What’s in a name?

So, After The Siren. If you’re an AFL fan, you know exactly what I’m talking about. But I thought I’d make a post to explain the title to readers who don’t.

For those readers - it’s not actually anything to do with emergency services, or mythology.

What does it mean to kick after the siren?

The beginning and end of an AFL game, and the beginning and end of each quarter in an AFL game, is signalled by a single blast of a siren (this exact sound). That specific sound always gives me a pang of excitement/nervousness.

In AFL, if the ball is kicked (over a distance of more than 15m) and a player catches it, this is called a “mark”. If you mark the ball, the play stops and you can’t be tackled until you “play on” (i..e., kick the ball, or make it clear you’re going to do something else). Yes, AFL fans, I know this is an over-simplification.

There’s no overtime/extra time/shootouts etc in AFL (except for extra time in finals). Once the final siren goes, that’s that (and if it’s a draw, it’s a draw). However, if a player marks the ball just before the siren goes (or gets a free kick), and is within range of the goals, they can take their kick even after the siren. If they score, they can win the game for their team.

As you can imagine, there are very few things more stressful as a fan than waiting while a player lines up for a kick after the siren.

If you want to see some of the most famous kicks after the siren, there are fun compilations here and here. I’m not telling you what my favourite is, because I’m keeping my footy allegiances under wraps for now.

Instant glory or notoriety

The thing I find fascinating about kicks after the siren is that they can send a player straight into fame or notoriety. Of course, every footy game has dozens of moments that might change the outcome of the game. But if there’s an opportunity after the siren, that’s the image that will be seared into everyone's mind: the 30 seconds of preparation, the hush of the crowd, the blare of the siren, the camera close up of the player going through their goal-kicking routine.

It’s a topical time to be making this post because over the weekend a player missed a kick after the siren that would have won his team the game. One of the commentators described it as the player’s “Stephen Kernahan moment”. Stephen Kernahan had an opportunity to break a tied game after the siren in 1993. He kicked the ball out of bounds on the full.

Funnily enough, he’d actually won a game (a more important one, too) with a kick after the siren five years earlier. He also did a lot of other impressive things. But, thirty years later, his name is still attached to that embarrassing mess up.

Within the last few years, my team won a game with a kick after the siren. I can remember if very vividly because I was at a wedding and I’d holed up in a bathroom stall to watch the last five minutes of the game (I know, I know). I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest. Even now, watching the clip gives me a shiver of remembered elation.

And then I wondered…

I wondered what it would be like to have that chance and miss it. How that would feel, in the moment and afterwards. Also, I wondered what you’d have to do to get into a headspace where you could kick a goal under that kind of pressure. To have the confidence to get it right.

I also think a lot about the narratives around particular players and types of players. I feel like the stories we want to hear are often about effort rewarded, endeavour turning to success, hard work paying dividends. I was intrigued by the idea of writing a character who had worked very hard, done everything right, but was still struggling. Who had, in his mind at least, failed.

That was the beginning of Theo. The first scene of the book features Theo reflecting on the lowest moment of his career — a disastrous kick after the siren. Will he get another opportunity to take a shot like that? Well, you’ll have to read the book to see.

On another level, the whole book is about a shot after the siren, at least for Theo. He thought his career was over, and he gets a second chance. The real question for Theo is whether he’s going to be able to make it work.

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations

I feel like I showed some sports nerd there (you’re lucky I didn’t get into conversion stats). I had better stop writing about my football thoughts, and go do some other writing.

Darcy x