My father was a huge Perth Demons fan, maybe their success in the late 70’s attracted him. It was a passion he rediscovered in the last years of his life, and he could often be found on a Saturday afternoon watching the Demons being beaten convincingly by some better resourced WAFL side. I followed his lead momentarily as a 8 year old, until the lure of the South Fremantle Bulldogs and the exploits of Stephen Michael grabbed my attention. I don’t think you choose a team, I think a team chooses you.

How would you feel if your team was taken from you? This is the emotions that the thousands of Fitzroy fans felt on September 1, 1996.

Full Points describes it thus, “On Sunday 1 September 1996 a group of players representing the Fitzroy Football Club took the field for the last time. The fact that the venue for the match was Subiaco Oval in Perth was both significant and, in a perverse way, appropriate ; the Australian Football League, which, within the space of a mere decade, had moved from being a suburban to a national competition, had no further use for financially non-viable propositions like Fitzroy. “

This game was against the new kid on the block, Fremantle, who within a few years would establish themself as a financial powerhouse, having the fastest growing membership of any side. They are now an incredibly well supported club having full corporate sponsorship, thanks in no small part to the man crdited with their financial revival, club CEO, Cameron Schwab.

The game itself was a pretty one sided affair, with Fitzroy losing, despite winning the last quarter by 2 points. The game was held on September 1, 1996, at Subiaco Oval. Fitzroy lost by 86 points and the final scores were Fitzroy 10.11 71 v Fremantle 24.13 157
What was significant, in my mind at least, was the respect shown by the Fremantle Football Club. They put on a presentation both before and after the game and due respect was shown to the once proud club. Many Fitroy supporters travelled across the Nullaboar for the game, and they were vocal in their appreciation of the acknowledgment given.

Dale Kickett played for Fremantle that day, which is significant as he had also played for Fitzroy.

But He is not as concerned about your happiness.
This is the Urban Legend I am dealing with this Sunday….
Here is a snippet….

The Christian urban legend we are going to deal with this morning is that God wants you to be happy, and this is personal for me because our Church slogan is enjoy the good life. But enjoyment is quite different to happiness.

Happiness is a fleeting moment, joy is something that can be enjoyed despite the circumstances we find ourselves in. Paul writes in Philippians chapter 4, rejoice, again I say rejoice, all the time. Happiness is a fleeting feeling based on an experience or set of circumstances. Happiness comes about when you win lotto, or you are eating a nice slice of pizza, that’s fleeting pleasure which your body pays for at a latter stage, right….joy, enjoyment is something quite different.

Everytime I think about what our church is doing, really doing, I think….goodness we are out of our comfort zone.
For a church our size, we are doing far more than what could be expected, what is ‘normal’.
Two full time pastors, one part time childrens worker.
Very succesful outreach programs……more starting in 2nd term.

Don’t get me wrong, its not me thats doing this….its our people.
They are giving, serving, involved and motivated……such good people.
While some come and go, as is to be expected, I am just aware of the journey we have begun as a church together. I wonder who we will be ministering with at the end?

This year we may very well have no building, no temporary facilities, and nowhere to go permanently.

It is a massive task we are taking on. As the real decision time comes closer, it is more than a little daunting. We are going to have to grab far more than you could expect, and work like crazy…

But do I want a boring safe life? No….never have.
In the next few months…..it will be far from that.

Okay….today is Labour Day…so what? I was talking to my wife today about what today means. Maybe the government should put a explanation in the paper or something. After doing some research, because I think its important to know why we are having a public holiday, the succint answer came from Wikipedia.

“Labour Day is an annual holiday celebrated all over the
world that resulted from efforts of the labour union movement, to
celebrate the economic and social achievements of workers.

The celebration of Labour Day has its origins in the eight hour day movement,
which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight
hours for rest. On 21 April 1856 Stonemasons and building
workers on building sites around Melbourne, Australia, stopped work and
marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight
hour day. Their direct action protest was a success, and they are noted as the
first organized workers in the world to achieve an eight hour day with no loss
of pay, which subsequently inspired the celebration of Labour Day and by May Day.”

So there you go, relax today in peace….

Do you want to be known as a cheese deliverer or a giant killer.

This is the title of the brief talk I am going to give Sunday night at our FYG (Friday Youth Group) camp…….

The media is prone to exageration when it comes to monikers given to players. Some young pup who works at the team store is called, “a star player in the making”. A curly headed player who has been in the game for just over 12 months is nicknamed, “Mr Football”.

There is one player who scarcely rated a mention in the dispatches of most media outlets, and deliberately kept away from any attention. His preferred hair colour is brown, and most of the players on his team were a little startled when they heard him speak, a little bit like a dog that you didn’t think could bark, and suddenly it growls at you.

However he played 238 games for the one club, defeated players twice his size, and was rarely disgraced, in a side that was often beaten. His preferred position was full back, but towards the end of his career he played on various opponents in the back line. In an team with more options, Parker would have been a small defender. His task would have been to chase after forwards or even mid-sized attackers in the opposition; to run the ball out of defence and get it to those who kick goals from time to time. But Fremantle did not have that luxury, and Shane was up against the best forwards for most of his career. He was a great defender, but part of Freo folklore is the frustration fans felt when Shane was given the kicking out duties, something which it has to be said was at best, frustrating to watch.

For his entire career he only kicked 11 goals, but the tenth one was a beauty. It came in round 16, 2005 when his opponent was Brendan Fevola, a player the media like to dub a ‘star player’. Fremantle were playing Carlton at the MCG on a sunny day. Brendad was playing full forward and Shane Parker full back You would expect the full forward to outscore the fullback, right? Well not in the nexus that is Fremantle. On this day, when Fremantle defeated the Blues by 35 points, Fremantle’s full back outscored his much fancied opponent, all because of one beautiful running goal, when everything came together for the man those who admired him dubbed, “The Twig of Integrity”.