I HAVE a confession to make.

In addition to being a football nut, I also enjoy AFL. There, I’ve said it.
There’s no need to worry though, I’m receiving counselling. Step one along the pathway to true healing is to admit that we need help.

It’s from this sordid, egg-shaped past that I was awakened to the existence of the football gods. These unpredictable, at times malevolent, beings have the power to dramatically alter the course of footballing fortunes. They turn tragedy into triumph, or vice versa.

We choose to ignore them at our own peril.

On-field tragedies should never be compared to those of the off-field variety however. A case in point occurred in March this year when Sasa Ognenovski’s father Josif passed away.

Sasa was preparing to travel to South Korea with the Adelaide United team for an Asian Champions League game against Pohang Steelers. As you’d expect he opted to miss the trip and travelled instead to Melbourne to attend his father’s funeral and to be with his family.

Fast forward to Saturday November 22 and just before half-time in the Reds game against Sydney, Sasa’s head connects with a perfectly weighted cross and the ball smacks violently into the back of the net.

It’s the first goal he’s scored since the passing of his father and he raises his arms and looks to the sky in acknowledgment. Amidst the joy of celebrating the goal, it was moving to watch.

Fast forward one more week to the Reds' most recent game, this time away to Newcastle. As the game drifts well into injury time, the Jets hold a 1-0 lead. The Reds have one final chance to equalise, through a corner.

Big Sasa hunts the ball through a crowded penalty area, as he did against Sydney the week before, and remarkably, once again, connects. This time it’s not a violent connection though, instead it’s quite tame.

The goalkeeper for Seaford Wanderers B team would have saved it. In fact most keepers would have saved it, with one proviso. They stay on their feet.

Unfortunately for Newcastle, Ante Covic slipped, as did their chances of winning the match. The ball trickled into the net and it finished 1-1.

I like to think that maybe, just maybe, the football gods were smiling on Sasa that day. I also like to think that his father Josif was there too, egging them on.