I watched the Melbourne Grand Prix on the weekend on TV. I’m not much of a car racing person, but I usually sit down every year to watch the Formula 1 race in Melbourne. I like to talk throughout it to friends as if I know all about the sport, like I’m a guru of the sport like Jackie Stewart, when in fact I know very little other than I like the girls that hold the umbrellas for the drivers before the race starts.
Rhyce Shaw would be the biggest F1 fan at the club. He loves the sport, and his ultimate job is to be the official safety car driver at F1 events. I think he’d be perfect for it. (On the other end of the spectrum Goodsey drives a Prius so I don’t think he’s much of a car racing man).
On the weekend, while the race was going on the commentators spoke about all the hard work that had been going on preparing the drivers and cars for the first race of the season. As us AFL players have done a lot of hard work too preparing for our own competition it made me think, maybe Formula 1 and AFL has more in common than first thought.
We both have a massive off-season working hard to prepare for the upcoming season. We both have a governing body that tweaks the rules at times to create a more exciting, and safer spectacle, and this makes each year a little different. Muscles are warmed up and rubbed down in AFL, and in F1 tyres are warmed up, and cars too have their own form of a rub down.
AFL is also changing the amount of time players spend on the bench when they come off. To me, the bench is our version of pit lane. We run off, and the team on the bench are all in synch with what needs to be done. We get a few breathes in, and before we know it we’re back out on the field.
However, when the game/race is over this is where our two sports diverge. We’re given a bottle of Powerade and hop into a freezing ice-bath, and from what I can tell from TV, the F1 drivers have their ‘Champagne showers’ pouring champagne over each other and then party with the girls who held the umbrellas for them before the race. Slightly differing recovery procedures.
Last weekend was the first round of the Formula 1 season, and this weekend it is the first round for our season. It’s a long season ahead for both sports, but there’s nothing like starting with a win and going into rest of the season with some momentum. We’ll be out to try our best to ensure we get off to a good start this weekend. Hopefully we’ll have a stadium full of red and white cheering us on for our first Sydney Derby.
Song of the Week:
This week it’s Nick Smith’s turn to put forward a song. We call him “Smooch” so deep down I was hoping he’d give me a great love song. I think he knew why I asked him and he wanted no part.
His song selection is Big City Life by Mattafix
Canteen Award of the week:
To their credit the boys have been well behaved this week. There’s no Canteen award so the Pie and Coke stays in the canteen and jackpots.
(Note: Josh Kennedy and Matt Spangher should count themselves lucky to not win the award for their modelling of the Swans ‘Fandanas’)
Ted Richards
@richards_report
