Faith

Faith

By Becca Hayne

Now your grip's too strong You can't catch love with a net or a gun Gotta keep faith that your path will change Gotta keep faith that your luck will change....
....tomorrow

So there's an old New Orleans Saints ad I like to watch from time to time.

Not least of which because as I type this I have a sticker from the same ad campaign stuck to my wall, even as the colors on it age and fade.

It has the word FAITH on it gold letters.

When Tracy Porter intercepted Peyton Mannings pass and ran the ball back for the clinching touchdown in the Superbowl, my first thought was back to that sticker, and all the things instilled in me over the years

House rules

Never turn a game off
Never leave a game early
Always keep the faith.....

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I've becoming increasingly conscious in my life that most sporting events are not, despite hyperbolic commentary, one for the memory banks.

Games pile up on games, goals are almost instantly forgotten....

I've also become aware that in the pursuit of titles as the only metric of success, that the simple joys of game day have been forgotten, the value in little magical moments.

St Kildas first two AFLW games have been replete with these moments and I'm taking a moment to enjoy and document them all...

Pushing Ellie Blackburn in the chest after a goal, our first ever goal from Molly McDonald, watching Caitlin Greiser grow, my love of how Kate McCarthy GETS us.....

And both games have been accompanied by floods of tears.....

13 days ago, we had none of those, not a single solitary moment to call our own.

Now, somehow, we have a TEAM, a group of women who fight like hell for each other, coached by the only female coach in the whole league.

And yet....

And YET......

Is this the game that's going to be a letdown?

Is this the moment that the 2-0 Demons inflict our first serious disappointment of the season, our first real down moment, the moment where we we get a finger wagging commentary about "too experienced" and "tired legs"........

We're 0-2, there's no logical reason to believe this will anything other than another "lesson", another "step" on some precocious journey.....

And yet....

And YET.....

There's no way we should beat this Melbourne AFLW team......

But what if we did........

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It's 6am in New Orleans

There's no one to talk important Tamara Luke issues......

There are Maltesers on the floor from where I threw them at the TV whenever Bob Murphy said something I didn't agree with or Karen Paxman threatened to take the game away from us.

We won......

We.......

WON????
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Sports is about keeping the faith.....

Early on Melbourne are all over us, looking every inch the Premiership favorites, but we're fighting, and clawing, and scratching, working so hard.....

And then we're in front, because sports is strange and wonderous and beautiful sometimes.....

Fox Footy throws in a piece of horrendous camerawork, showing a close up of Caitlin Greiser as the ball rolls towards the boundary.

It takes a second to process, but Kate McCarthy is still going, and gets the ball before it goes out of bounds, and centers it to Caitlin......

Is it a mark?

Is it a free kick?

We may never know, but the G Train kicks the goal, and we're in front.....

Faith is everywhere....

We're in front until Shelley Scott kicks a long goal on the back of the breeze after Bob "why was Bec Goddard busy" Murphy says she won't make the distance.....

We're behind.....

Karen Paxman is brilliant, a breathtaking footballer, and the crushing inevitability of her and Daisy Pearce taking the game from us looms large.....

We kick the only goal of the 2nd quarter, as Greiser finds Gutridge in the goal square, and we lead 12-11 at half time....
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Our pride jumpers are glistening under the Moorabbin lights in the second half...

More learned minds than me can tell you the joys of what the Pride jumpers mean in this round....

It's another layer of the complexity of belonging....

Of finally being part of the AFLW landscape

Much as it is strange trying to feel connected to football in Australia while sitting airlessly in a New Orleans basement around a laptop...

You just do belong

Sports is strange like that...

Let me put it this way

Your sports team will make someone think of you instinctively - I know when New Orleans lost to the Rams on the worst call ever, there were people i haven't thought of for years who's first thought was "Man, poor Becca......."

There's a beauty in that.....

It's 3 quarter time right now

It's Melbourne 14, St Kilda 12.....

I know people are thinking of me, of us.....

I know we can do it......
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8:43 to go

Kate McCarthy is dashing

The commentary mentions she loves to take the game on, with a Bob Murphy sotto voce "so she should"

Her kick finds Caitlin Greiser, who marks one handed like the game is hers, like the game is easy...

Caitlin waves her team mates away....

She belongs.......

The commentary casually mentions she can kick the ball 60m......

Her shot from 55m out is......a goal.......

We're back in front......

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0:07

It's a boundary throw in on the wing, we're in front 19-14

Kate has a stinger, and the boundary umpire is about to throw the ball "in"

We're going to win.......

I'm screaming and sobbing at the laptop.....

I don't know what can sum up all of this......

Thirteen days, 7 seconds, 5 points......

We didn't have any of this 13 days ago.....

We didn't belong.....

I've tried to document my sports memories as best I can, the really special ones

I know where I was when Abby headed in against Brazil, where I was when Porter intercepted, where I was when Roo kicked the goal against the Dogs in 09.....

And I know where I am when the siren goes for our first ever win.....

All i want is that song, that song we were denied for the first 3 seasons, for last week in Adelaide.....

It doesn't disappoint.......
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What bonds us to a sports team?

Titles?

Community?

I tend to think it's the latter, I've always thought the beauty of sports comes from mutual understanding, across continents....

There's a universal understanding that sports fans communicate, joy that comes from winning

But when it's YOUR team, those emotions are stronger....

I think of the Sainters I know, who are at the ground, watching on TV, sitting through endless Special K ads to get to this wonderous moment

I think of my Demon friend, and how I'd have been OK to lose in some ways, because in spite of everything, she had a horrible week, and I would have been OK to know she was smiling

I think of these players, and how they must be feeling, the joys, the emotions....

And I wonder who's thinking of me......

I get up, and tap the sticker 3 times as I log off......

FAITH

It doesn't get any better than that.......