10. Tall poppy syndrome

This is the story we heard: A close mate of Jeremy’s was drafted to an AFL team this year. He was home visiting for the weekend and hanging out with his old school mates in the place where he had lived all of his life. They decided to go to a local party. On arriving there they were surprised to see so many people and very few that they actually knew. Someone pointed out that this mate of Jeremy’s was so-and-so from such-an-such AFL team. Some of the young blokes obviously took some kind of offence at this and started to get in his face, giving him grief verbally. He turned to walk away and was confronted with another mate on the ground being beaten up by some of these teenagers. He ran over to pull off the offender and was hit across the head with a bottle. He later received stitches to his head and has a fractured skull.

Jeremy was not there fortunately but it could just as easily have happened to him. It is fortunate that he is in another State. His new mates are all AFL footballers and they move in their own tight knit circles. This provides some kind of protection against this type of unstable attitude and behaviour by some people in our community. It really does make you wonder what gets into their heads that drives them to make these unprovoked attacks.

Australian mateship is not what it used to be in the old days, sad to say. There are now so many new boundaries that separate groups into gangs or tribes. There is nationality, fame envy, or is that “tall poppy syndrome”? Economic inequality is another divisive factor. How do these young people know who to trust?

This unfortunate incident highlights the facts that AFL footballers, and probably many other sportspeople and celebrities, have to be extremely careful when they go out. These young footballers who are new to this scene are often unaware of the stir they can cause simply by being in a certain place, especially in the public eye. Afterall there is nothing different about them. They have come from ordinary Australian backgrounds (most of them). They are just kids out of high school. Most of them don’t think they are any better than anybody else.

Jeremy played this weekend. His team was beaten by 15 goals. John and I drove up a local hill to see if the radio reception was better from a higher vantage point, but we could not hear the broadcast. We tried to listen over the internet but again the reception was intermittent and we could only hear every second word being said by the commentators. We gave up and phoned Jeremy after the game to see how he went. He said that his first half was good. He spent the third quarter on the bench and they put him in the back line for the last quarter, where he stood beside an opponent who was staying clear of the ball to allow the opposition’s major goal kicker to score time and time again.

We glimpsed Jeremy’s face on TV during the news last night. He was running with his AFL team obviously during their rehabilitation session. He needs a hair cut thinks his mother.