Broken Dreams

Luke is jogging down the ground, followed closely by a stalker. He feels the hot, heavy breath of his follower on his neck, and can see his large shadow looming in front of him. He tries to fun faster to get away, dodging and weaving, but cannot seem to shake him; he is with him every step of the way. There is no escape. A call from a mate is an enormous relief; Luke has been rescued. He passes the ball to his mate, and continues running towards goal. Ryley lines up for goal about forty meters out, and with a superbly executed drop punt, sends the ball sailing through the goal posts. He kicks the first goal of the 2005 premiership season, and puts the Falcons six points in front, after only three minutes into the first quarter. The crowd erupts into applause and begins to chant, 'Falcons, Falcons!' Luke knew that this season would be a lot better than the last. This year he is going to be injury free and the critics have already ranked him highly in the running for the best and fairest player at the end of the season. The Falcons were also tipped to finish in the top four this year, even though they did not have a full coaching staff.

The game continued with a bounce from the umpire in the centre of the oval. The ruckmen battle it out, wrestling each other to get the tap needed for a break out of the centre. The football falls to the ground and is immediately smothered by desperate players trying to help their team. The umpire blows the whistle and signals another bounce. Again, the ruckmen struggle against each other, but this time the ball is punched forward. Luke jumps high into the air to seize the football, however comes crashing down and lands awkwardly, with other players falling in a pile on top of him. Everyone quickly jumps up and chases the pack of players following the ball. Luke is left lying on the ground, curled up in excruciating pain, holding his knee. The Falcon's team runners come sprinting onto the field to attend to the injured player, signaling for the stretcher. Luke stands up, ignoring the stretcher, and is helped off the ground by two trainers. He is carried down into the clubrooms, where a physiotherapist attempts to identify the severity of the injury. Luke is in shock. Everything is a blur. The physio is testing the strength of all the ligaments in his knee, and has a very worried look on his face. Luke does not even need to ask what the diagnosis is, he already knows, and it is all too familiar.

Luke lingered in the clubrooms for the remainder of the game, not wanting anyone to see how upset he was. He had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee for the third time in the last four years, and required yet another full knee reconstruction. This meant another season off football. Luke knew his career and his life dream was over. Not many players had ever returned to football after three reconstructions, and he is only 23 years old.

After the game, Luke's teammates flooded into the change rooms, chatting away happily, congratulating each other on a great game. Beating the Magpies had never been a challenge for the Falcons, especially when they had a home ground advantage. The players staggered into a formation somewhat resembling a circle and belted out the clubs song. '...it's the emblem of, the team we love, the team of the red