5 Minutes to go in the last quarter. It’s been a tough, dour struggle for the past 100 minutes in a low scoring affair. The Bulldogs have had control of the football and most of the attacking opportunities for most of the game. We have had the lead for the entire game. The Saints have dragged the game down to an old fashioned slug-fest. Tight pressure, hard running, blocking the Bulldogs speed and clogging up the spaces the Doggies so much like to lead in to. A fast break is hard to come by for either side and the Dogs are forced to chip around to find a viable option and apparently a long bomb isn’t a viable option.St. Kilda gets a rare opportunity to try for a long snap for goal. It finds its way through the goals like a ball is a magnet drawn to a point behind the goal square. It’s the Saints third goal in the last 5 minutes and is enough to put them in the lead. It’s a long scrappy affair of man on man with hard fought possessions and desperate bumps and tackles from tired legs as the Dogs pursue any possible course for a last minute grasp of saving this victory.
It’s an important game for the Bulldogs. 3 wins 2 losses, this win over a competition leader would not only set up the rest of the season, but put the football nation on notice: The Doggies are still a force yet.
The Bulldogs were steeled for a hard contest and expected no quarter from the Saints. They came out fighting, and held control for most of the match but couldn’t add the polish to their attacks. Saints hold hard to their lead and chip the ball to any loose man available. The ball is kept close to the boundary away from the corridor to chew up even more valuable time if the ball should dribble over the line. Both sides look dead on their feet but neither is willing to concede a backward step.
I’m watching from Level 2 at Docklands stadium with my heart in my throat. What looked like a foregone conclusion for most of the game was slipping through MY fingers. We need this Dogs. WE NEED IT!!!
The siren sounds. The game is over. Saints by 3 points. The hard work put in by the boys for 3 and a half quarters won’t even be remembered by history. It’s the game we should have won. The one that got away. Our season looks all the more difficult now. Chinks are appearing in our armor. Dogs don’t look like that big a hurdle now for opposition teams.
I sink into my seat, empty and hollow. The hurt is very, very real.
At the point of the siren sounding I see the Dogs players as they all seem to share that group devastation. Some drop to the ground like they had been shot. Players squat on the ground with their heads down, not wanting to look up. I was reminded of the 1997 Preliminary loss to Adelaide. The aftermath on the ground was similar. The hurt, the feeling of tragedy, the loss. Not just of the game, but that loss you feel inside. Like something very personal has been taken from you.
It’s that amazing thing with sport. That human connection of shared emotion between like-minded supporters and friends, of shared consciousness, between team mate and team mate, between team mates and their support staff. But importantly between us the football-going public and the players that pull on that club jumper and give everything of themselves to that single minded cause.
As supporters we cheer every goal, feel every bump and tackle, rue every bad decision our nominated players create out on the field. Their pain is our pain and vice-versa. And our joy is also theirs.
It is a truly symbiotic relationship. They are our representatives on the ground, just as we are theirs with our support, our colors and our voice. Every quarter-year I get a magazine from my footy club with articles outlining club news and progress and a positive re-enforcement of our direction. Every quarter-year there is a written piece by club President David Smorgan. Each quarter-year he reiterates the importance of our membership and the necessity of signing up as a proud supporter. I hear him on the radio urging supporters to come to the games and barrack for the team. I hear interviews from players saying how fantastic it is to hear crowds in attendance pushing and lifting them up to greater feats. We need each other, for it truly is a symbiotic partnership. One couldn’t survive without the other. And the connection can be very, very real. As much as I shared, and I mean truly SHARED, the pain of the Bulldogs loss I can promise you Saints supporters also shared the relief and joy of a victory snatched.
In this day and age, with the popularity of the sport and the growing amount of auxiliary coverage from the many different AFL-related shows and media outlets we have never been closer to the personality of the players. The passage of their careers is just as important to the fans is as it to the player. Their career highlights and low points are pursued and shared with us.
Twitter gives us the beautiful opportunity for us to share that journey together. We do anyway, on the field, in the papers, radio forums and interviews… But with Twitter we would get the opportunity to an insight that has never been available to us in the past. In the rare occasions in which I’ve had the privilege to chat with the players in the flesh it has almost always been a real delight and pleasure. They have been appreciative and gracious. Twitter keeps that experience very real but also enjoys that comfortable cyber-buffer. I applaud players such as Collingwood’s @harry_o (Harry O’Brien) and Melbourne’s @nathan2jones (Nathan Jones). Also the many other elite sportspeople over the world that utilize this opportunity. It really helps bring the supporter into feeling more accepted as part of the team. And as David Smorgan will tell you, supporters are very much an integral part of the team.
The loss to the Saints was gut-wrenching. The trip home was a long one. I imagine the same would have been felt by all the 22 Dogs players that night. I wouldn’t have to imagine if one had a twitter account available. There is a comfort in knowing the players you barrack hard for are also hurting, just as it would be immensely exciting to share the good times on that personal level. Every AFL club should encourage their players to sign on to a Twitter account. That way the journey would truly be ours.
