Footy brings city together
11 March 2006
Herald Sun
Mike Sheahan
IN the context of life in Mildura in recent weeks, a game of football seems a totally meaningless event.
Yet, football is helping a city rediscover hope and a future worth the fight after a moment of the devil's handiwork claimed six teenage lives.
Essendon and Richmond will play a benefit game in Red Cliffs on Friday afternoon, an initiative that seems to have given the region renewed purpose.
AFL ground operations manager Jill Lindsay said yesterday the energy and co-operative spirit in Mildura was stunning. "We often underestimate the power of football to bring people together," she said.
All 8000 tickets have been sold to the game, which will have Quandong Park at bursting point.
Not for the first time, the wider football family has come together to help those whose lives have been devastated by tragedy.
From the top down. Before last night's mishap at Bendigo, James Hird had decided he simply had to play for Essendon, regardless of a build-up planned to the minute, after reading he was a hero to one victim.
Kerry Prowse, who lost two children, said of her son, Shane, at the funeral service: "He thought he was going to be the next Michael Jordan and the next James Hird."
Coaches Kevin Sheedy and Terry Wallace happily committed to the game, while AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou is expected to head a strong AFL delegation.
Mildura is pulling together, showing just a hint that it is capable of fighting its way out of the grief and gloom that has almost suffocated the city in the past three weeks.
It is a recovery sparked in part by an Essendon initiative and Richmond's willingness to help.
Richmond has invited Frank Calvi, whose sister Josephine perished in the roadside carnage, to take part in the warm-up and to run on to the field with the team.
Frank, a highly rated junior, was at Quandong Park yesterday in a jumper borrowed from former Richmond captain Mark Lee, a product of the Sunraysia region.
His sister's casket was covered in flowers and a Richmond scarf at a service late last month.
Lindsay admitted she thought the city had no hope of meeting the requirements for an AFL fixture after her first visit 10 days ago.
"I told them, 'If we are going to come up here, this is what you're going to have to do', and there were a heap of things," she said.
Lindsay returned on Thursday and said later: "They've done everything we asked. The antiquated dressingroom has been stripped bare and refurbished, the playing surface has been upgraded, and earthmoving equipment was brought in to bank an area of the ground and increase the capacity.
"It's been absolutely phenomenal what they've done. There's carpenters, plumbers, electricians and painters all over the place.
"The council has put everything on hold to get this done."
The tragedy hasn't escaped the attention of a couple of multi-nationals, either.
The NAB has contributed $20,000 and 500 tickets, while Qantas has arranged a charter flight to carry 140 people from the two clubs, the umpires and the AFL contingent.
As much as football changes, it remains the people's game.
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