzroy who is less pessimistic than her dad. She knows that not only do we have Charlie Cameron in our team, but more importantly, no one else does!

 

More from Shane Reid can be read Here.

 

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