I have to admit I was disappointed. I had hoped for a different outcome but we have to walk the road that God puts before to us, and it's not always the road that we might hope to see.
But my heart fell a little when you announced you would be supporting Essendon, Archbishop Comensoli*. Essendon? The team of drug cheats? The team of #standbyhird conspiracy theorists? Why would anyone want to support them?
Actually you didn't announce you would be supporting Essendon. The announcement said Essendon would be your 'team of redemption'. Now that's an interesting turn of phrase. One might even say it's a redeeming one.
What does it mean to join a wounded, broken organisation in its pain? What does it mean to volunteer to take on some of the burden of that pain yourself? You could have joined the 100,000 members of the Richmond Football Club and enjoyed a few (perhaps fleeting) moments of success. You could have stood in solidarity with Melbourne Football Club supporters as they continue their 54-year-long vigil at the gates of the promised land.
You could have signed on with any of the smaller clubs, who would have loved the attention you brought. But you decided to stand with Essendon. Broken, wounded Essendon.
Now that the choice has been made (and you realise it's irrevocable don't you? Melburnians don't ever, ever change football clubs) might I offer you some advice? From one AFL fan to another: Sit with the people.
The corporate masters of the game are going to court you. The Essendon Football Club's administrators will offer you a special place in the stands, and invite you to their corporate events. The football media will try to seduce you, to publish your tips each week in the newspaper and join the laughs on the Front Bar. The AFL will try to get you to launch its latest new AFLXYZ game involving two footballs and four sets of goalposts, which they're sure will be a winner with the kids.
"You have the light of a new dawn to guide you and the freedom to choose how you're going to face the journey ahead. Sit with the people."
Ignore the masters who think they control the game. If Essendon is a broken, wounded club it's because they tried too hard to play the game of the corporate masters. They sought a corporate approach to manufacturing success, and when they were accused of breaking the rules they followed the corporate playbook — bringing in the lawyers and the PR experts and seeking to muddy the waters rather than opening up, repenting and providing restitution for their past failings. Sound familiar?
The corporate masters are, in reality, not masters at all. Following Australian Rules football is about loving the game, and you don't build love from a corporate box. So my advice to you, Archbishop Comensoli, now that you've chosen to be an Essendon supporter, is to sit among those who can teach you how to fall in love with the game.
Sit with the people.
Sit with the Essendon Cheer Squad, who had to watch their heroes fall and be hounded out of the game. Listen to their memories of past successes, and their dreams for the young players trying to rebuild their great club. Sit in the outer with the family who might get to one game a year, and see that it's far less about what's happening on the field than about the time it means together.
Catch a train to the game so you can see how it still has the power to bring families together, turn strangers into friends, and create an atmosphere of peace between even the bitterest of rivals.
Feel the holy power of football and see that maybe, just maybe, there is a benevolent force who can bring joy and hope to even the most wounded and broken organisations.
We have to walk the road that God puts before us, and God has put a difficult road before you Archbishop Comensoli. But you have the light of a new dawn to guide you and the freedom to choose how you're going to face the journey ahead.
Sit with the people.
*On 1 August 2018 the Australian Catholic Bishops tweeted of the new Archbishop of Melbourne: 'And in his final comments, @BishopComensoli makes the announcement many were waiting for: The AFL team of redemption is ... #Essendon @EssendonFC'
Michael McVeigh is senior editor at Jesuit Communications, publishers of Eureka Street.