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Sunday, April 10, 2011

Country Football - Community Staple

Yesterday we went to Bracknell to watch Craig's son in his first game of football.
It occurred to me it was so much more than a bunch of men being all footy and everything....
The teams are in fact made up of so much more than 22 men.
There are of course the coaches and assistants, but there are also the water runners, umpires, scorers, ticket seller at the gate, ground keepers and canteen ladies.

People of all ages from children to grandmothers come together to make the team.
A team needs; a ground to play on, guernseys, change rooms, club rooms, canteen, scoreboard and
It takes a lot of money and fundraising is hard work. Lots of meat raffles and quiz nights. Scores of volunteers to keep it all happening.
Into the breach also steps the local businesses who "sponsor" the teams.
On footy day, they gather, wearing their team colours in a unification of support and solidarity. It's community at it's best. Mothers pushing prams, grandmothers selling raffle tickets, sisters helping in the canteen, junior players running water bottles.
It's not just a bit of sport for the boys, it's the backbone of life here, and it's just one of the things that keeps community strong and coming together, yarning, laughing, yelling, playing and sharing.

2 comments:

  1. How exciting, ya know, before reading this I never thought of how much effort, hard work, dedication and I'm sure teamwork goes into forming one of these teams. That's awesome!

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  2. Hey Tanya, when you stop and think about it all, there's certainly alot of work effort and people involved behind the scenes.

    The sense of community that comes with everyone pitching in and helping out is really quite special.

    Claire :}

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