More Than A Game

Chapter 39

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Crown, home to the prestigious awards night of Australian Rules Football, The Brownlow's."

The rather small and slim built man on stage introduced the night near the black coloured stand in front of him. The large room erupted into loud cheers and excitement. Standing on stage was one of the most important men in the whole league, Gillon McLachlan, the executive CEO for the AFL.

I looked around wondering what Ollie was doing at the moment and unsurprisingly, annoyed with myself for becoming distracted by his presence.

For god sakes Carmen, stop thinking about Ollie when clearly he's more worried about Poppy than he is about you.

I bit my lips nervously as I noticed Renee looking over at me in concern. I brushed off my negative thoughts, letting her know everything was alright as she smiled at me and turned her attention back to Gillon. I was thankful but right now, I didn't have the energy to answer any questions.

"This year has been a rather exciting year for the league and all of its fans. We've seen some surprising results during various matches, discovered potential for future greatness in many of our draftees who debuted this year as well as learning about the areas we need to work on together as a wide community and allowing us to move on from errors made."

I too soon joined in the celebrations as I began clapping along with the huge crowd. I looked up on the big screen where pictures of current players began popping up on screen. A picture of Chad handballing a Sherrin to the opposite direction was shown and cheekily, I moved closer to him and whispered in his ear.

"Damn babe."

Chad looked at me and forced himself to hold in his laughter, obviously struggling as I smiled back at him. We began to look back at the screen where various other pictures of different players were shown upon the big screen.

A woman appeared from behind me and placed a tray of wine glasses upon our table as she smiled and quickly moved away from the table. Well, that was kinda awkward. I noticed the slideshow was beginning to die down as Gillon fixed his position and stood in front of that stand once again.

About half an hour later, the speeches were concluded by various icons of the football world. Last year's winner Gary Ablett Jr spoke about how The Brownlow medal signified his career, the headchairman of the AFL talked about the importance of this medal and its impact on the game and a few veteran plus new generation umpire explaining the history behind the desired medallion.

I thought it all sounded pretty exciting and whilst it was a little tiring to hear all speeches, I thought it was still interesting to learn new things about The Brownlow Medal. I sighed as I looked around once more for Ollie, maybe it was time that I stopped myself from doing that.

"Thank you for giving us your full attention tonight, your respect is well appreciated. Now is the time we begin the award process. Just sit back and relax as we find out who the next recipient of this prestigious medal." Gillon said as he moved over to a table where two other important men sat either side beside him.

"Round 1. Richmond vs Carlton. One vote, M Murphy. Two votes, T Cotchin. Three votes, A Rance..."

I zoned out of the current presenters tone as I looked down at my purse and then straight to the door. Looking over at Chad, I whispered in his ear that I needed fresh air and quickly but slowly made my way straight to the side door, into the lounge area.

Thank goodness we were positioned where we were which was straight near the door. As much as I was curious on who gained votes, I honestly couldn't take the distraction of Ollie anymore.