Yes, I know it is late. The AFL grand final was two weekends ago, and the NRL grand final was last weekend…but anyway.
Regardless of which predominate code of footy you follow, it is the end of the home-and-away season. Some say that it’s a good thing (like a good friend of mine who does not enjoy watching either of those codes to great lengths), and others (like myself) dread when the season comes to an end. It’s not like I do not enjoy either of the grand finals (the AFL one was a let-down, I tipped Geelong, and the NRL one was fantastic to watch, even though I don’t follow it to great lengths), it’s just that this time of the year incurs a void.
A void which is not usually filled until the beginning of November. The cricket season begins!
After planning most of your year around watching your favourite team play on the TV, it’s hard to get back into the mindset that there isn’t sport to watch on the TV of a weekend. No doubt that Soccer fans will complain that they always have a competition going on at any time during the year, but it’s not the same. It doesn’t feel Australian to me. If you look at the history of sport in Australia, you would realise that Soccer hasn’t been played for very long in this country. If you take a peek at the two predominate codes of footy, one has been played for 150 years (AFL), and the other 100 years (NRL). My apologies to the purist Soccer fans, but the two major codes are entrenched Australian sports. Soccer, I believe, is just another import from a foreign country.
NRL (National Rugby League), one of the Grand Final plays.
AFL (Australian Footbal League), one of the marks of the 2007 Grand Final.
Anyway, enough of that.
I’m not sure what happens during this time of year leading up to the new year for NRL, but I do know that the AFL have ‘trade week’ where players are bought, sold and traded to clubs for large sums of money (still nothing like the ridiculous sums of money in the English Soccer League). No doubt that both Hawthorn (AFL) and Manly (NRL) will still be celebrating their grand final victories in grand style, while the rest of us are back at school/work.
So, what do we do now?
Sit and wait, I suppose. The cricket season isn’t far away, so while there is a void at the present time, it will pass… Just the same way that it does for every other year.
{weed}