It’s the most anticipated day on the Aussie sporting calendar and whether you’re gearing up for the big heave-ho and cheering on the Dockers, or planning on supporting the happy team at Hawthorn, the overall winner come 5pm on Saturday will simply be football. And perhaps that’s the greatest winner we can hope for.
To say Grand final week is huge, would be an understatement. First comes the industry’s ‘night of nights’ with the Brownlow Medal, followed by the finalists’ training sessions in front of their adoring supporters and then the annual Grand Final parade ahead of the big day.
Whether you’re lucky enough to attend the match, have made plans to watch the game at your local or are having friends over for a BBQ, we all are somewhat arranging this weekend around 120 minutes of football.
In a year where football has dominated the media airwaves for all the wrong reasons, it’s refreshing to see the front and back of our daily papers covering just that; football.
The return of morning talk back radio being flooded by callers debating possible replacements for Brendan Whitecross, and whether the Dockers can pull off the unthinkable and claim their first flag in the Club’s history, is indicative that people do actually still love their footy.
However, there’s no denying there are more important things in life than football, and no doubt there have been many personal experiences that quickly alter and transform our perspective on just what is important. These experiences help realign elements in our lives that we value, and what aspects of our everyday are deemed important.
For many, football is not one of those elements deemed important. However, in answering just why this match is so important, the only comparable explanation to provide is to think of the ultimate achievement you could accomplish in your life, either personally or professionally.
Think of what it would take to first even acknowledge what it is you want to achieve, and then the effort it would take to turn that vision into a reality.
Courage, fear, self-doubt, hope and an unwavering belief (that success will come with the right amount of preparation), are all emotions experienced by those working hard to achieve the ultimate, whatever that ‘ultimate’ may be.
It’s the one day where everything that you’ve been preparing for, if lucky, comes to fruition. So for those who are experiencing their own personal Grand Final and battling it out to reach their own glory, that’s why Grand Final day is important. Because it reminds us of what matters and how hard we need to work to attain whatever it is we desire. Football or not.
In an extraordinary way, football has the ability to give people hope. At a time where faith in football has been questioned this year, it’s no surprise that we all hold hope not just for our team, but for ourselves.
As we follow the grand finalists’ march to premiership glory, we witness first-hand the resilience, hard work and unrelenting commitment demonstrated by these players in their quest for success. It’s this willpower that has the capacity to inspire ourselves in our own personal quest to attain success in our everyday lives.
It’s ridiculously hard to secure a Grand Final spot let alone win one. We are all competitors in this unpredictable thing we call life and to spend Grand Final day with those who matter in an environment that is inclusive, is exactly what the players at Hawthorn and Fremantle will be doing themselves, come 2pm on Saturday afternoon at the MCG.