tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280700352011-04-21T20:48:45.639-07:00Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits.William Chesterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08890486872046531079noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28070035.post-1147587909900127452006-05-13T23:22:00.000-07:002006-05-15T22:38:24.863-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5531/2967/1600/baretrap.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5531/2967/320/baretrap.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />No one can ever be quite sure when it happens. The moment of ephiphany. Clarity and a singular purpose comes into being. One hopes that it will be over important and weighty matters. Matters of state, matters of religion, of family of ones own connection to the universe. Mine comes while sitting and watching what most would argue is simply another routine loss by the now struggling Port Adelaide Power football team. The game of AFL football (such as it is) has come to its own crossroads and now stands staring into the void. That it has finally hit a sport that has remained virtually unchanged for 100 years and more is of no consequence other than we now watch as the new AFL struggles to stand on its own two feet like a new born foal.<br /><br />Many have said that the game has changed for the worst, that it has become everything we loathe about professional sports in this day and age. Loyalty is lost. Players merely interchangeable parts. Everyone tows the company line. Winning as a joyless commodity which is not so much achieved as it is passed on. I too have felt a creeping horror over what seems to be a blandness creeping in to the most dynamic of sports.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5531/2967/1600/liberty.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5531/2967/320/liberty.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Therefore rather than lay to waste all that has been built up over almost 20 years of watching sports in general and football in particular I vow to make this blog my personal AFL crucible. A catharsis of all that is wrong and right in the game at the current time. Hopefully through all the handwringing, moaning and outlandish statements I (and perhaps others) will come to one final unified theory about AFL and what it has become. Perhaps this will become no more than a "why don't they kick it long anymore?" exercise, but I hope it proves to be much more.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5531/2967/1600/stinkymeat.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5531/2967/320/stinkymeat.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />A discussion.<br /><br />An understanding.<br /><br />A way forward.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28070035-114758790990012745?l=twohundredhandballs.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>William Chesterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08890486872046531079noreply@blogger.com0