The end of summer approaches; even in the heat you can feel it, the touch of change in the way the evenings cool down and, most importantly, the fact that football has reclaimed the back pages. It has been a horrible summer, and my heart goes out to all those affected by the tragedy. We need the summer to dissipate quickly, bring in the cool autumn breeze and let people breathe again.

Already there has been some football news to keep the sports pages turning over.  I was there when the Irishman let loose. It happens  - especially in summer, in the heat. Still it showed the boys are eager, hungry even, and isn’t that what we want. Good luck to Carlos and to Clokey for that matter – we’ll need them both firing before this year is out.

I’ve also seen the new Tassie lad burn the field up. He is my favourite of course. Dad was from Tassie, so anything connected to that sweet isle is claimed by all of us. Mitch will be a beauty, full of energy, loves a goal and head firmly over the ball. Great get by Hughesy and the boys.

Haven’t seen a lot of Yarran, yet, but silky is the word for him. Smooth as ice across the temples when the temperature hits 40 degrees. So we build, we build and add and watch Murph run and take the ball off packs. Gibbsey too, both looking older, looking ready. The Kruise is prominent and I saw Juddy running the other day. The flash is back! Fev looks stronger than ever, Simmo is Simmo and Griggsy will be a star before the year is out.

So summer begins to loosen its grip and we prepare for the NAB stuff. It is just stuff. Once, when we were down and almost out, it was important. Every win was – and so was the cash. Now, it’s just a warm-up to the main event. It’s that Tigers clash that I cannot wait to see.

Still a game is a game is a game. And this week the Bluebaggers play. The boys in blue run out onto the field and we’ll be there losing our voice by half time, watching my son’s eyes catch the Dome’s lights in his bright eyes, watching the old insignia flash across the field. Seeing the boys run and bump and kicking the pigskin into the ether.

The game is our sun, the players - the planets. We sit and marvel and dream and feel like children again as the game unfolds all the wrinkles summer’s heat causes. We feel fresh; feel our souls flapping in the breeze of another spectacular game, another leap and mark or chase or an Eddie goal off the ground in the square or a seventy-meter Fev goal.

I love this time of year, this moment when the new season is as fresh as grass after a downpour, when each player is ready to tear the competition apart, when the coach’s plans are perfect and nothing has yet been lost. I look at the list and cannot leave out most players from the starting line-up. I image ten goal bursts in the third or even see Jezza flying again or that tongue of Gags, poking out like a curious trout in a stream. The past and present shimmer, a mirage on the road as we wait for the future to emerge. This is the beginning of another football journey, another trip through twenty- two rounds – and then finals lads, yes finals - the ups and downs, the joys and heartaches; it’ll all be there, it always is.

This year it’s about making the eight. This year is the year when our gifted boys become players to be reckoned with. This year we see the future take a large step closer. This is our Apollo year, our moon-landing year. It’s the year of  ‘one small step for each player, one large step for the club’. If each player steps up just a fraction more, gets an extra kick each game, an extra tackle, chase, shepherd, mark, spoil and so forth, if each player manages a small improvement then the team will come on in leaps and bounds. So that’s the theme this year boys, small steps for each and every one of you and one large step for all of Bluekind.

Go Blues!


Please Note: the views expressed in the above article are solely the opinion of the author and do not reflect the opinions of the Carlton Football Club or those employees of the Club. The Carlton Football Club would like to acknowledge the tireless work of those supporters who contribute to carltonfc.com.au.