WELL it’s six days into the Olympics and my eyes looked like Jerilderie saddlebags when I looked in the mirror this morning. Up until the small hours urging our men and women on from 16,000 clicks away. Come on Australia! From Australia.
As I write this, we’re sitting on one Gold and some hard-fought for Silver and Bronze. One Gold. Regardless of how much yellow stuff our athletes bring home, to me they are all champions for their attitude, character and Olympic spirit. Let’s not get too soft though; we all want more Gold, and no one wants it more than every individual Ausssie athlete who has grafted so hard just to be there.
I love every one of them, especially Lauren Jackson but that’s another story. I love their tears, their laughter, their sense of fun. Wonder if Dawnie (Dawn Fraser) will haul her knickers up a flagpole again to show the younguns how it’s done? More than anything I love their commitment.
My athletic days are long over; I was a basketballer in Melbourne. The team I played for was banned for a season because one of our more excitable players accidentally whacked an umpire. He didn’t mean to, it was just that he was winding up his haymaker to whack an opposition player who had scraped his boot down his shin, somewhat painfully, and clocked the ump… However, it doesn’t matter what the excuse is, you don’t whack umpires. The whole team was blacklisted but we were all back within a couple of weeks under false names.
I ended up playing for an Armenian team in a different grade. I was the only non-Armenian in the side and I recall I was down as ‘Andre Machiavellian’ or something like that. They were a marvelous group of blokes; so emotional and committed to victory. If you missed an easy lay-up they would sit you in the circle and stone you with their shoes. Score a three-pointer to win a match and they would offer their sisters in marriage. I miss them, but I digress.
Our men and women in London are under the pump – it’s tough as tough can be and it’s not helped by critics spouting their diatribe all over the media, Twitter and Facebook. Guys, girls – it doesn’t matter! D’ya know what the collective noun for a group of critics is? A ‘Shrivel of Critics’. How appropriate is that? Every time some of their verbal diarrhea comes to your attention, just remember they are just wrinkled, dried up prunes, sitting in the cheap bars of taverns nursing a single pint and a packet of crisps, over three hours. By the way, the collective noun for Taverners is ‘a Glozing of Taverners’ but you don’t need to know that.
Now here’s what I reckon. If our men and women bring home a goodly swag of Gold from London, the mood of the nation will improve. If the mood of the nation improves, some will rub off on Julia Gillard. Right now she’s about as popular as the mongrel who poisoned Phar Lap. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not having a direct go at Julia but I don’t reckon we’ve lived under a functioning democracy since Rudd was rolled. The hung Parliament and über-sleazy deals with independents denied the people of Australia their true voice.
So, more Gold medals means a more popular PM, so she might call an election on the back of that and we can return to the great democratic values we had before the sleaze set in.
There you have it. Men and women athletes of Australia; the very future of our democracy rest on your broad shoulders, so go out there and win more Gold!
Is that motivation enough?
How proud are you of our Aussie Olympians (no matter what the result)? Show them your support and comment below:
[ Source: Australian Times ]
