Mason Cox and Bryce Gibbs. Pictures: Collingwood FC and Adelaide FC.
How good is passion on a footy field? Or even a bit of a sledge or carry on here or there?
It’s amazing to watch, no matter who it comes from, it brings character to sport.
Hell, even a heartwarming moment deserves to happen.
Across the last round of the AFL, we saw two real instances of great character.
The first after Carlton’s loss to Adelaide, where Bryce Gibbs was chaired off by two of his best mates and ex-teammates.
To some, that’s apparently weird, but why?
It was a heartwarming moment, and yes, the loss ended the Blues’ season completely, but when it comes down to it, two mates were able to celebrate another mate going off into the sunset in style.
It drew criticism from the usual suspects, but it’s a moment which will be cherished in the hearts of those three men for the rest of their lives, so who are we to criticise that?
The second major one was in Monday night’s game between Collingwood and the Gold Coast Suns.
The AFL’s favourite American Pie Mason Cox delivered some moments of pure gold, including getting quite lippy with some of his opponents.
AFL fans weekly, almost daily, cry out for the players to be less ‘robotic’ and show a bit of personality about them.
That’s until someone actually does it.
It’s similar to the criticism which was unfairly aimed at Port Adelaide youngster Xavier Duursma last year with his bow and arrow celebration.
Duursma was whacked by pulling out the bow and arrow as Port was trailing Richmond at the MCG, with claims his side wasn’t in the game, when in fact, he had cut the deficit to 16 points.
Let the players be themselves, celebrate emphatically, throw a sledge out here and there that doesn’t cross the line and have fun.
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