Hound Dog: If you had your choice, would you rather be a rock star or a footy star?
Tim Rogers: The eternal question...when commentators will refer to footy players as "rock stars" I just wince as if I've taken a deep breath with a cracked rib. "Rock star" carries with it an inference of artifice and fantasy, whereas to do something on a footy ground carries an expectation that you could be crunched like a Solo can a millisecond afterward. The stakes are, to my mind, so much higher in a game of footy. There have, I must admit, been times when I'm buggered and playing to twelve disinterested drinkers that I've summoned the spirit of my favourite players deep in a fourth quarter, but James, a performer is, alas, all I will be, so a…dimming star I remain. However, to be the first 42 year old rookie to line up at CHF for North is still within the realms surely?
HD: In other countries people are either sports fans or music fans, but in Australia music fans are mad about footy and vice versa. Why are we like this in Australia do you think?
TR: When in the US, for example, my second question after meeting someone in the music guff, is do you dig baseball? I adore baseball, and figure that it's a conduit to so much else, including a more thorough appreciation of entertainment and communication. Even if the person doesn't dig the game, it's another way of getting to the real issue, which is: how do you feel? Are you a passionate person regarding art, sport, life, family and why? The "exclusivity" of the arts and sport has simply never been a part of my life. I LOVED footy and cricket and table tennis and soccer, and loved filthy rock'n'roll and Modigliani and theatre and Edith Piaf and Noel Coward and more rock'n'roll. There are folks who are like-minded in other countries but…we're just a little more...advanced here.
HD: You were raised in Adelaide, what attracted you to North Melbourne FC?
TR: I was born in Kalgoorlie WA, then moved to Perth, then Adelaide, then Sydney. Even though my Dad was born in Ferntree Gully, he took the family out to WA for work. I was born in Kal, and when I hit 5, we started seriously talkin’ about the game. It was '75 and as the great history tome's will attest, was a great Premiership year. We were in WA, and even though Dad was, and still is, a proud Bomber, he highlighted the WA presence in North at the time. I was hooked. Without even a hint of the North "culture" that’s become so important to me the club is a huge part of me. When my bloody team run out onto the oval I feel part of something greater than myself. Is the CHF spot still up for grabs? Promise I'll get myself together?
HD: Who is your favourite past player and why?
TR: Malcolm Blight was my idol as a kid, and I gladly took every slap and aside when he was proudly emblazoned on my schoolbag when I first arrived at school in NSW in 1983, but watching Glenn Archer play wiped me sideward. I've tried for years to recreate on record, for percussion tracks, the sound when he'd wrap his mitts round a ball when marking above his head. He'd crush the freakin thing. Leadership, passion, smarts....stop me.
HD: You've performed at the MCG on Grand Final day, in what ways did your preparation and nerves possibly compare to a player on that big day?
TR: I was jetlagged and delirious. James, I was simply enthralled to be there. In NO WAY could my nerves be compared to playing. I spoke briefly to Harry O'Brien the week before when I was in NYC listening to the Prelim on internet radio. We had a chat about allsorts, but even then, all I could think was (and knowing how circumspect and awash with perspective Harry is...) "how the hell can he go into this game on two feet?" I've played charity games under a self induced fog and been IMMOBILE with nerves...playin songs? HARDEN UP ROGERSTEIN!
HD: You had a big role in the AFL Finals 'Greatness' campaign last year mainly because your love of footy is so widely recognized. What is it about footy that touches Tim Rogers so deeply?
TR: It's my family history. And even if i prefer playing to watching, it's a game of rare beauty and thuggery. Where moments of artistry are sliced with acts of brutality. And yet, in parks around the world, it's all about a boy or a girl learning how to kick a drop punt with a loved one, and in an AFL stadium, or a country oval, a millionaire is sharing stories with someone far less fortunate about their shared team's fortunes. All in the same vernacular.
HD: How do you reckon the Roos will go in 2012?
TR: Buggered if I know but every freakin chance I get I'll be there. D. Petrie, L. Adams, Spud Firrito…gotta say I really like this bunch . Hard noses. Scott D Thomson my favourite full back since D Dench. Time to re-stitch the Duffel Coat I reckon...
HD: What are the plans for Tim Rogers in 2012?
TR: Too much. Films, records, theatre...to be better than 9th at the end of the year...How bout that? Go North.
