IF YOU were going to pick a weekend not to play finals in Adelaide or Melbourne this would have been the best possible choice.
The football gods were smiling when it was decided that the weekend in the middle of 40C+ weeks was going to be a time for fans to reflect and players to refresh. Let the tennis junkies melt. Football fans have ben ruminating - and praying.
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York;
And all the clouds that low'r'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Shakespeare's Richard the Third opens with these famous lines. Far from heralding a time of unhappiness they actually represent a turning of the speaker's mind from discontent to "glorious summer". Something good has occurred and clouds are parting to reveal....
Enough classical literature. This is a football blog and I know I've lost half of you already. What I want to ruminate upon is the strange capacity of passionate football fans - myself included - to find unhappiness even in the midst of plenty. Adelaide fans are among the best at it.
We've had a great year, the like of which we might not see again for a decade or more. There have been incredible moments, dire moments, frustration, elation - has there been an emotion we haven't felt this year as we've followed our team? And yet, there are those among us for whom all this will mean nothing if we don't grab the final prize on offer.
Now, I'm on record as saying I believe we will win that prize, but if we don't I'm not going to end this summer bewailing our fate. I'll remember this year as one of the great years I've had following football - and the year that I really came to love the Reds.
We all want the World Cup for Australia. We all want big-name players to come home and play for our A-League teams. We all want the Socceroos to gain the respect of the mainstream sports audience - and keep it. We all want everything. There's nothing wrong with that. It's natural and good. A parent wants the best for their child. Most parents think their kids are brilliant and beautiful (of course mine are) but, we're not all necessarily accurate in our assessment of what we love.
The saddest thing of all is when you see a parent who refuses to acknowledge that their child has limitations and keeps demanding more. And you most often see this on the sports field with rabid dads or mums screaming at their kids for "more, more, more".
There are fans like this too. Nothing is ever good enough.
A few years ago I couldn't go to see Adelaide United play because they didn't exist. This year I've seen them noticed on the Man United website and around the world. I've been there to see them knock out teams they shouldn't have been able to touch.
I've watched them lose to teams they should have thrashed. I've been with my family at moments when screaming as loud as you can and high-fiving everyone around you simply wasn't enough to express the emotion you were feeling.
We're a young team in a young league with a terribly limiting but necessary salary cap. We're nowhere near the standard of the EPL or probably even the Championship. What we have is a fantastically accessible local team who play decent football with a growing support base of fans who really care. As fans, we can go and see our team play in a great stadium in which every seat is a good seat and then drive home and blather on about our thoughts on forums like this.
In my opinion it's pretty close to football heaven - especially compared to anything I've experienced in this city before.
Now we sit on the edge of a finals series that is so close it's probably worth borrowing someone else's fingernails to chew because your own won't last. We have a better than average chance of winning it. Later this year it all starts again.
I'm not doing the 'glass half full' speech. I don't even see that it's three quarters full. I'd say it's already at the brim and if it gets any fuller it'll overflow. I bloody well hope it does.
I'm not asking you to agree with me either (although I hope you'll let me know if you do or don't), I'm just letting you know that this has been a summer I'll want to remember for all the good things.
For those who do disagree, "To bitch or not to bitch, that is the question".
Over to you.
