BULLETIN - POST ROUND 1

Barry Hall is right – ‘It’s déjà vu all over again.’

The approach of the football season, its sensations, are very familiar. There is an annual repetitiveness to this time of year. Here we go. Here we go again. It feels the same as it creeps into the bones. By mid March, I’m looking for the Sports pages again. I’ve switched my Home page back over to sydneyswans.com.au. The chatterings of pre-season form find ways to infiltrate my concerted disinterest. The goal posts are banged into the sunbaked lawn of the backyard. It is a time that is all about potential, a time to scheme wonderful changes for your team, your tipping and for footy in general.

There is pure excitement for the impending resumption of play – how many more sleeps? There are the puffed up hopes that a clean slate offers. It’s a little like childbirth. The body and mind forget the pain of the last time and, if you’re not careful, you find yourself going back for more. Absence does make the heart grow fonder. After the long summer, the failings and disappointments of the previous year have been forgiven and, come March, a fresh faith in your team is feasible. It’s redemption time.

Invariably, it’s a time of many RE-s. And, while the season is still on approach, the REs are delightful. There’s no room for (spoken) pessimism. There’s too far to go.

2009 would be the season of reform for Barry Hall and Alan Didak, Rhyce Shaw, Andrew Lovett and Brendan ‘Newly appointed to the Leadership Group’ Fevola. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. It would be the next step of rehabilitation for Ben Cousins. What a reassuring sight for footy fans during the NAB cup – the familiar display of him regurgitating just off the centre square. Team lists are refreshed, the bodies of their cattle restructured. Hamstrings have been released, hernias repaired, shoulders reconstructed, knee joints restrung.

Now, it must be resumption time.

As the first siren of the Home and Away season approaches, the teams themselves are like race horses jostling to get into the barriers. Some need to prance around a lot in front of the gates and draw a lot of attention to themselves. Some just like to slip in quietly. And their supporters and detractors jockey around them in chorus.

Commentators, experts, retired players, ex coaches, members, tipsters, Club Presidents, Dream Teamers and complete novices have all decided impending form: the Cats will be waving the flag in September with the Hawks right there. Look out for the rematch. There is still faith in the Dogs and the Saints; the Magpies are ‘right about the mark’ and ‘genuine contenders’ (again!); Melbourne and West Coast are firmly rebuilding; the Swans and Crows are too old. And then there is a pack of unknowns – North, the Lions, the Bombers, Port, the Dockers. And then … there was Richmond v Carton to start it all off, Judd v Cousins, early draft picks v early draft picks, fairytale v fairytale - the ex-Eagle captains squaring off in the midfield against each other, rudders for two teams hoping to make the finals after eight years in the swampy wilderness of the bottom 8.

Round 1, 2009, came on Thursday night. The decks were cleared, ABC coverage sought online. Minutes after the first bounce, Matthew Richardson had the first shot on goal for 2009, 30 metres out. It hit the post. Moments later, Judd delivered to Jarrad Waite who snapped and goaled. It was clear which way this story was going. As the match progressed or declined, depending on your side of the fence, Mark Maclure proclaimed: ‘The summer of hope is gone.’ Drew Morphett decided: ‘The balloon of optimism has been pricked here’. And that was before the twang of the Cousins hamstring, Cousins - the saved and the saviour. (No wonder his hamstring went. That’s a lot to carry.) The hamstring had Gerard Whately reaching for operatic proportions: ‘Cousins ripped his hamstring and he’s ripped the guts out of the off season.’

Fantasy to reality is the transition from what is possible to what is probable and Round 1 is its threshold. By 10pm on Thursday night, reality was back in charge.

By the end of Round 1, what was one united, pre-seasonal family of optimistic footy supporters has generally divided into two camps. On the winners’ side, the ‘here we go’ is made solid by good performance. On the losers’ side, the ‘here we go’ takes on a moaning, lifting, longing quality - ‘Oh no, here we go again.’ Déjà vu all over again.

In fact, reality can be hard either way. If it’s a win, can they repeat it? If it’s a loss, will they repeat it? Will it be continued success or a recurring nightmare.

Fantasy makes no space for demons – they’re just monsters in the dark. Perhaps footy fans are finally cottoning on to this – could it be the explanation for the exponential increase of interest in fantasy football - Dream Teams? Take our esteemed Coach Ian. He has given up his real team in favour of his Dream Team. And who can blame him? After Round 1 at Etihad, all three of the remaining Swans members/O’Reilly boys sent me a brief but potent email to this effect: ‘It’s going to be a long, cold winter’. Fantasy is something to excite. Reality can be something to endure.

This brand of repetitive reality, the one that is recognisable only after the season begins, can be ghastly. It is the collective groan of recognising your team make the same mistakes. The Tigers must feel it, the Dockers too. The Swans are starting to see a pattern emerge. Oh no, déjà vu, we cry.

Barry Hall ends his Friday masterpiece by suggesting – ‘Let’s get on with the real stuff’. But I want to ask Barry – ‘If that was the real stuff, can we return to the fantasy?’

Yes, we can.

Because repetition can serve you here too. There’s always next week. We get another chance. There are 21 Rounds to go. History tells us that the Swans had kicked 1.0 by half time in Round 1 against Adelaide in 1996 and lost by 90 points. They went on to play the Grand Final of that year. We’re notoriously slow starters. Hopefully, it’s déjà vu, all over again.

And so the cycle begins its turning. It has a natural cycle, a footy season, not unlike a washing machine. You know it’s going to wind up, bubble away and then spin like crazy before it finishes. But with footy, you’re not in control of the dial. You don’t know what setting you’re going to get: delicate, super soiled, economy, extra revolutions …

For tipsters too - there is a long road to endure when the Record says Round 1. Port Adelaide captain, Dominic Cassisi, summed it up: ‘There’s a lot of hurt and a lot of pain playing your first game of the year.’ Yeah, well there’s a lot of that tipping your first round of the year too, Dom. Speaking with our defending champion, Peter, last week, he reminded me of the precipitousness of arbitrarily picking a bunch of teams you know nothing about at this point and locking them in for a win. It’s now a matter of reinvseting week after week, and risking that reinvestment week after week, all over again.

Ah, déjà vu.
Happy tipping!

For more on this, see Rohan Connolly's recent article and John Harms' piece in today's Age. The weekly features, which accompany the bulletin, are over at the backpocket.