The AFL season starts on Thursday evening, we’re a few rounds into the 2018 NRL season and the A-League is drawing to a close. If I had to guess, I’d say right now is peak sportsball season in Australia.
So which game is best?
I’m not going to try and hide my bias here. I’ve been a Brisbane Lions tragic in the AFL since before they were the Lions.
‘Tragic’ is the only way to describe us Lions fans. We’ve been starved of success for over a decade. But you don’t change teams just because they suck. It’s not how being a fan works.
I was there for the first game under the lights at the Gabba. I was behind the goals when Shaun Smith took the mark of the century. I almost had my hand broken by Clark Keating after the 2003 Grand Final.
Now it’s time to ride out the prolonged period of suck. At least there’s the AFLX victory from earlier this year, even if that form of the game boils down to ‘give it to the guy who can bomb it 60m’.
Despite being born and raised in Brisbane, NRL never worked for me. People would get amped up for Origin. I would watch with Roy and HG on the radio giving commentary. It never clicked for me. I was even lucky enough to get free tickets to Alfie Langer’s retirement game yet I remember more about the free box of Rose chocolates than the game itself.
Yet watching the AFL was a totally different experience. Even with all of the suckiness I’ve had to endure as a Lions fan – and it’s a lot – there are glimmers of hope.
Moments of desperation where the team comes together and does something special. Moments like the Miracle on Grass.
These moments exist in other games. I don’t see them. I don’t have the attachment to the teams to make them special.
You can’t stop me from loving the AFL.
Oh and there’s also soccer. Which I guess is fine.
Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me you back the superior game.
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