Adelaide is great

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If the Adelaide Football Club motto is : Born to great things (Natus ad magna geranda) then it has been rising above the horribly complex and definitive loss of Phil Walsh and is taking our state and the AFL with it. Scott Camporeale has been trending for a couple of hours on Twitter because he is the new interim coach for the club and he is going to honour Phil Walsh's vision  and try to move through the emotion of the  situation that way. This follows on from what was, to all accounts - all accounts - a very moving and meaningful gesture yesterday from the March of Silence to the ceremony at the Adelaide Oval. Those who were there were deeply moved by it. The family has expressed thanks for such an obvious and huge support for their situation and everyone and anyone to do with football in this country has been picking up the lead of this club and uniting themselves for the family, for the game and for everything Phil Walsh represented. Football. He loved it. He gave his life to it. It meant everything to him that he could share his passion and enthusiam for the game. You do not have to know Phil Walsh or like football to know that Phil Walsh was an inspiration as a coach because he lived for the game and the good it could bring. His club has come together to support Meredith and Quinn Walsh so that they can see their awful situation is not beyond hope or care. The leadership displayed in how this is now unfolding is worth noting. It is a solid uniting of football fans and players which then has reached out to the rest of the community and allowed us to blur the pain a bit. We know it's a horrendous situation. We know it must be unbearable. We know that Meredith and Quinn Walsh must be feeling so black and numb. We cannot even guess really how they might be feeling. The Adelaide Football Club is living up to its motto because this is a gargantuan challenge to keep the spirit of someone like Phil Walsh burning strongly and brightly. This is not canonising him or making him more than a man. It's redressing the imbalance of fate and providing an undeniable blanket of solidarity around Meredith and Quinn who have some tough times to work through. 

Adelaide Oval

Everyone I have met who has been to the new , redeveloped Adelaide Oval is raving about it . About half my friends are AFL fans and they just love being able to go into town to see the footy. There have been capacity crowds. One friend said he was a bit worried the bridge would collapse because there were so many people on it, but he had reasured himself it wouldn't! This is how unused to  bridges we are in Adelaide. At Darling Harbour or on the Yarra you never think those sorts of thoughts. You just cross over and enjoy the view. There have been a lot of posts in my Facebook feed about the Adelaide Oval and how great it is. Driving out to Football Park has always been a chore for those in outlying suburbs and the parking has never been the best nor has it been easy to socialise there before or after the event. This way so many people can catch a bus or train into town, tourists can easily find it and see either the cricket in summer or the football in winter and they can have a meal before or after the match in one of our great cafes or restaurants.. There is tweaking to be done, but on the whole, this has given our city and our population so much joy already. There was so much discussion, and rightly so, but this new venue has now been welcomed with open arms. Our cricket pitch at the Adelaide Oval was picturesque and historic. We have let it go because we are not a rich city and we need to make the best use we can of our amenities. The bridge is a bonus. It is something which has really cheered everyone up. We need to make our city easier to be in and a place for people to relax and feel at home. I am pleased it has worked so well because it will help mitigate the pain of what was a very tough decision.

Post Season Hazards

This article which refers to Paul Marsh's  call for a summit on athlete's work - life balance is important. Losing John McCarthy in Las Vegas is something which has had a profound effect in Adelaide this week. There has been no criticism of the club, the players, the inquiry in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas police. There have been no critics and praise has been offered where it is due. It has cut across all age groups and all people. It doesn't matter whether we care about football or not, care about Port Power or not, the resonance of losing a 22 year old player who was doing so well, reverberated through our state. It may well have reverberated through the whole of Australia. We are deeply concerned because we have all been talking about it but in a quiet, considered way. We are so sorry for his parents and cannot think how they must be feeling. Every parent with sons who plays sport and to a high level is troubled and concerned. We won't be stopping our children playing sport but we worry now for their safety. Port Power has had a horrible year and we are conscious of that so everyone has pulled together to ensure the club itself knows we do not see this as a Port Power issue. It is interesting how everyone has been very clear in their support for the Power so they know they can draw on our community strength to get through this. This is something we must all deal with and so Paul Marsh is suggesting something practical where we can look at the issues, the post season problems, the blokey culture perhaps - whatever it is which might have contributed to this pathway. A lot of women have wondered why players cannot celebrate the end of season at home in Australia or at home with their families. What is wrong with that? They spend a lot of time away playing , a lot of time dedicating their lives to fitness and condition so what is wrong with celebrating with their friends and family? Guys tend to think well, take them away, let them let off steam and then precisely what Paul Marsh has said - the post season carry on is now a concern. Perhaps it's our society. Perhaps its our culture so the next question I heard this week is what culture are clubs actually trying to engender in their players? What is it they want to achieve as part of the club culture? Post season is a part of that. We've accepted that as a community we all need to work on this and we all need to be part of the solution - if not, we shall be part of the precipitate and what is currently precipitating is making us so aware that his parents must be dealing with a really unthinkable situation right now and we are thinking about them a lot. We are also thinking a 22 year old just lost his life and so it's not letting off steam and it's not partying. It's not what we want. Even if we knew nothing about John McCarthy we are all now aware we have a young man who represents all our young althletes and we need to get this right. I hope people will listen to Paul Marsh and follow his lead and so we can all create something better for our young people. 

Adelaide not good enough

Image via WikipediaI have to do this for my brother in law who died just before Christmas last year. He would never forgive me if I didn't and you will have to bear with the vagueness and fill in the gaps for me because, were he here, he'd be able to rattle off names and statistics for me so that I would sound far more credible. For the Crows to be subscribing to the bunk that Adelaide is not good enough for their players and it's not easy for them to recruit players because it is Adelaide is exactly what I said...bunk. I know the recruiting manager has also supposed to have said players love it when they get here...but then he goes on to say, according to this article, that we cannot get South Australians out of Victoria once they are there. The eastern states spend a lot of time making fun of us and putting us down. We are now starting to believe it and it is nonsense. We are not a big city and we have never wanted to be. Adelaide provides everything you need and want and you can set your life up here brilliantly. Maybe the young players do want the bright lights and the big city...but the other capital cities are within easy flying distance. You only have to look at the names we have produced over the years that other interstate teams have recruited to know we produce top quality footballers here who have contributed significantly to the game. My brother in law was Norwood through and through but supported the Crows when they went into the AFL. He always said though that Victoria in particular would not tolerate SA teams in the AFL and would work on changing that. I think we need to get this into perspective. I think we need to get a very clear idea of what SA has done for football. If then the picture looks bad...then by all means bad mouth us.