and am expecting swans to lose (boo hoo) – they always start the season v. slowly. hope to be proven wrong.

you wanted WC to win! aahhhhh…but I completely agree re: Hird – have always maintained he is the best player I’ve ever seen go around, better than Carey in his heyday – who was the considered the best during the 90′s – due to Hirdy using his brain, and his body in subtle ways, rather than just pure physical strength. That season before his first major foot injury 98?? he was sublime.

More like terrified!! I know, there are too many activities for kids to choose from. The only good thing about weekend sport is it’s on the weekend, which makes it much easier on a kindy kid.

31 March is just too hard for me to make – it’s the day my thesis is due in. Anyway, I wanted West Coast to win, and for me the season does not start until my St James Hird runs onto the field (*sob* last season evah *choke*)

Re your quandary….in a few years you’ll be driving non-stop from one activity to another, with not even a cuppa to keep you going between calls, and then the seasons just blur into each other….

Parents are often the drivers behind their children’s choices in sports and other recreational activities (at least for a few years before the buggers have their own ideas)…so, it’s all up to you and the combination of factors you have already mentioned: the local thang, the friend’s thang, the parental vicarious living thru their kids thang – lastly is whether said sprog wants to or not… but that’s ok – cause they will get you back BIG TIME – so enjoy your years of parental determinism while you can.

Seriously, unless your darling child shows any great skill or great love/interest for any particular activity, it really doesn’t seem to matter what you/they join up to….as long as they doing a sport and having fun at this age.

And you’ll be surprised/dismayed at just how many sports and other activities, kids these days, get to try out or do simultaneously. 3 or 4 boys in my daughter’s AFL Team last year, were playing soccer and AFL on the same day.

We’ll be signing up to either netball or soccer this year after that less than successful AFL season last year. The only girl in the team, and NO nine year old boy kicks a footy to a girl… & most especially if she cant mark or kick…

I’ll be encouraging the girls soccer team, purely cause 8 of her good friends are in the team and that means 8 car pooling opportunities….

Five, in a few years, your son will be telling you exactly what he wants to do, and what he doesn’t want ….and he will have actually put some thought into it– unlike younger kids – who you can pretty easily talk into doing anything. It’s a real milestone when your kids have considered opinions and can provide as many pros and cons as you can…(you still hold both the ace and trump cards until they leave home – so dont worry.)

Anyway, for me, this week it’s been squad swimming, nippers, nipper board training (we live next to the beach – so swimming and nippers are compulsory and it’s only during the summer ) plus choir and jazz ballet…. And the band at school started in Year 4. (Cheap clarinet anyone??)

And we aren’t even trying hard, compared to a lot of families – so before you know it – you’ll be paying for tennis classes and wondering why chess club and robotics are on the same afternoon (both of which you drop after one term.)

Hope this has helped!

Look forward to reading about your obsession. I’ll be at Homebush on 31st March. I would have preferred the re-match a little later in the season myself.

More like ‘would rather be anything but a soccer mum’ or, more succinctly, ‘wouldbe AFL mum’.

Though if Anthony LaPaglia was hanging around the club I might think on it.

Everything is going well and The Beloved is very much over the whole being pregnant thing.

Mexican wave is a cool idea. Watch out for one mid-March. Just don’t tell the coppers.

Hope the missus is travelling well. The last month is one … of … the …. longest …. months …. of …. your …. life (and when the bub arrives, you will look back on it wistfully).

Can we have a Sidelined Mexican Wave when it’s due, like Zoe’s slow clap only illegal?

When I was a lad I started off in soccer and hockey before ending up playing league and cricket and it is common for kids (judging from my friends) to try a few different sports before settling down. So I don’t think he’ll end up forgetting AFL and may gravitate to the sport anyway. Especially if you sit him down each weekend to continue his indoctrination education.

I’d let him find his own way. But I’m at least 5-6 years off having to deal with childrens’ sporting choices so I could be asking this very question then.