Lloyd Perris: My football childhood
Lloyd swan kid
By Lloyd Perris
An invitation to play schoolyard football seemed an adequate start to life at a new primary school in NSW.
After having to ask, I was intrigued at the fact they played without goal posts, wondering how anyone could possibly kick a goal.
The game began with a kick off and my new friends began spiraling the synthetic ball backward one after another, continually telling me I was offside.
Pretty soon it dawned on me what a significant move my family had made.
At the time it felt like my world had come crashing down, I felt like I had moved to a new country, and pretty soon I began to dislike the new life in Sydney that was ahead of me.
I was a 9-year-old, an active, but shy and nervous 9-year-old, when my family made this move up to a coastal suburb in Southern Sydney from Parkdale in South-east Melbourne, an enormous change considering my interests (or obsessions) at the time.
My group of friends in Melbourne lived and breathed anything football – cards, players, numbers, stats, play station games, history, strengths, weaknesses, and everything in between.
This was in stark contrast to the people I spent the most time with from 2004 onwards, who had extremely little knowledge or interest about the game of Australian football, and initially it devastated me.
I was left wondering how anyone could possibly be excited or enjoy rugby league or union.
Looking back, it was positive in the way that I tried new things, and I’ve since developed an appreciation for other codes, but I was often left with a hole inside me that no person was able to fill by indulging over the weekend’s game or the latest footy news.
I was able to join a junior club pretty quick even though we moved mid-year, and there I was able to really enjoy my football.
I dragged many out of soccer and rugby league to try Aussie rules and those kids quickly became my closer friends.
Most are still playing almost a decade later.
I fought, mostly verbally, long and hard with anyone who questioned me about which sport was better.
Years passed, where I spent periods of time skateboarding, body boarding, playing cricket, basketball and even spearfishing.
The Sydney Swans Academy began in 2011, around the time I began to take my football more seriously.
It was a fantastic program for me and several others currently on the Swans list, showing us the level we had to get to in order to even be considered as a potential AFL footballer.
I believe junior players in NSW, until exposed to the level of other states or the standards of a club like the Sydney Swans, can understandably find it very easy to get ahead of themselves.
In ten minutes in the AFL system I learnt it’s almost impossible to get ahead of yourself.
To continue reading this article head to unambitiousus.com.
