Memories are nice but they aren't a patch on what a bunch of highly talented, professional and dedicated footballers are producing for us week after week. Because we now have teams in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, we have more athletes playing the game at the highest level then we did in the past.
Like their colleges in Victoria, they are fitter and faster than all the generations that went before them. They are taking the game to all Australia in a way we could never have dreamed of 30 or 40 years ago. Even more importantly Australian football has moved closer and closer, and especially this weekend, to becoming the national winter game.
This is something to celebrate not denigrate. On preliminary final weekend 2002, we have one team from Victoria, two from South Australia and one from Queensland. How many more people around Australia does that keep interested in the game? Millions more, and for a lot of those to come from a so-called non-traditional state like Queensland is fantastic. This weekend, let's celebrate. And next weekend, no matter who's playing in the grand final at the MCG, let's get along and pack the joint out or organise a grand final lunch or barbecue and celebrate a great Australian tradition and the great Australian winter game. Of course, when I say stop criticising Australian football, that doesn't mean stop being critical of the AFL. We don't criticise Australia, but is a fundamental part of democracy that we criticise the people running the place. To keep the AFL on track, we need people like the club CEOs and the coaches to act as watchdogs. Mick Malthouse did it well earlier this week. In their understandable enthusiasm to create the national winter game, the AFL can sometimes lose sight of the need for fairness. We need to give Queensland a hand to develop, but not necessarily the Brisbane Lions. We need to give the whole of NSW assistance, not just the Sydney Swans. Otherwise we might lose some of the benefits our national competition has created.
