By Paul Daffey
As a journalist who writes about local footy, I go to many local footy games. Usually at these games, I find myself supporting one team over the other.
But never have I barracked as hard as I did for the home team in the Tallygaroopna versus Ardmona match on Saturday. Ardmona played like two-bit thugs. When the final siren signalled victory to Tallygaroopna by four goals, I was among those whose roar of approval could be heard across the dairy farms and orchards of the Goulburn Valley.
The match was between the teams ranked fourth and second in the Kyabram District Football League. During the function at half-time, a league official was spruiking the decision to play this year’s grand final at the ground of a Goulburn Valley league club, Mooroopna, in the hope of attracting more spectators.
But from what I saw on Saturday, Kyabram league officials should be hoping that people stay at home if Ardmona, the reigning premier, makes the grand final.
An air of malice hung over the ground. Whenever there was a contest, I braced myself in anticipation of a cheap shot. More often than not, a Tallygaroopna player emerged from the contest holding his head.
The villain in the crowd’s eyes was Perry Meka, the full-forward who’s kicked almost 2500 goals in country footy, including a good number with Ardmona. Meka was playing his first game after serving a two-match suspension — reduced from six games on appeal — for belting an Avenel supporter after a recent match.
Whenever the 40-year-old dropped a chest mark or missed a goal from close range, which, uncharacteristically, was often, he was hooted. His performance suggested that the uproar over his appeal had shaken him. Apart from the odd histrionic appeal for a free-kick, Meka went out of his way to be a good citizen.
Spectators, however, continued to jeer him because they regard him as being responsible for Ardmona’s lamentable culture. Meka was playing-coach when the Cats acquired a reputation for what might euphemistically be called combativeness.
The club has its share of outsiders—Meka is a Muslim of Albanian descent, while there are a handful of Aboriginal players—and outsiders often rightfully feel a sense of persecution. But, if Saturday is any guide, the club has the biggest chip on its shoulder that I’ve seen in a decade of covering local footy.
After four quarters of exhilarating football mixed in with sniping, the worst moment came late in the game when Tallygaroopna’s playing-coach Robert Osborne took a towering grab on the edge of the goalsquare. An Ardmona defender rode him into the ground before cuffing him over the ears. A brawl, of course, ensued.
After the match, a policeman and policewoman stood near the umpires’ rooms, defusing a volatile situation with their presence. In the Tallygaroopna rooms, Redlegs president Dennis Patterson was beside himself with glee at his club’s stirring victory over such a hated rival.
The feeling in the Tallygaroopna rooms was as happy as I could remember. It was the circumstances that made it such a good win that were sad.
This article first appeared in The Age on August 14, 2007.
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