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A sporting dilemma
By RickMeasham | September 29, 2007
Today in the AFL, Geelong Cats take on Port Power in the Grand Final. Which is great. But not really. You see, it leaves me with a dilemma.
I grew up in Geelong. By default, natural allegiance or tradition I followed the Cats. I switched to the Hawks and the Bombers at different times due to the influence of strong role-models in my life, but always came back to the Cats. I remember standing in “the outer” with Dad and Kardinia Park watching them play. I remember going to “The G” on more than on occasion. But I also remember the disappointments. It was 1964 that Geelong last won a Grand Final — 10 years before I was born.
Geelong did fairly well at the end of the eighties and in the early nineties, but never good enough. Those years were full of football disappointments. I used to hang navy and white balloons and streamers from the tree out the front of the house. And sadly tear them down at the end of the day.
Those were the years of an increased national competition. South Melbourne Swans had moved to Sydney with Dr Edilson and his fancy ’swanettes’ in the 80’s and then we had Brisbane and Adelaide, West Coast and Freemantle.
Then Port Adelaide made the move from the SANFL.
Many of my fellow Geelong supporters were incensed that the AFL had decided to merge the Fitzroy Lions with the Brisbane Bears and call the new Queensland-based team “Brisbane Lions” in order to bring in this new team.
At that stage, the whole competition was in major flux. We were scared that Geelong could be next. Who would they want to merge us with? Would they just ‘move’ the team to Tasmania? Or would we become the ’second Sydney team’?
A friend and colleague of mine spent an entire afternoon ranting and raving (Hello Carol, if you see this!) about this new team and about the disintegration of the AFL. So just to rile her some more, I declared that from now on I was ‘over’ Geelong and their ‘Cat’astrophes. From now on, I would support Port Adelaide: “Port Power”.
So here I am, probably 10 years later. Port have a premiership under their belt and Geelong still haven’t won. I’m a Port supporter now. Really. I’m wearing the scarf as I type this.
But I have to confess: while I’m wearing a teal sock for Port, on my other foot is a navy sock for Geelong. We’re about 2 hours out from the opening bounce, and I’m still not sure who I’ll cheer louder. My ‘official’ team – Port Power, or the team of my natural allegiance – Geelong?
Edit: OK, after that appalling performance, let’s pretend I never mentioned Port Power, hmmkay?
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