For some sporting fans, interpreting the on-field action is a matter for the ear

Nadia Mattiazzo has never seen a football kicked but has developed a love of the game.

Collingwood fan Sam Colley and Richmond supporter Nadia Mattiazzo are both blind but both love going to the footy. Aaron Francis/The Australian

There are perks to being the seeing-eye dog for Nadia Mattiazzo, a passionate Tigers fan who fell in love with Richmond despite never having seen a footy kicked.

For Olympia, who performs an essential role for the Richmond fan, a regular outing to the MCG is chief among them, at least when Covid-19 regulations allow for crowds to attend.

Every goal Richmond kicks is accompanied by a treat. It helps settle Olympia as Nadia is screaming along with the rest of the Tiger army.

That has been great over the past few years, with Olympia leaving the footy with a full belly.

To the point, though. How does a person born blind or visually-impaired become as engrossed in footy, or any sport for that matter, as Mattiazzo?

As she told The Australian, like many supporters, her love of the game was passed on from above – in this case her father.

The 55-year-old is far from alone in following every bounce of the footy, and every clash of bodies, despite her impairment.

“For me, it is all about the atmosphere. It is about sitting in the crowd and feeling the energy,” she said.

Sam Colley, 30, is legally blind, but he does have 40 per cent vision in one eye. He, too, is mad about sport.

The Melburnian works for Vision Australia as a radio host of a current affairs program and has recently started working on a sports show for the network every Saturday.

“I’d like to say I follow anything with a ball or a car, but there is only so much time in a day, unfortunately,” he said.

Improvements in streaming mean Colley can sit at his computer, with headphones on, and watch the game from close range.

When attending games, he uses binoculars to assist him.

As a kid, Mattiazzo knew the numbers and birthdays of every Tiger, having memorised them after noting them down in braille while listening to the The Footy Record being read to her.

She wore a duffel coat covered in the badges and numbers of her favourite players, from Brian Taylor and Kevin Bartlett to Michael Roach and Dale Weightman.

Every bit of information she could glean helped form a picture of a player in her mind. She knows her current favourite, Dusty Martin, has tattoos. But she is most taken by his kind voice.

“If you close your eyes every now and then and just listen to how they are talking, you can pick up so much from what they say, their nuance and their tone,” she said.

Blind people are just as devoted to consuming sports media, be it via electronic news feeds or audio broadcasts and podcasts, as the fan sitting next to them at stadiums, she said.

And nothing beats live sport. Listening to an old analogue radio – usually tuned to the ABC – the play unfolds as actively in her mind as it does on the field.

The method of the modern game presents a challenge.

When Mattiazzo first picked up the game in the late 1970s, a full forward was a full forward.

Now Lance Franklin and others roam further afield.

Both she and Colley share a dislike. They hate broadcasters who favour theatrics over what is actually happening on the field.

It should be a simple job.

No stupid commentary, Mattiazzo said. Just tell us where the bloody ball is!

“You want someone to audio describe what is going on,” Colley said.

“The extra descriptions can be fun, and that is part of the audience engagement, but there has to be information there.

“As long as that is there, then go nuts, but it is vital to have the basic info there.”

As for the old timers pining about the way the game was once played, Mattiazzo knows it is different.

The rhythm and cadence of the calls tells all.

Never, to her way of thinking and listening, has the game been faster than now.

“I have videos and DVDs of old games and I play them from time to time and it is way, way slower,” she said.

“Now you can hear that the pace of the game is way faster. It is so crazy.”