The word tragedy is bandied around too often when it comes
to sport. It’s a tragedy when a team
loses or when a player gets injured and is out for 12 months but in truth these
things a trivial when in comparison to life itself. Today Port Adelaide AFL
player John McCarthy lost his life after it’s believed he fell from a balcony while
holidaying in Las Vegas. At the young age of just 22 it truly is a tragic end
to the life of a guy who was just getting his AFL career back on track.
John came to Port Adelaide through the preseason draft after his chances at Collingwood had been limited. When I heard he had ended up at Port I wasn’t surprised, the club had a habit of turning players careers around with Jay Schultz and David Rodan both examples of this.
While I don’t support Port Adelaide I absolutely loved watching John play, he played all but 1 game this season and had well and truly cemented himself into the Port Adelaide side. And I could see that he was going to be an important cog in the Port machine for years to come.
I met John once at one of Port’s early training sessions this season; he was on his own warming up so I decided to go over and say hi and welcome him to Adelaide. He was genuinely appreciative of my kind words and I spent the next 15 minutes having a chat to him. What struck me then was how own to earth he was, he was willing to stand there and answer any question and sign any autograph that a little kid asked for.
But I guess what I liked more was his positive attitude about life in general.
As football fans we can bitch and moan about how bad our team is doing, about how the umpires have done us an injustice but today’s events put that all into perspective. When we say oh well there is always next season for our teams, there is no next season for John. Time has stopped for John’s family, friends and his team mates and while life goes on for the rest of us incidents like this make you realise that tragedy can strike anyone. At 39 games Australia will never see John play football again but I know he shall never be forgotten.
Rest in Peace John, you were a genuinely lovely guy and it a pleasure just to have spoken to you once. And I send my heartfelt condolences to John’s family, his friends and to the Port Adelaide Football Club and its supporters as a whole. We as AFL fans are all grieving with you.
John came to Port Adelaide through the preseason draft after his chances at Collingwood had been limited. When I heard he had ended up at Port I wasn’t surprised, the club had a habit of turning players careers around with Jay Schultz and David Rodan both examples of this.
While I don’t support Port Adelaide I absolutely loved watching John play, he played all but 1 game this season and had well and truly cemented himself into the Port Adelaide side. And I could see that he was going to be an important cog in the Port machine for years to come.
I met John once at one of Port’s early training sessions this season; he was on his own warming up so I decided to go over and say hi and welcome him to Adelaide. He was genuinely appreciative of my kind words and I spent the next 15 minutes having a chat to him. What struck me then was how own to earth he was, he was willing to stand there and answer any question and sign any autograph that a little kid asked for.
But I guess what I liked more was his positive attitude about life in general.
As football fans we can bitch and moan about how bad our team is doing, about how the umpires have done us an injustice but today’s events put that all into perspective. When we say oh well there is always next season for our teams, there is no next season for John. Time has stopped for John’s family, friends and his team mates and while life goes on for the rest of us incidents like this make you realise that tragedy can strike anyone. At 39 games Australia will never see John play football again but I know he shall never be forgotten.
Rest in Peace John, you were a genuinely lovely guy and it a pleasure just to have spoken to you once. And I send my heartfelt condolences to John’s family, his friends and to the Port Adelaide Football Club and its supporters as a whole. We as AFL fans are all grieving with you.
Beautiful post Karissa...so true
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