Love of game outscores wet

ON Saturday night, as I sat huddled under an umbrella with my two-year old daughter and fiancee behind the goals at Cazalys, rain sheeting down around us, I couldn’t think of anywhere I’d have rather been.

Young Audrey is just a toddler but her love for the indigenous game is strong. Her tiny hands clenched my arm as she watched the feisty Ben Ainsworth slot two quick goals late in the second quarter as she cooed with glee. Moments later, Aaron Young followed up with a crumbing goal off a spilt marking attempt and Audrey’s head rolled into the back of her pink hoodie as she howled with giddy delight.

Later, with the ball locked up on the centre wing near the grandstand, I swear I heard her scream “Ball!” as the Far North’s very own Jarrod Harbrow laid a bone-rattling tackle.

Cazalys’ bowling green-like surface resembled a World War I battlefield on Saturday evening.

The crowd was sparse, the EFTPOS machines stopped working at one stage and the poor workers in the food vans must have regretted lugging all that extra stock through the gates for it to just go cold.

Everything that could have conspired against the game happened as Cyclone Nora delivered its proverbial perfect storm a thousand kilometres away.

But the crowd still roared and the game went on. At the end of the match I carried an exhausted little tot towards the gate but as we traipsed past the merchandise tent her little head suddenly rose.

Audrey leaned over and picked up a Suns hand clapper and started shaking it wildly. Her cheeky smile returned. The Suns had won the game. But more importantly, they also won over the crowd. Samual Davis Sports editor