The Middle-Aged Spectator

Late in August, the Middle Aged Spectator took the opportunity to see his AFL team play their last home game of the season. It has been a difficult season, with the Gold Coast Suns again cruelled by injury, and clearly some internal discontent, which you can be sure more will be heard about during the off-season. But, as a member, and a lover of the sport of Australian Football, off we went. Before this goes any further, a disclaimer. The MAS is a life-longer follower of Australian Football, and the AFL competition in particular. The MAS has never liked the Essendon Football Club. Its supporters are arrogant loudmouths, and after the disgrace that the club brought to the sport and the competition in general through their “Whatever it takes” failed supplement/drug program, feelings towards the club are not improved. That said, some of the MAS’s favourite players are at Essendon: Joe Daniher, David Zaharakis, Dyson Heppell and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti (or ‘Tipper’ as the Essendon...

The MAS was intrigued by this news story on the Australian ABC's website a couple of weeks ago., and decided to take a day trip to visit. This day trip was a 700km round trip - but worth it. Thallon is one of those tiny towns that pop up every now and again along the highways or railways of rural Australia. To give some idea of how remote this place is (and how big the State of Queensland is) Thallon is about 530km west of the state capital, Brisbane, and even then it's only about one-third of the way across the state from the ocean. So, a long way from nowhere, and not a lot of people there, the last time I had heard Thallon mentioned was during a flood. The town, on the Moonie River had been been flooded in both 2010 and 2011. Now, we hear that the railway has ceased passenger and freight services - just bulk grain transport is available nowadays. So what does a town do to put itself back on the map? Well, what have they got to show off? Not much, just some bloody b...

  No, not ‘High School Musical’, but a musical performed by a group of 12-17 year olds. In this case, the show was ‘Rock of Ages 101 High School Edition’. And, more than being at the show, the MAS was an insider, as a guitarist in the band. Since auditions were conducted in February, the MAS had been involved in rehearsals twice a week (and sometimes more) with the enthusiastic and talented young people in the cast, and with the production crew, other band members and directors. Ultimately, the MAS’s role was simply to learn the music and play it. That was a little bit of a problem. The MAS is not a confident or in any way a professional musician, really only getting the instrument out of its case every second year for one of these productions. But, with plenty of practice, some advice from other (far more talented) band members, and much personal admonishment, the job was completed satisfactorily. ‘Rock of Ages’, which has been a mainstream musical on Broadway, is ...

The town in which the MAS lives has an excellent pathway running alongside a creek for about 2km. A walk up one side and returning along the other makes for a very pleasant start to the day. The creek environs are home to a surprising array of birds, lizards, flying foxes and the occasional hare and fox. It could be supposed that there’s much that the MAS’s eyes have not seen, too. The MAS started walking some years ago for health reasons. But then stopped because: 1.        Recover from major surgery 2.        Magpies swooping in springtime 3.        Too cold and dark in winter 4.        Too hard 5.        More fun drinking coffee in bed While working in an educational institution, one of the tasks the MAS undertook was to find supply teachers to replace staff members on short notice due to illness etc. This would ...

The MAS sat down in front of the TV on Monday afternoon to watch the AFL match between Melbourne and Collingwood, to be played at the MCG. While Melbourne has been a dreadful team in recent years, this game has been played as their ‘Grand Final’, and the contest has usually been competitive, if not enthralling. Yesterday’s edition was a ripper. There was a moment late in the last quarter that was sublime – one of those transcendent things that happen in sport occasionally that can give the viewer goose bumps or even bring tears. In 2009 the Demons debuted their number 1 draft pick, Jack Watts, in the Round 11 Queen’s Birthday match. Watts had been the subject of the usual media hyperbole at the time of his drafting – he was a private school educated boy, a privileged background perfect for the club that is seen more than any other to reflect ‘privileged’ Melbourne. As a schoolboy Jack was a gun – an outstanding talent – and it was no surprise to anybody that he would be drafted ...

For the past few years, the MAS has met up with a group of three others at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast to enjoy the Blues on Broadbeach Music Festival. The four of us go back about 40 years – we all attended University (or Teacher’s College as it was then) together in Ballarat, after attending the same secondary school. With a shared background in education, it’s interesting to note that only one of us now works in the classroom. As the resident Queenslander, my task each year is to book suitable accommodation, recommend some places to eat, and provide the airport pickups. The first pickup this year was at Brisbane International as B flew in from Indonesia for the weekend. The weather was pretty ordinary as we rolled down the M1, and we had a catch-up conversation. At one point my friend said that while he knew the rest of us were really into the music part of the weekend, he was there for the social side of it – seeing again his three best friends. I will return to this in a m...

The Middle Aged Spectator has been involved with football clubs and their teams, both junior and senior, in many ways over many years. Junior Coach, Club Secretary, Committee member, League Delegate, Team Manager,  barman, BBQ cook; the list is fairly extensive (and quite surprising to see all those positions listed). The MAS’s sons played under-age and senior football at their local club, before leaving town for study and employment. Football clubs are interesting places full of interesting people, and one of the most important social tasks they perform is giving on the opportunity rub shoulders with, and work with, people you might not have anything to do with otherwise. I recall coaching kids who were in all sorts of trouble with local police, or at school, but never put a foot wrong at the Club. I know of others who were never going anywhere academically, and were destined to a life of menial work, but always took part in training and matches with enthusiasm and on the sam...