2013 – Rock Dogs Speech

It’s a coach’s lot to state the bleeding obvious. It’s obvious to me that this is a beautiful day to play football! We are blessed to be right in the middle of life.  We have our limbs, our muscles, our hearts, our brains, and our pumping blood. We are all little parts part of one big beautiful thing.  Everything connects.  We’re connected to everything around us  – to each other, our teammates, to Megahertz – the enemy we need –  to  the Reclink family and to the whole crowd.

And of course, as we are every year, we’re connected  to those who’ve left us – as Shakespeare says – those precious friends hid in death’s dateless night.

We each have our own precious friends but there are two in particular we all have in common.  Two of our own who left us this year. Two who trod our path and showed us a way. Chrissie Amphlett from the Divinyls and the lead singer from Yothu Yindi whose name I won’t say out of customary respect.  He called me brother and the whole world brother and sister so Brother is what I’ll call him now.

Chrissie and Brother demonstrated all the qualities we’ll need on the field today. Chrissie was a warrior. Fierce and committed. She never took a step back, grabbed hold of life and ran with it. Brother was a man of balance. His music balanced cultures, balanced the modern and the ancient, freshwater and saltwater, seriousness and celebration.

And that’s what we bring this afternoon – the warrior spirit and the spirit of balance. We will be warriors in our hearts and bodies while our head keeps balance.  Warriors when we see our team mates needing help and go to them though our lungs are heaving and our legs are lead. Balancers to know when to rush in to the fray and when to run into space.

And warriors talk to each other to urge each other on. And balancers talk to each other to give and ask direction. So remember – talk, talk, talk to each other all the time.  And remember that balance is the heart of life, balance is the heart of sport, balance is the heart of the dance. So Rock dogs – as I say to you every year – let’s go out there and Dance!