FOOTY FEVER.......

Connor donning the gurnsey!

A force to be reckoned with Lake Albert Trent Barrett shield Team

Yesterday was a big day in our house Connor represented his school in his first game of Rugby League football! Yes thats right I caved...those of you who know me well know I am the only one of my clan not to have inherited the football crazy gene. (my  own brother and sister used to joke I was adopted!)

More over I could never see the point of small children hurling themselves at each other and the ground all for the sake of a game that has been known to leave even the fittest fully grown professional footballers laid out, broken, concussed, bleeding or on a stretcher.

I am still unsure about how I feel but what can you do when your surrounded by family peer group pressure (grandma and Pa have been wanting all my boys to become junior rugby league stars since urmmm ...their first ultrasounds!!!) and a 9 year old Son who has, unbeknowns to you,  not only tried out but made the school football team and his mind up when he comes home to inform of his position
and give you of his list of requirements! LOL

So yet again (lets NOT mention Nerf guns!) my
nurturing keep-their-vertibrae-alligned motherly instincts are swept aside.

So we buy the mouth guard to protect his teeth and the head gear to protect his brain and I paste on my best mother of boys smile and prepare to enter this next phase of my existance ....on the sideline. I am starting to think boys really will be boys and over worrying over protective mothers can not and will not equate to much more than a blip on their radar ( a blip that will come complete with a nervous twitch and stomach ulsers !!!).

Maybe this is just the first of many of those rites of passage thingos people talk about for boys ...I dont know. All I know is it seems to me that raising boys feels sometimes abit like being in quicksand - the harder you fight ....the quicker you sink!!!

A better metaphore might be... its a bit like balancing on a tightrope between what you want for them to stay happy, SAFE and healthy and what they want for themselves to fit in, be popular and happy.

That said standing on the side line that mob metality can overwhelming even to the strongest minds. I think when Connor hit the dirt and wandered off the field towards me, he may have been looking for sympathy....

I may have said, I cant be sure, errr ummmm...something like "dont cry to your mum, its just a bump cmon...get back over there"...
okayee so apparently I did use the phrase "go hard or go home" ... but I said in nicely!!!

So shoot me I am a tad competitive, I am sure I was just channelling something I'd heard on "the Footy Show". Maybe I was just trying to fit in!!!geez!!!

Anywho enough about me and what I may or may not have said...
the proof is in the pictures ...Connor had a ball.
Connor felt proud to be part of a team, impressed his coach with his potential
nd most importantly, it would seem got as dirty as a boy could possibly GET!

He was literaly giggly, delierious with excitement 

as he removed his mouthguard at half time,

spat out mud and said proudly

"did you see me! We're going good arent we?!"

As my heart exploded with joy pride and love

 I thought... hmmm Maybe mother, the benefits out weighed the risks after all!

Still... I could just as well have an olympian in training...
I wonder if Connor knows the great excitement and many virtures of Table Tennis  ...

Connor taking his first pass ( shhh his eyes weren't shut ...much! LOL)

Some teams fielded some big opposition ( took 5 lake alberts to bring down number 20)

The kid with the ball here is in a royal blue and bright yellow gurnsey if you can tell...

because...this is what every field looked like! some worse...

Here is the BEFORE SHOT. Dad came bearing a surprize...a new pair of footy boots ...

Said new black and red footy boots after the games!!!

This was half time in the first game of three.

"Mud what MUD??? CMON MUM GIMME A HUG!!!"