Round #15 - I am here because
Hall of Famer - Erin Phillips
"To Dad... I can't imagine how hard it would've been to tell your 13-year-old daughter that she couldn't play the game that she loves anymore. And 27 years later, she's standing next to you in the Hall of Fame.
"I remember a game, I ran out to centre-half forward, stood next to my opponent. I could see him scanning the field looking for something, and then he turns to me and goes: 'I heard you have a girl on this team, and I heard she's pretty good'. - Erin Phillips, Australian Football Hall of Fame
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The Australian Football Hall of Fame is a night of stories.
The stories of individuals who, through the power of their presence, persistence, and performance, became the game’s story.
Each story had a beginning; it was then built and burned bright, and eventually, all stories must burn out. But for these special individuals, their legacy is forever. Now, it is a story to be told and retold, with bits added and subtracted, and it becomes folklore and legend.
It is the best night in football, and I have never heard anyone who loves the game say otherwise.
It is a night when the game celebrates its ‘So Far’ story through the individual feats of those who, for a period of their life, had the sun shine on them so brightly, but as it inevitably will, now shines on someone else.
Each new member of the Hall of Fame tells their ‘Because’ story.
They are standing in front of an audience of extraordinary achievers from the sport they fell in love with before falling in love with anything else, telling their story, explaining why they are in the room with them, and being inducted as a member of this special group.
They are saying, “I am here because”, and it will be some individual and idiosyncratic combination of:
The love and sacrifice of others - Their family and friends
The shoulders they stand on - The ‘good ancestors’, those who planted the trees
The work they have done - The effort they made
The lessons they have learned - Often from the mistakes they have made
The love that they have - For the ‘craft’, in this case, the game of Australian Football
The luck they received - Their good fortune, often taken for granted at the time, but now well understood
The people they have met - Those who saw something in them and gave their insight and care without expectation
The choices they have made - Seeing opportunity, but also by necessity because life is like that
I love a ‘because’ story. It is how we connect with people we don't know but could get to know, an invitation to a deeper conversation when we see part of ourselves in their stories. How they grew up just like us, with a park down the road, kids they kicked the footy with, needing to get home before the streetlights came on, otherwise you’ll be in strife.
Their stories then go on to places that ours never did, but then, our stories got to go to places that theirs never did.
Having listened to many Hall of Fame speeches, the telling of the best stories, even from those who rose to the giddiest of footy heights, seemingly are told from one of three perspectives.
They are:
A story of transition. They were something, and they became something else, picked up somewhere and left some place very different through the experience of doing and being what the game or life demanded of them, and challenged them to become. The game saw something in them that they were yet to see in themselves, and they hung on desperately to wherever the ride was going to take them, accepting, often reluctantly, that you could never control its many uncontrollables.
A story of resilience. It was never easy, and they had their hearts, minds and bodies broken many times. They lost hope, but somehow found a way to overcome the setbacks, which, in time, only made them more determined, and they were better and stronger as a result, and whilst they wouldn’t wish it upon anyone, they were gifts, loss and heartbreak being temporary states and essential for growth, and they wouldn’t change a thing.
A story of grit. The work. The work. The work. The marginal gains made, mostly when no one was watching. Never easy, but always understanding and motivated by the undersanding that there is no growth without challenge. Dedication and discipline, finding ‘yes’ when those same hearts, minds and bodies kept saying ‘no’.
The best stories are those that not only shaped themselves, but also their teams, clubs, and the game itself. It wasn’t always pretty or popular, but it forced others to respond, and the game shaping continues because of them.
These special people are not only part of the ‘So Far’ story of the game; they are the ‘Not Yet’ story.
These are brave people. Prepared to hazard themselves for the possibility of fulfilling the promise of the sport.
It is personal.
For Daisy Pearce and Erin Phillips (who my drawing celebrates), inducted into this year’s Hall of Fame, it was personal.
They had the deepest love of the game, but the game, with all of its bias and dogma, its old ways, didn’t love them back.
Despite this one-way relationship, they found a way. Their way. A new way.
I have learned that discomfort marks the place where the old way meets the new way. It is a place of vulnerability and courage. If it doesn’t challenge you, it will not change you, and whenever in doubt, back the new way and all its uncertainty.
Daisy and Erin both spoke of the love of family, with Erin sharing her Hall of Fame membership with her father Greg, a legendary Port Adelaide and Collingwood defender.
"To Dad... I can't imagine how hard it would've been to tell your 13-year-old daughter that she couldn't play the game that she loves anymore. And 27 years later, she's standing next to you in the Hall of Fame.
“Thank you for teaching me a game that I loved, and even though you knew it wasn't going to take me anywhere at the time, you still taught me anyway."
Both Daisy and Erin know that they stand on the shoulders of a couple of generations of brave and committed women who did it even harder than they did, all with their own stories of resilience, grit, and thankfully, transition. Both acknowledged Debbie Lee, in the room with them as they now share their Hall of Fame membership, having been inducted as the first woman a few years ago.
"Debbie, you kicked down this door so others could walk through," said Erin.
It was women like Debbie who looked at the future of the game and saw radically different things from most. They were much more interested in what we can become than who we think we are already.
“Who you are is what you settle for, you know?” said singer Janis Joplin.
Debbie was not prepared to settle for how she personally experienced our game of Australian football. She had the courage and insight to ask better questions of the sport, inspired by the promise of the game's 'Not Yet' story, and would become the evangelist women’s football needed and changed the game forever.
Listen to Debbie Lee on our ‘In the Arena’ Podcast - ‘Mum, do men play footy?
Daisy and Erin are the intersection of the game’s ‘So Far’ story and ‘Not Yet’ story, creating an ‘Us Story’ for the sport itself that is so much richer, where girls can look at the game the ways boys have been able to do for a century and a half, and see themselves in it.
And the game is better.
Much better.
Play on!
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