The upstanding life of a footy barracker.

Funny how your memory goes with advancing years.

I have been  checking this blog site for the last three weeks. Each time I did so  I was surprised to see that there were no new posts.

Then it hit me. I'm the one one who writes the stuff! 

Oh, yes, I remember now. 
Must have been writers block...or laziness.

Well here goes. I am back on the bike.

On March 9, 2013, Western Australians will vote in a state election. Voters will either re-elect Liberal leader, Colin Barnett, or they will choose Labor leader, Mark McGowan, as the new state premier.

Both of these leaders have made building a new football stadium one of their election promises.

Colin Barnett promises to build a football stadium at Burswood and Mark McGowan wants to build a new stadium in Subiaco.

Most football loving voters won’t care too much where the stadium is built. They just want a new one as soon as possible,  because the existing stadium at Subiaco is over fifty years old and totally inadequate. Among many other things the seating is too cramped, there are no escalators or lifts and the toilets are unhygienic and too few in number.

Both Barnett and McGowan are well aware of the ups and downs of political life and know how the voting public can make you a peacock one day and a feather duster the next.

Of course, football too has it’s ups and downs. Teams lose when they should have won and hapless coaches are sacked when their team loses one game too many.

Famous football coach , Michael Malthouse, once remarked on these ups and downs of football, saying,  “Some days you’re a windshield and some days you’re a bug.”

Ah, yes the ups and downs of life. The ups and downs of football.

But it doesn't only happen to players, coaches teams or politicians.

All of us Eagles and Dockers supporters who sit cramped together in the Three Tier Stand at Subiaco each weekend in the football season know only too well about football's ups and  downs.

In fact the Three Tier Stand is a crying shame. It should be called the Three Tier Stand-Up.  Each time someone in the row wants to get in or get out, the whole row must stand to attention to let them pass.

Up we get. Down we sit. Till the next person comes along.

There must be some City of Subiaco By-law  requiring those who sit in the middle of the  row to arrive five minutes after the game starts. These same people also leave five minutes before quarter time so as to get a front possie at the bar.

Up we stand. Down we sit.

Naturally, they come back five minutes after the start of the second quarter.

Up we stand. Down we sit.

At  half time they repeat the process.

Up we stand. Down we sit.

During the half time break, while we sit there with thermos in one hand, cup of hot coffee in the other and a tray of chocolate biscuits balanced on our knees, along come the late leavers.

Once again we have another bout of the ups and downs. This time with coffee scalding our fingers and melted chocolate biscuits dribbling all over the hair of the lady in front.

Ten minutes after the start of the third quarter they all come surging back.

Up we stand. Down we sit.

At three quarter time all that half time beer drinking forces them to answer nature's call.

Up we stand, down we sit.

Five minutes into the last quarter they return.

Up we stand, down we sit.

Then, ten minutes before the end of the game we get the first wave of early leavers. If their team look like losing this chicken hearted lot start  leaving twenty minutes before the final siren.

Up and down, up and down, up and down.

Wherever the new stadium is built, us footy fans hope and pray that they build wider seats with enough legroom for people to enter or leave without forcing everyone else in the row to become part of the ups and downs brigade.

I don't know about windshields...but it sure bugs me!