We are fast approaching yet another one of those football oddity weekends.
Round 19, 2011 - a Bye week - which for me means my weekend will be void of that emotional roller-coaster ride of choice being the supporting of my mighty Brisbane Lions.
As I continue to stare at the fixture I see the weeks, rounds, letters and numbers start to morph into something that resembles more of a time-line. In an almost surreal “Arnott’s Shapes - flavour so big you can see it” meets Salvador Dali kind of way, I hear an approaching sound… Tick-tock, Tick-tock, as I see an image of an old grandfather clock, the arms on its face are quickly approaching midnight. The room is slowly becoming three dimensional. In the middle of the adjacent wall is a rectangular picture frame… an oil painting? A photo? No it’s a window… a window with vivid velvet blue David Lynch drapes, the window appears to be closing.
I sit motionlessly as the sounds of the clock begins to fade out, only to be replaced by the intonate palpitating of my heart.
You still don’t get it do you… sighs a voice through my headphones - the monitor screen flickers brightly and in the nanosecond required to blink, the word 'RETIREMENT', in bold Arial black font has now appeared.
Confused? Well I’m in my early 50s and at times, even I can feel a little perplexed at what some suggest ought to be the great expectations of retirement. Who knows what a young footballer anywhere between 20 and early to mid 30’s must contemplate when they read the word 'retirement'.
We regularly read in the media that football is now, more than ever, a business and at its heart is the importance of list management. It has been suggested that every year one in five AFL players either retires or is delisted.
So in contrast to the drafting views in some of the previous Member Roars, I thought I might tippy toe around what in my opinion is the more difficult side of drafting remembering “The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Club”. But with all due respect you don’t have to be blind Freddie to know there will be two or three Lions players over the next few months having to contemplate or even worse be asked to reconsider their futures.
How often do we hear - "after a long career player xxxx xxxx has just announced this morning he's hanging up his boots"? The press conference either seems to start off with a long sigh or an emotionally drawn out one syllable “Y-e-a-h….” Then, with thoughts partially supported by a returning glance by a club medico, continues with, “the decision was only really confirmed over the last couple of weeks when a specialist let me know…”
Then there are media quotes suggesting that a certain player is now one of the slowest in the AFL. I’m sure if players are close to the 300 game mark their competitive nature may never allow them to suggest it feels like they are again running through the knee deep shallows of say the Canning River at Shelley and not across the top of cynodon dactylon, the aptly named Legend Couch at the Gabba.
I think these days the standard utterance from ‘aging players’ would surely have to be “Over the last couple of years I’ve just been playing year by year”. And of course there is nothing out of the ordinary in reading that sort of ‘footy speak’ as many players closer to their twilight years than their debut, seem to be contracted on a similar ‘year-by-year’ basis.
One might think it would be errant of me to start quoting stats and percentages but I do believe there are a couple of trends that are worth noting regarding retirements (this does not include players de-listed).
1. The majority of players that retire/play their last game under the age of 30 years retire due to injury.
2. The remaining players, in my opinion are ‘retired’ due to age and a possible belief that sadly they do not have a role to play in achieving the clubs next premiership or assisting in the ‘fine-tuning’ of building the youngsters into a well structured squad.
I will exclude possible injury related retirements of players under 30 and look specifically at our plus 30 players aged players come the end of October 2011.
Again, in my opinion unless big Jonathan Brown (born 29 Oct 1981) receives medical advice regarding complications to his recent facial injuries, Captain Courageous will be leading the team out again next year.
Simon Black (born 3 Apil 1979) currently leads disposals, contested possessions and centre clearances at the Club. The man is all class - yes a little slower of foot but well ahead of most both at the club and across the league with endurance and speed of mind in all things football. I feel our Club is still developing or searching for an inside midfield replacement. With only five more home and away games to play Simon could go on and win his 4th Merrett-Murray Medal as the team's Best & Fairest and I see no reason why Simon should not go on to play/reach highly regarded milestone of 300 games.
Luke Power (born 8 Jan 1980) is another who could also reach the 300 game milestone if he plays on in 2012. His role this year has had him spending more time up forward where Luke is actually well positioned to win the clubs goal kicking for the year.
From a supporters point of view, I have my fingers crossed that all three previous co-captains can go on for at least one more year.
- Paul (Member #1109179)
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Club.
