Footy Finals & Fatigue 2016

Crows v. Kangaroos tomorrow night!
Brodie Smith of the Crows flies over
Andrew Swallow of the Kangaroos
during 2015.
(Source: AFL Media)

This football* season has been great for the Adelaide 'Crows' Football Club. 

The team even made it to the second spot on the Premiership ladder during the year!

This means one thing: finals!

My hope was that the team would make it to the Top 8 but to have it sitting in the Top 5 during the latter part of the season was a bonus.  The Crows finished in 5th place in the 'Minor Premiership' which is a season of 'home and away' games.  


Now it is finals time and Adelaide Football Club is looking forward to playing in the First Elimination Final tomorrow against North Melbourne 'Kangaroos'. It will be played on Adelaide Oval, the Crows' home ground and I am thrilled to have tickets.

Adelaide Oval during a day game
Adelaide v. Fremantle
This was David Mackay's 150th game for the Adelaide Crows.
(30 April 2016)

It took me two whole mornings of trying to get through to the booking agency to get tickets for me and family members. As a club member, I can purchase tickets in 'pre-sales' for me and guests during the season but for finals, the allocation is one ticket per membership card. My family are not football club members any more - they used to be until it got too dear - so I needed to wait until tickets went on sale to the general public before I could purchase for family. 

It was like a lottery because there was a high chance that the seats would be sold out by then. It was hard to find a group of seats together so I feel very lucky to have been successful in having my family sit together at the same end of the ground as me so we won't be too far away from each other during the event.


There were three AFL* games at Adelaide Oval during August. I went to two of them:

• Adelaide v. Brisbane on Saturday 6 August
• Adelaide v. West Coast on Friday 26 August

Adelaide Crows run onto the ground to play West Coast.
The will run through the banner which reads:"Friday night footy at our home ground, 600th game, let's make it loud."
Every game has a new, different banner, prepared by a committee of dedicated supporters.

Both were night games which took their toll on me and my routine. It always takes me days to recover. The day following the game gets scrubbed off my calendar because I am no good for anything. Total fatigue.  It took until the following Thursday to recover from the Friday night match because it was an extra late game starting at 7:40 p.m. By the time we had stuck around to see Team Captain, Taylor 'Tex' Walker, and his reflection on the game, it was extremely late.  I got home around midnight. Phew!

Adelaide Oval before a night game.
There is a tee-shirt for every ticket holder to encourage men to get checked for prostate cancer!
This was also Scott Thompson's 300th game, a rare achievement.
Crows v. Collingwood
(16 July 2016)

The problem with MCTD and other autoimmune conditions is there is only so much energy to spare and when it is all used up, that's it. Dead batteries! Recovery is slow.

After many years of trial and error, I have worked out an activity level that lets me manage my health, household and family without 'crashing' too hard.  The aim is to 'cruise' with a similar level of activity each day. I want to avoid extreme highs and lows - that leads to a 'crash and burn cycle' as my doctor calls it.

Everything is delicately balanced across the week without much leeway for extra energy expenditure.  A roster of regular support people is finely tuned into the family schedule. It only takes one 'crash' to throw the routine out of whack.

This is not a whinge but an explanation of how things work (or not) in my MCTD world.

In the case of a late Friday night, I'm a wreck on the Saturday and cannot do a thing. All the laundry and other chores need to wait. By the time I've recovered enough to do anything, I not only have to catch up on Saturday's jobs, but also the chores of the current day and all the days in between! This leads to a mad flurry of activity which leaves me in danger of overdoing things again and having another 'crash'.

What's wrong with living like that?  Apart from the strain on my body, the more I crash, the more I end up couch- or bed-ridden. The inactivity during recovery results in deconditioning. The body gets weaker, the joints get stiffer, my fitness suffers and I'm less able to function and recovery gets harder next time.  The 'crash cycle' leads to a downward spiral towards total 'burnout' which means hospital and vicious medication for me. I'm not having that, no way!

I'm so grateful to have regained some quality of life this year thanks to successful treatments. Although the body isn't 100 per cent, I'm happy to 'cruise' at 80 per cent any day!

At '80 per cent', outings like football are possible.  I used to fall asleep towards the end of the game from exhaustion; not this year!

Crows players warming up before the Brisbane Lions game at Adelaide Oval
for 'Members Appreciation Round'
(6 August 2016)

I'll "see you at the footy" and leave you with this thought:

G O    C R O W S !

*Australian Football League

 

Related Posts on Lupey Loops

"What a Busy Month!", 5 September 2016: http://lupeyloops.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/what-busy-month.html

Footy

"It's a Mark(er)!", 17 June 2014: http://lupeyloops.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/its-marker.html
More information about Australian Rules football can be found in this post plus other Crows-themed crochet projects. You can also see a photograph of Crows and Kangaroos colours.

"A Tragic Twenty-four Hours", 3 July 2015: https://lupeyloops.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/a-tragic-twenty-four-hours.html

"Footy Friendships & Corporate Crochet", 3 September 2015: https://lupeyloops.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/footy-friendships-corporate-crochet.html
  

Fatigue

"Eighty per cent", 1 November 2013: https://lupeyloops.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/living-with-chronic-illness-eighty-per.html 

"Resources for MCTD" 4 January 2014: https://lupeyloops.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/resources-for-mctd.html

"New MCTD Resource Page", 5 October 2014: https://lupeyloops.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/new-mctd-resource-page.html

"Home from Hospital", 19 December 2014: https://lupeyloops.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/home-from-hospital.html

"Hooks, Needles & Nurses", 23 July 2015: https://lupeyloops.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/hooks-needles-nurses.html

Links

Adelaide Football Club, Adelaide, South Australia: www.afc.com.au

Adelaide Oval: http://www.adelaideoval.com.au/ 

Australian Football League: http://www.afl.com.au 

North Melbourne Football Club: http://kangaroos.com.au/

A tree has been planted in memory of Crow's coach, Phil Walsh who died in tragic circumstances in 2015.
Fans have shown their respects with their Adelaide Football Club memorabilia.
Flowers that had been laid in mourning were collected and mulched.
The mulch is now used to nourish Phil Walsh's tree which lives on the northern side of Adelaide Oval.
Every item donated was photographed and recorded by the club before being donated to those in need.
This photo was taken on 19 August 2016.