A taste for unity

YEP, I sure am missing my local footy at the moment, catching up with old mates, sharing in the elation of victories and the sorrow of defeats, but even more just sharing friendship with my club mates at Ammos and others supporting opposition teams.

As everyone says these days: “We are all in this together” — and that applies very much to local footy!

Where would we be without other clubs to play against?

Exactly where we are now, wondering what to do on a Saturday arvo.

So I think we are all learning a major lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic, that we really are “all in this together” regardless of our individual club affiliations and our liking or disliking of certain opposition clubs.

That’s also a part of our great game too, isn’t it?

The best example?

Ask members of other AFL clubs what they think of Collingwood and what joy they get from beating the Magpies.

I am a Geelong Amateur person through and through, played with junior sides at Corio Oval, during the 1950s, but had to give up when I became a cadet reporter on the Geelong Advertiser in 1957.

But I returned with my boys in the 1970s and joined the junior committee and suddenly found myself president in 1983, when Ammos left the Victorian Amateur Football Association and joined the

GDFL. Strangely l enough, hf for the three or four years before that I was on the committee at East Geelong Football Club, also then in the GDFL, where I had three brothers playing when I returned to Geelong after 11 years away in 1973.

By 1983, only one brother was still playing there when I headed down to Queens Park.

My three sons all played at Ammos and two daughters played netball there, but the next generation scattered, St Joseph’s, Winchelsea, Modewarre — and Bundaberg — so I do get to see other games occasionally during the season.

But getting back to Season 2020, Ammos, through their website, Facebook and other sites, have kept members in touch. President Simon Farrell has shown leadership and more than 2300 are following its Facebook page with the new motto ‘Much more than a club’ having real meaning in the current crisis.

The club has reached out to members asking if they need help if they are ill or want their dog walked. “Are you on the front line of the pandemic and need support? Do you need a job OR are you looking for people to work for you? The Ammos are a group of 3000 strong and hopefully we can help you.”

But not all the news at Queens Park — or KFC Oval as it is now called — is bad news. Last Saturday week, for example, there was a steady procession of people — all observing social-distancing — to pick up ‘Muzzaburgers’ cooked up by club legend Murray Hunter, his partner and d daughter.

Yep, I’ve been missing my M Muzzaburgers at home games t too!

When I arrived there — we h had all been given pick-up times b between noon and 2pm — I t thought Muzza may have been in trouble because there was a police car onsite and two policemen.

But they had big smiles on t their faces as they were handed their Muzzaburgers and headed back to their car.

I am sure other footy and sports clubs in our region are also keeping in touch with members and offering support where needed, especially to those in vulnerable age groups.

In Geelong we’ve always been fortunate to have thousands of volunteers in all sorts of organisations willing to help others less fortunate and it’s great to see sporting clubs also responding to the current crisis in this manner.