Geelong gave my grandfather more disappointment than fulfilment. For me it is the opposite | Dean Sherr
My grandfather was a stoic man,Settling in the western Victorian town of Ballarat upon arrival as a child from a small town in Ukraine, he took up interest in the nearest VFL club, Geelong,Thus began a lifelong affinity with the Cats he would pass down to his four sons and eight grandchildren,Battle-hardened by a modest upbringing, the loss of his mother at an early age and the mental scars of his service in Kokoda, football became a comforting escape from everyday life,Too frail to get to games himself, his lounge room and pay TV were always open to watch games, where most weekends, I would join him.
Mostly, he sat silently, absorbed in his favourite armchair, oblivious to the world around him – including, much to her annoyance, my grandmother.But having lived through the entirety of Geelong’s 44-year premiership drought – including five grand final losses – he was somewhat of a harsh critic.At a Shabbat dinner in mid-2007, days after the Cats had piled on 35 goals to demolish Richmond by 157 points, he boldly declared: “They’ll have to play a lot better than that to win this weekend.”Not only did they win that weekend, Geelong went on to break that premiership drought in emphatic fashion.My grandfather was never really one for big celebrations or overly expressive emotions, more one to sit back with a wry smile.
But he got a lot of quiet joy from 2007.It was the first of three flags won in five years.My grandfather passed away on the eve of the 2009 finals series.He had lived long enough to see the drought-breaker, but also a shock 2008 grand final loss to Hawthorn.Five weeks after his passing, a magical toe-poke from Matthew Scarlett and the deadly boot of Paul Chapman delivered us redemption.
I was 14 years old when that era of success began.My grandfather was 86.Later this year, I’ll turn 33.The eldest of my grandfather’s great-grandchildren – named after him – will turn 13 and celebrate his barmitzvah.So little has remained constant in the past two decades.
The AFL has expanded.Teams have risen and fallen.Australia has changed government three times and prime ministers seven.Wars have begun and ended.A pandemic plunged us in and out of lockdowns.
But Geelong in the deep end of finals remained a constant through it all,So much of my own life changed too – I graduated from high school and university, changed jobs and careers, moved to Canberra and back, fell in and out of love – but my football team’s success followed me throughout,During finals sign up for our free weekly AFL newsletterThis weekend, Geelong enters a 15th preliminary final in 21 years, hoping to make it a seventh grand final and a fifth premiership in that time,Having comfortably dispatched with the reigning premiers two weeks ago, they are now clear flag favourites – though that is never a guarantee of success,The other clubs in this weekend’s prelims are no strangers to modern success either.
Brisbane and Hawthorn match Geelong with four premierships since the turn of the century, while Collingwood have two.But Geelong stands alone in refusing to bottom out at any point in that period.Missing finals just twice since 2007, making the final four in 70% of those seasons – they have made a mockery of the AFL’s equalisation agenda.Sign up to From the Pocket: AFL WeeklyJonathan Horn brings expert analysis on the week's biggest AFL storiesafter newsletter promotionIt speaks to the bold drive of the Cats’ machine, led by a coach who has made it a mission to rebuild on the run and to compete at the deep end every year.Chris Scott inherited a successful team, winning a flag in his first season, but he quickly set out to build an empire of his own.
Still, there was a period where even us Cats fans began to doubt the wisdom of his refusal to bottom out.Surely it was only a matter of time before reality hit.But his second premiership in 2022 put those doubts to bed.It provided conclusive proof that the endeavour was worthwhile.It cemented his legacy and that of his mission.
He is now rightly regarded as one of the all-time greats.To follow Geelong in these times is a privilege.It invites admiration and jealousy from those who can only dream of a fraction of our success.How is it still going, many wonder.We no longer ask questions.
The doubt is gone.Our faith in Scott is absolute.Even the losses do not sting like they used to – there is always next week, or next year.If that used to be false hope, it is now well founded belief.In these uncertain times of global instability, rising extremism, war and violence, sport is as important an escape as ever.
For my grandfather, that escape carried more disappointment than fulfilment.For me, it has become the opposite – reliable salvation from the horrors of the world and the pitfalls of everyday life.As we live out this fantastical sporting ride, I wonder what he might have made of the last two decades.I suppose he’d have been steadfast as ever – they’ll need to play better this week to win.To keep striving to be better.
Perhaps he saw what was coming in the school of Scott after all,
Labor’s Measuring What Matters is a worthy goal – but one that has utterly failed to live up to its promise | Greg Jericho
This week, the Bureau of Statistics realised its latest series of Measuring What Matters in an attempt to assess things beyond the mere economics. It comes off the back of the bureau’s first attempt to measure productivity in the non-market sector. Both raise questions of what we value and also whether our focus is where it should be.In 2020 the then shadow treasurer, Jim Chalmers, announced an ALP government would develop a wellbeing framework that would seek to “measure what matters”. It was a worthy goal mocked by the then treasurer, Josh Frydenberg
UK overall inflation remains at 3.8% in August, but food price growth climbs for fifth month in a row - as it happened
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Donald Trump’s arrival in the UK on Tuesday night was accompanied by a multibillion-dollar transatlantic tech agreement.The announcement features some of the biggest names from Silicon Valley: the chipmaker Nvidia; the ChatGPT developer, OpenAI; and Microsoft. Big numbers were involved, with Microsoft hailing its $30bn (£22bn) investment as a major commitment to the UK – and adding, in an apparent swipe at its rivals, that it was not making “empty tech promises”.Here is a breakdown of the announcements in the UK-US “tech prosperity deal”, spelling out what is explicitly new in them.Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, hailed the “single biggest announcement” in the pact and insisted it was not an empty promise
UK is going to be ‘AI superpower’, says Nvidia boss as he invests £500m
Jensen Huang, the co-founder and chief executive of the US AI chipmaker Nvidia, has predicted “the UK is going to be an AI superpower” as he announced a new £500m investment in a British firm.Huang, who is due to join Donald Trump at Wednesday night’s state banquet with the king, said he was taking an equity stake in NScale, a UK cloud computing company, and predicted it would earn revenues of up to £50bn over the next six years.“We’re here to announce that the UK is going to be an AI superpower,” he told a press conference in London.Huang cited as evidence of Britain’s potential its universities and several companies founded in the UK, ranging from the AI giant DeepMind to the driverless car startup Wayve. “You just don’t appreciate it
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Paul Stirling’s reactionThere were multiple positives to take and hopefully across the three games we can improve. We were pretty happy with 196 – but we also knew we had to get everything right in the field, and we didn’t quite manage that.We kept trying to take wickets. That’s all you can do in cricket these days – there’s no point being ultra-defensive.We’ve got a big winter ahead of us and this is the start of that
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