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February 21, 2007
Dancing with the Devil
Catch phrases. I’d have to say I like those clever little lines so often muttered in films. Those clever one liners that can sometimes linger, long after the film is finished. You know , “I’ll be Back” ,”Are you talkin to me?”, “Do you feel lucky , punk” , “Go ahead make my day” , these and others sometimes become as well known as the film that they have come from. Admittedly most are hardly the type of material that’s likely to be considered thought provoking but sometimes , every now and then , one sees a parallel between a saying and something in ones life , and I suppose on this board ones football interest.
Obviously , come contract time everyone instantly remembers “Show me the money” or maybe if a player is hanging out for that bit extra the club may “make him an offer he can’t refuse” or maybe if you’re a Star Trek fan “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” The one that made me think a bit the other day was “Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?” . A quote from the Joker in the 1st Batman , played by one of the best at the one line scene stealers , Jack ”you cant handle the truth” Nicholson , but really just what the hell does dancing with the Devil mean.?
To me at least , if you relate the Devil with danger then the act of dancing with the devil is probably a bit cavalier , its probably borderline between reckless and bravado and as a consequence it probably enhances the satisfaction of the act once one has managed to complete it. In terms of us at Catland , I just wonder how many of our players would be willing to dance with the Devil. How many actually play like they are Dancing with the Devil. In our age of ever increasing scrutiny when humdrum players seem to have become the norm , I wonder how many on our list could we really be called high end risk takers. To be frank why would anyone want to stray from the safe path? How easy is it to pass short or to pass to another when on a poor angle , how easy is to hang back and not jump for the speecky , to wait for the higher percentage play. Go for it and miss and you are exposed , you are embarrassed with negative attention , you are an idiot and if you are a borderline player , one little woops may just mean your position in the side. Look at Tom Lonergan , he has shown how risk can sometime cost you.
The thing is , the importance of the Risk taker is not to be underestimated. If we wish to be better than average , we will not do it by filling our side with players willing to follow the path marched by the mediocre majority. Highly skilled risk takers are Game Breakers and when I look at our list we look light in this area. Why would we have put up with the antics of Steve Johnson for so long if he wasn’t one of these highly valuable game breakers players.
What Id like to see this year , along with our new elevated level of fitness is a bit of risk enhanced play. I know , I’m talking icing , not the cake but I’m sure that fitness alone will not take us to were want to be as club. To quote TS Elliot sometimes “You have to risk going too far to discover just how far you can really go.”. and say what you want about Steve Johnson , he is not unwilling to roll the dice and see what’s the result. He is at our club , he is on our list and he will not be available for several rounds this year but is it in our interest that he is not training with the main group? I don’t know but I sure hope he has learnt his lesson because I reckon Steve is a match winning risk taker but you don’t win matches watching the game from the grandstand.
*TurboCat is a regular on the BigFooty Geelong board and is our newest blogger with The Kolonel ending his association with the blog. Rumors are he topped himself with Kent's move to the Tigers, who can blame him?
We thank The Kolonel for his time & effort over the past seasons and thank TurboCat for joining us.*
Posted by Turbocat at February 21, 2007 11:03 PM
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