Opinion: Grand final eve confessions of an accidental fair weather Swans fan | michaelkoziol
Sport did not run in my family. There were no childhood outings to Homebush or the local oval, no Test matches or World Cup qualifiers, no Saturday soccer or swimming trials. The closest I came to understanding the power of footy in Australian culture was observing my grandfather’s adoration for the St George Illawarra Dragons.
This was a foreign world to me for many years. I had but one sporting love as a young man: tennis. I latched on to Roger Federer, and throughBut football – with its grit and masculinity, camaraderie and social eminence – eluded me. I veered dangerously close to becoming one of those people who use the term “sportsball” to signify their disinterest in such shallow matters.
I tagged along to a couple of games at the Sydney Cricket Ground, but football does not reward casual acquaintance. It profits those whoit. And so, like a capricious gym-goer signing up on January 1, I took out Sydney Swans membership before the first game of this season, hoping it would spur me into regular attendance.And what a season it turned out to be.
You deploy the royal “we” - as in “we made the grand final” – with great excitement but also great hesitation. Insofar as any punter in the stands has done anything to contribute to that outcome, it certainly wasn’t some Johnny-come-lately in the Red Zone who still hasn’t mastered the words ofLong-time fans raise their eyebrows accusingly.
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