Round 2 – Brisbane v Fremantle: Behind the pub’s velvet rope

Brisbane v Fremantle

1:45pm, Saturday June 13

The Gabba

 

 

The week hadn’t started off on the best note and, two days later, not a whole lot had improved.

 

A loose plan was in motion and much like the players who had taken the field 12 weeks after their last hitout on Thursday night, seemed completely under-cooked.

 

My diehard Lions mate Shirl – who when first introduced to me in a Melbourne Uni tutorial shouted ‘QUEENSLANDER’ to the heavens and/or King Wally and Big Mal – had sent me a message filled with sorrow.

 

“They’re fully booked.”

 

“Just called five different pubs and they’re all booked out – we might have to watch this one at home…”

 

Earlier in the week we’d discussed a return to the joys of watching our beloved boys from Brisbane town from a fine little pub with a Lions-friendly vibe that sat almost smack-bang in the middle of our two homes; The Birmingham Hotel.

 

The Birmy had been our pub of choice for three of the past four games we’d watched together; that one outlier resulted in a loss for Brisbane. It had fast become a place of ritual, to cherish the panache of Charlie Cameron and smarts of Hugh “McSuitcase” McCluggage; to witness the rebirth of our team who hadn’t set the world on fire since we were both barely out of high school in the Sunshine State.

 

There were no tables available at The Birmy.

 

Resigned to the whims of fate (and of course having failed to book a table at a pub on Smith Street, on the first Saturday featuring live footy in months, which could legally only house 20 people, earlier than the morning of…) my backup plan was to turn on the TV at home and curse a moment lost.

 

Then, a glimmer of hope…the phone screen flashed and I unlocked the screen.

 

“The bloke just called me and he can fit us in!!! See you there at 1:45?”

 

The drama! The joy! A comeback so sweet it could rival the ‘Miracle on Grass’.

 

I was set to eat, drink and be merry at the pub watching the footy; the stuff Covid-dreams are made of…

 

---

 

Decked out with guernsey underneath my jacket and a tussled iso-mane to rival Simba’s I entered the pub and waited to be seated. Booking name, contact number, and a confident shake of the head to “Have you been overseas or experienced flu-like symptoms recently?” and I was in.

 

The ball had already been bounced as I sat down; soon the Lions had hit the scoreboard and a first jug of golden ale poured freely into our glasses.

 

In the midst of a Charlie masterclass in the making, we talked friends and family, prospects for Brisbane in a short season, our shared yet separate halcyon days spent at Ballymore watching the Reds, history of the Bears and Tasmanian footy, tribalism and classism within teams and footy training in your 30s.

 

More beers followed (with the obligatory food under coronavirus restrictions: chips as crisp as a Lachie Neale handball) and I had the stark realisation that I was watching the footy and bloody loving it. Qualms about the wisdom of restarting the season, crowds or no crowds, player fitness, player skills, player incomes, long term public health outcomes…in the company of a like-minded mate, with months worth of yarns to catch up on and a Brisbane team in transition towards ‘premiership contender’ to guide the way, they all simply took a brief back seat.

 

The Big O came into his own and Stef spent time on the pine looking sore as we discussed the legacy of Christopher Skase and the works of Ross Fitzgerald. Tom Berry and Callum Ah Chee won plenty of plaudits on debut and we shared tales of Redcliffe Dolphins in the Queensland Cup and the serendipitous comfort of Fitzroy’s legacy for the son of a League player.

 

And all too soon, Nat Fyfe and Sonny Walters’ spirited comeback was over as Zorko the magician had pulled a sealing goal out of his hat. The siren sounded, La Marseillaise burst forth from the Woolloogabba PA system and we celebrated being back on the winners list by singing along and pouring another beer.

 

It was at once the most sweet and bitter of the day; our ritual had grown stronger and half an hour later we parted ways to return to the world of cold streets, social distancing, statistics of many shades and a wholly certain amount of uncertainty.

 

 

BRISBANE        4.2     8.2    11.5    12.9 (81)
FREMANTLE    3.0     7.3    8.5    10.9 (69)

 

GOALS
Brisbane: Cameron 4, Neale 2, McInerney, Zorko, McStay, Hipwood, Ah Chee, Zorko
Fremantle: Fyfe 3, Taberner 2, Walters 2, Matera, Schultz, Banfield

 

BEST
Brisbane: Cameron, Neale, McInerney, Zorko, Andrews, Robinson
Fremantle: Fyfe, Walters, Aish, Taberner, Ryan

 

 

 

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