Recognition

Playing sport is a lot of fun and playing a team sport is even better. What I find the most satisfying, and enjoyable, is playing and getting recognition from your team mates for your efforts.

Last night I played my third game of 9-a-side AFL @ Yeronga, the last of the year unfortunately :( There was no doubt in my mind that this was my best game so far, especially my last quarter. I got more involved than I ever have before and actually got some recognition for it.

As we came off at the end of the game I got a couple of comments like "excellent last quarter Mick", "you saved your best for the last quarter of the last game mate!" etc etc. Then sitting around having an "end of season" beer with the boys I discover the captain had given out best on ground points (classic 3-2-1 points system) throughout the season. He told us then and there who he gave them to for this last match and I got 1 point! I was pretty chuffed and it made me feel like I made a contribution that was appreciated... which is the true meaning of playing a team sport IMO.

High/lowlights of my game that night included:

• Having their full forward (FF) chatting to me while playing full back and watching him, mid sentence, start screaming for the ball and sprint off me to mark and goal... errr oopss.. (I was paying attention to the ball it's just I wasn't expecting a mid sentence lead!)
  
  
• Making a tackle while playing forward, he dropped the ball mid tackle but I brought him to ground
  
  
• Running back to the goal square while wearing an armband (which means I can score) and helping shepherd a long bomb through the sticks... this resulted in the defender tripping over me and bringing me to ground too
  
  
• Falling on to a ball on the ground while playing defence with a big guy about to fall on me, scooping it up and hand passing from my knees off to a free team mate who then ran clear
  
  
• Running backwards towards their goal while defending watching a ball that had been skied between the forward I was defending on and their FF. Ran back the entire way with my head straight up not looking where I was going as the ball came over my shoulder and I marked it! Then discovered their FF was barreling towards me and as I marked it he ran past me... got a lot of "brave mark" compliments for that one... to be honest I was so concentrating on the ball I didn't even know he was coming!
  
  
• Receiving a hand pass in front of goal and snapping over the head of a defender for my 2nd ever behind in AFL footy (I kicked my first behind last week)... was very close to a goal but just missed.
  
  
• Watching a team mate walk back to his mark (in our defensive half) after marking and me sprinting past him at full pelt so he could offload to me. He did and I took off unmarked and unchecked for about 10 metres before placing it on the boot kicking over a defender to one of our forwards behind the defender to mark and shoot at goal. He missed but I still felt good for setting it up.
  

All in all I enjoyed last night more than any game so far. From what I can remember, and it is surprisingly hard to remember every stat you achieve, I had 2 kicks, 2 handpasses, 1 mark, 1 tackle and 1 behind.

Really looking forward to the real season now... got some confidence which I was lacking early so hopefully that'll stand me in good stead.