Is Your Life Empty?

Happy Friday Virtus Family.

I've been an AFL football fan my whole life. I was indoctrinated into the cult of the Collingwood Football Club early on & even though I thought about Richmond for a week or two (to please my mates) when I started junior football, I chose correctly and have been a proud Collingwood supporter ever since.

I vividly remember hearing 'shut up, the footys on the radio' regularly as Dad worked in the garage & I played out the front. Some of my fondest childhood memories are from behind the goals at Waverly Park and the MCG & most of my spare time as a kid was spent kicking the footy around with my mates.

Since my first game of football as a 7 year old in 1999, and along the last 21 years of the journey football has taught me more life lessons than almost anything else. I will be forever grateful for my parents (yes Dad I have my mouthguard) coaches and teammates for all of the love & support and fun times along the way.

Throughout the journey, there have been few constants. My love for footy has gone through peaks and troughs and my commitment as a player has been both all-encompassing and at times much too relaxed. I never quite reached my childhood goal of playing AFL, but my 6 years of VFL football at the club I grew up supporting will be something I will cherish forever. During those 6 years, I was lucky enough to train & play with and be coached by the players I grew up idolising.

Like any young Collingwood supporter, I loved players like Paul Licuria, Tarkyn Lockyer & Anthony Rocca, but I was in awe of Nathan Buckley. Through many years without much team success, I could always rely on 'Bucks' to play brilliant football & give a skinny football-loving kid something to look forward to and someone to look up to. My first year of VFL coincided with his first year of coaching the AFL team & I can honestly say that I have never stopped looking up to 'Bucks'. His growth as a leader and as an individual has been brilliant to watch from the outside & I hold him in the highest regard in the way that he conducts himself as a person and as a coach.

Earlier this week during his press conference after the Collingwood & Carlton game, he was asked to comment on an article that had been written about him pertaining to a potential feeling of 'emptiness' because he has not yet achieved the pinnacle fo Australian Rules Football, a premiership.

His response blew me away (if you haven't seen the video, you can watch it here) and reiterated the reasons why I hold the man in such high esteem.

'I don't have a flag, I'll be working towards it, but it's not going to define me whether I get it or not'
I never quite made my childhood dream of playing AFL. But I have no doubt that my life is richer for having 'failed'. I was fortunate enough to have played 60 odd games of VFL football, without which I would never have met the people, learned the lessons & experienced the magnificent things I've been able to. Who knows, If I was good enough back then (which I wasn't) Virtus wouldn't exist in it's current capacity, KP might not have loved me as much & Lucy might not be around yet.

To put it lightly, I'm very very happy with how things have turned out.

We all set goals & we all have desires, that's human nature but whether or not we achieve them can be at times out of our hands. Regardless of whether you do or don't, the joy can be found in the journey no matter what. It's cliche to say we need to focus on the journey rather than the destination, but stuff it, it's true. So if you don't quite reach a target that you may have set for yourself, it doesn't matter in the slightest. Do your best, show up, & learn to enjoy the little steps along the way.

Never take life for granted have fun, spend it with people you love, and keep doing brilliant things.

Be amazing.

And to those people who say that you should never meet your heroes, it's not as overrated as you might think.

Wallace