Seeking Wallaby Heroes for my son

It’s a bit of a ritual in our house now that I play some music while my son has his dinner. As he was finishing his fruit I moved into the kitchen to pack a few things away. That was when I heard him scream - a scream like the one given off when Alderaan was destroyed by the dark side. I dropped everything and raced to my son as he choked upon his fruit.

I picked him up and immediately the kiwi fruit he had been chewing splurted out onto the black fleece jumper I was wearing. It was as if time stood still and the music of Split Enz and “History Never Repeats” washed over me from the speakers. The kiwi fruit stuck to the shoulder on my black fleece, my son sobbing in terror of what had just happened and my world became clear.

The time has come. This is Bledisloe time and I’m wearing black, feeding my son kiwi fruit and playing iconic New Zealand music. This has to stop. No longer should my 17-month-old son be fearful of the darkness. No longer should he cry because of men wearing black. No longer should kiwi fruit stick to the back of his throat but it is time for history to stop repeating.

It’s time for a new golden sunrise. It’s a time for the heroes in gold to arise and stop the ever-spreading darkness. I want my son to grow up in a world where the Wallabies are heroes. Where every boy and girl from 17 months to 17 years to 71 years of age can say they saw the resurrection of the Wallabies and the return of the Bledisloe to Australia.

I want his memories of Wallabies to great ones. I want him to talk about the events of 2014 as fondly as I mention Greg Cornelsen’s four tries (which co-incidently happened when I was about his age), about Topo Rodriguez’s try line tackle on Hika Reid which drove him back seemingly to the 22 metre line, George Gregan’s tackle on Wilson, John Eales slotting last minute penalty goals or the hand of Toutai.

I want all of these memories for him every season as we play the All Blacks. I don’t want them to be spread over 20 years. There’s a generation of Australian kids who need heroes in Wallaby gold to step forward over the next two weeks. I want him to one-day talk about the scrummaging of Slipper, the impact of Skelton, the dash of Hooper and the mongrel of Fardy. If this happens then he can talk about the vision of Beale, the dancing feet of Izzy or the way that AAC straightened through the hole. It’s not just these players it’s everyone else in the Wallaby team and all those of us who will be cheering them on this Saturday night.

It’s time for the Wallabies. In Star Wars once the scream of Alderaan had gone the side of light was able to triumph over the dark side. Sure, there were a few hiccups and three prequels about the how the dark side came to be that way. But we’ve seen them now and it’s time for the light side, the golden Wallabies to rise and return balance to the Bledisloe.