The death of Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin’s father-in-law among Demons’ year of woe
The Queen’s Birthday game used to be about footy. Then about Neale Daniher. On Monday, it took a different path — but Mark Robinson writes off-field events put the result in perspective.
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The Queen’s Birthday clash used to be about the footy.
They played it at Waverley Park way back, before it was shuffled between the clubs.
Melbourne took ownership early this century and invited Collingwood along for the ride.
Then Neale Daniher engulfed it wholly and inspirationally.
Football was important, but finding a cure for MND was more important and the sliders, well, that’s the best pre-match entertainment ever.
Monday was different again.
It was for the soul of the departed.
Sorrow and loss has besieged the Melbourne Football Club these past two weeks.
On Friday, coach Simon Goodwin’s father-in-law died.
On Thursday, Brad Green buried his wife, Anna.
On Monday, Brad and Anna’s boys — Ollie and Wilba — ran out with the Melbourne team.
Green stood at the top race with his boys and was met by the team as they entered the MCG.
Earlier in the rooms, skipper Nathan Jones had kick-to-kick with the boys. A normal, simple exercise became a wonderfully touching gesture from a mate to a mate.
Jones had visited the boys at home after the funeral and told them they’d be jogging on to the MCG.
At the top the race, Green was in tears when Jones and Christian Petracca dragged the boys into the bosom of the team before they ran together through the banner.
There’s a beautifully, sad photograph of Green welcoming his sons off the ground.
He dropped to one knee and flung open his arms as first Ollie and then Wilba jumped into them.
He kissed one after the other.
The sudden death of Goodwin’s father-in-law was not widely known.
He wore a black armband, which most of its day was underneath his club jacket.
It wasn’t a total club offering because the players didn’t wear one — that’s if they knew of the death, anyhow.
Goodwin’s the type of fella to let the day be for others.
For Neale and the sliders and the raising of money for MND.
For Brad and his boys to try to enjoy a day at the footy.
For Goodwin, it was a tragic loss in his family.
He lost yet another game of football on Monday, but in perspective, it wasn’t a tragedy on the field.
Perspective is knowing Neale Daniher will soon pass, a man who has devoted his dying years to raise money to find an unfound cure for an illness which slowly captures the body but allows the mind to roam free.
“The Beast”, he calls it.
Perspective is knowing Ollie and Wilba had a day at the footy with the ol’ man and his ol’ team, and mum wasn’t there.
Perspective is a coach who has lost a member of his family.
Unquestionably, Monday was more than just another football game, although there was a sense of normalcy about the football once it started.
There was Max Gawn versus Brodie Grundy, which Gawn won easily. There was Jaidyn Stephenson on the speed, Steele Sidebottom on his left, and Jordan De Goey shaking his hips and busting moves on a bunch of defenders.
Free kicks were paid and missed, umpires were booed and social media had its moments.
When Jeremy Howe took a hanger and a free kick was paid against him, twitter went berserk, and rightly so.
Matthew Richardson said: “RIP high marking.”
Mick McGuane said: “Umpire says ‘spikes up’. The world has gone mad. No feel for the game.”
Brian Taylor said: “You take that out it, you’re taking one of the great components of Australian rules football.”
When a free kick was paid against Darcy Moore for deliberate out of bounds, after he punched the ball away from Melbourne’s Tom McDonald, social media was stricken.
Can’t a player spoil anymore? What has football become?
In essence, it was a day of tribal shrieking and general tribulations.
Aaahh footy, don’t you love it, in the good times and the bad?
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