Friday, June 23, 2017

Phallic Friday - Love

I'm quite a bit wild today, as last night the blues (NSW rugby league team) fell back into old habits and lost the frigging game. I'm going to behave and not have a huge rant, except for this comment. At the end of the game, after Joey (commentator; former player) ranted about the stupidity of NSW in the second half, Freddie (commentator; former player) asked Laurie (coach; former player) if he'd been sending messages for them to target JT who was playing without full use of one arm. Laurie looks dopey at the best of times but he gave a dopier look and said, "No. There's no point. You hassle JT and they just move him out to the wing and protect him." WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?! Moving their defense around is KEY to the game. It's how you get past them and score. Why did NSW lose? Why did they play stupidly? I think there might be an answer in that comment. Having said that, there's still 13 blokes (plus reserves) playing the game who could have easily done what had to be done, except they were too stupid to(o).

But LOVE. Love stopped me being wild. Love even stopped me being a one-eyes Blues fan.

Let me get off the game of football and look at the families at the end of the game. Guys bring their kids onto the paddock these days after the game. It's just what they do. Sometimes it's a bit old; not last night. Billy Slater was back in Origin after a horror run of shoulder injuries, surgeries, and rehab. And he was awesome.

I used to not be a Billy fan. I thought he was dirty, especially when he went feet first into tackles. It made me wild. But he was penalised, copped many serves about it, and changed the way he plays...which forced me to change my mind about him. Recently, he scored his first try back from injury at the Storm vs Dragons game when I was there watching (I may have even cheered loudly in the middle of all those Dragons' fans).

Anyway, end of the game last night and they're interviewing Billy, when his daughter comes sneaking up to curl against his leg. My heart started to melt. When he finished speaking, he swoops down to hug her, and is swamped not just with his kids but Cameron Smith's (his Storm teammate) as well. Lots of hugs all around. Then he picks his daughter up and more melting on my couch.

Next time we see Billy, he's heading for the stand and his wife, and there's no deviation; he's on a mission. She's beaming and reaching for him. They kiss, then swamp each other in a hug. In that hug, there's so much love but also signs of all the sacrifice, cooperation, determination, and support.

I stalk her on Instagram. I started because I saw a timelapse video of her painting lorikeets. I can't paint to save my life; my artistic skills are stunted at about an 8 year old's level. She went from a few fine lines to this amazingly, bright, gorgeous painting with just a few sweeps of a paint brush (I exaggerate a bit!). It was beautiful to watch. Her art work is amazing (@NicoleRoseArt) but while admiring her art, I've come to admire her love of family.

Their world is not all about football. There's also kids, pets, horses, farms, friends, and love.

I know it may just be the rosy-coloured glasses of social media and TV, but I hope not. I hope this kind of love exists.

I tried to create some of this is in Team Player. I wanted the Glebe Gannets to have an atmosphere where family was important, where kids and wives mattered, where player welfare was a concern. I didn't want to write a story about the negative side of life or football. I wanted to write a story that made you smile. A story that picked up the good in life and football, and expand on that. There's enough shit in the world. Enough bad press for football. Enough stupid players (although there is one in Team Player - but I have a plan to reform him!).

I wanted Team Player to celebrate life and love. Like the Slaters did last night.

Do you believe in love?

2 comments:

  1. I'm so glad I'm reading Team Player while reading this post. You've definitely captured some of this in the story. You know I'm a maroon fan, so I was glad to see QLD win. JT is out now, I hear, which will make the final game all that much harder for QLD. It's a great series!

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    1. Thanks :) I never know what I've got in a story. I write, and when I read it back, it shocks me sometimes to see what's in there. Super glad what I wanted to put in, actually went in!

      I actually cheered for Qld and I was damn glad Mr E went to bed early! There was a Coops dash, then he almost scored, and by then I was really annoyed at NSW, so I cheered for Qld to get up and teach the idiots a lesson. That's so bad. I never do that with Parra. Too weird.

      I'm really sorry JT is out. He's such a tough guy and he seems to really rattle NSW. Just quietly, I hope QLd can win it even without JT, just to put NSW back in place and so they stop thinking they won once, and they're invincible. Gee, I'm such a bad supporter...but man they make me wild with their stupidity that they can't even see!

      Cate xoxox

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