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View Full Version : Pre-Grand Final thoughts of a fan



Raw Toast
29-09-2016, 01:18 PM
So who knew that Grand Final week would be so exhausting?

Of course I should have known this, given that I study the passions of sports fans (among other things), but perhaps some things you have to experience for yourself, plus barrackers who have been there before talked more of the grand final than the week leading up to it.

Nevertheless, I wanted to write about one of the tensions that I've been feeling as a Bulldogs barracker this week - not sure if it is of interest to others or not, but I find writing helpful for at least myself in these instances and thought I'd put it out there anyway.

Like so many others, I've spent much of my time as a barracker craving a premiership - for me it began in 1983, with my first heartbreak in 85 and lots of joy and grief since then. I'll be heartbroken if we lose on Saturday, but while we live for these moments and the chance (and hopefully realisation) of glory, it still feels important for me at least to note that even if we lose, I feel privileged to be a Bulldogs barracker.

I know that others have at times a more embittered relationship to the club, and there are good reasons for that. But I love this club and the absurdly meaningful role that they play in my life.

A friend recently wrote to me that those unfortunate enough to not have a footy team (or other sporting team) have "no collective soul":


There is no collective story happening in front of them and in their lives, no Dionysiac cult which regularly abolishes all meaningful distinctions between individual selves - those moments where every single person is experiencing, essentially the same sensate emotions and conceptual horrors slash exultation. The closest to that which they get is... plays, and movies, and books and the like. All wonderful things, they keep me alive at various junctures in my life, I'm not knocking them, but they are not the same. Partly they are not the same because on some level we know that these stories have already been written, by someone else, and we now experiencing them, well or badly, but experiencing them after the fact. The best of them make us forget this fact while they are happening. But in football... What happens to the souls of non-football supporters after they die? They must perish utterly, poor creatures. Verily they deserve our pity.

And not only that, but my club, *our bloody club*, has fought against the odds at every moment. Nothing been given to the Dogs, we have fought and scrapped through everything, and hopefully we stand at the dawn of a dynasty that makes us hated for our success. I'm not greedy. After we've won 5 flags in a row, I probably won't mind *too* much if we don't win the next one. But even if this dynasty doesn't eventuate, even if the heartbreak continues, I'll love the club and appreciate being part of a collective soul with all our glorious and painful history.

There's much more to be said of course, about the cruel, addictive, intoxicating, glorious uncertainty of this game that draws us to its flame, the way it's not all about the premiership while being all about the premiership, but enough for now...

I want a flag more dearly than so many other things, but the privilege of being able to barrack for the Bulldogs is enough, even if no flag comes. If we wanted to chase flags over everything else we'd have chosen other teams a long time ago. Give me the Bulldogs over that any day - I'll take barracking for us over any other club. They'll never take the euphoria of these last three weeks off me (and what an extraordinary season it has been), and I'll keep woofing, snarling and cheering for the red, white and blue until the end.

SonofScray
30-09-2016, 07:43 AM
"We'll take whatever comes to be,
While keeping hopeful melody,
And we'll cruise through the darkness,
Until the warmth of dawn" The Tempest, Real MacKenzies

Love that commentary around a collective soul. I described the Final siren last week as catharsis en masse. It was amazing. Past, present and future playing out at once in the hearts, minds and actions of thousands.

merantau
30-09-2016, 08:13 AM
Powerful, insightful writing by you and your mate Raw Toast - I really enjoyed and absorbed the read.
I pity the "high culture" types who look down their noses at us. They just don't get it and they never will. Compared to the emotionality of my Bulldog life, living their's must be like bumbling around in a Prozac fuelled blacmonge of cold porridge - if their is such a thing!

Twodogs
30-09-2016, 08:41 AM
Powerful, insightful writing by you and your mate Raw Toast - I really enjoyed and absorbed the read.
I pity the "high culture" types who look down their noses at us. They just don't get it and they never will. Compared to the emotionality of my Bulldog life, living their's must be like bumbling around in a Prozac fuelled blacmonge of cold porridge - if their is such a thing!


*!*!*!*! 'em.

If their head is that far up their own arse that they can't see the passion in a play like this then they are irredeemable human beings we are better off having nothing to do with. They are probably on earth for some metaphysical reason (a food source for some particularly nasty future visiting alien I expect) but it doesn't mean that we have to interact with them.

anfo27
30-09-2016, 10:45 AM
I think people who don't follow sport with a passion are missing out. I'm sure they all have a passion for something but what other passion allows you to stand up & yell & cheer at the top of your voice? To be so passionate about something that evokes such emotion is a truly great thing. I feel sorry for people who don't have this in their lives.

Eastdog
01-10-2016, 01:32 AM
Really great post Raw Toast. I will always be a Bulldog. The Bulldogs is something that brings us all altogether. The Bulldogs are an important part of my life.

ratsmac
01-10-2016, 02:22 AM
Perfectly written Raw toast. You summed it up beautifully. I was having a conversation with my mum just the other day, that what we have experienced already, they (whoever they are) cannot take that away from us. The painful times of being a bulldog supporter has made this grand final week so much more enjoyable than I could of ever imagined. A win tomorrow will be just deserves for the long suffering fans though.