9. The Socceroos beat the AFL

Watching The Socceroos play against Croatia the other morning was thrilling. And those are strong words coming from someone who is definitely not a soccer fan. I was caught up by the sight of the multitudes of people wearing either green and gold, or red and white check. This raging mass immersed in the excitement and emotion of this important game were sometimes literally jumping for joy, at other times sitting in stunned silence, or crying tears of genuine disappointment.

The players contested the game with a unique combination of aggression and friendliness. It was full on with many yellow cards and some red cards issued throughout the course of the game. And yet quite often the opposing players were helping one another up from the ground. It is a pleasure to see this kind of sportsmanship, especially when so much is at stake – The World Cup, national pride, and millions of dollars.

It was a draw but this means that Australia goes through to the next round whilst Croatia is out of the competition. This result is the best any Australian soccer team has ever achieved.

I still prefer aussie rules football. To me no other football game has that pure total body physical contest. They aren’t allowed to use their arms in soccer, so there goes any concept of total body contest. One can’t deny that soccer is a skillful game and obviously the most popular football code in the world. But I still think aussie rules is the better game.

From a footballers mothers point of view though I can see the attraction for other mothers to steer their little boys towards soccer rather than aussie rules. There is much less chance of our precious little darlings getting hurt playing soccer, and yet it is still a great game.

Unfortunately considering the way the AFL are tinkering with the rules I think that soccer will grow in popularity in Australia whilst aussie rules may become a dinosaur. If the AFL just left the game alone perhaps there would be a chance for it to survive, but they are killing off the aspects of the game that create spectacle and awe for the spectators. This season the overhead contested mark has greatly diminished on the stats sheets. This is a great shame as it alone is one of the true original features that makes this game so popular. The fans want to see the high fliers. And with the clubs tending towards the recruitment of smaller faster men then the game will certainly turn into a game of netball, as has been suggested by many people.

Jeremy played this week. As he was coming back from injury he played in the reserves of his designated team. He was happy to “have a bit of fun” and had 42 touches for the game playing in the midfield. He reports that his ankle feels fine. That is good news. Of course John and I are disappointed to have missed seeing him play yet again.