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THE TEMPEST by Whispering Jack "There be some sports are painful, and their labour Delight in them sets off. Some kinds of baseness Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters Point to rich ends. This my mean task Would be as heavy to me as odious, but The mistress which I serve quickens whats dead And makes my labours pleasures." William Shakespeare ~ The Tempest We are in the eye of a storm whipped up by a magician. After living in exile on a desolate and remote island for many years while plotting the restoration and return to our rightful place in the universe, the time and the opportunity for resurrection has arrived. The magician has created a storm borne of stuff far beyond the rabbit-in-a-hat; it transcends and envelopes everything - friend and foe, mankind and alien, stardust and shining lights from distant stars, the end and the beginning of the cosmos. A little dramatic perhaps, but in recent times we must have been awakened to the realisation that the Melbourne Football Club needs to be shaken dramatically to its foundations to save it from itself. A firm new direction and radical list changes are exactly what that old Lion, Paul Roos is bringing us, not quietly but with a roar and his unique brand of magic. We were all shaken when we heard the club was entertaining a trade of a loyal young man who was our youngest captain and once a member of a group that constituted our hope for the future. He lost so much in recent years carrying the heavy mantle of leadership through torrid times, carrying injuries and in more hushed tones, the possible repercussions of a brief, tenuous and innocent connection with Stephen Dank, the same man who is today bringing down the Essendon Football Club. We were all shaken when we heard that Mitch Clark, who retired early in the year as a result of the terrible illness of depression after only 15 games in three seasons, was well enough to come back to play football but had turned his back on our club and wanted to go elsewhere. We were all shaken when the sad news broke of the passing at a young age of our club legend Robbie Flower, who had been battling cardiomyopathy for a decade. We recalled his skills and grace on the field, his gentlemanly conduct and demeanour off it. I mean no disrespect to him and I once discussed this very thing with Robbie so I know he understood he played a team game and that his individual glory was always overshadowed by the fact he never tasted the game's ultimate success. That sniper from Carlton, David Rhys Jones, once belted Robbie senseless in a cowardly act on the MCG turf and he copped it sweet, shrugging it all off as if it were nothing. However, his adversary can look back on his career and be known as a premiership player. Rhys Jones' team has won eight flags since Robbie's won its last (and that came nine years before his career started). The question on our lips back then and again now, is whether we have been too comfortable with the image of nice individuals without showing the hardness necessary to succeed in a tough competition like the AFL? The magician is attempting without apology to change the mould of recent years that have seen us stranded on football's desert island. There must be no more nice guys; no more bruise-free football; no more inconsistency of attitude and lack of desire for the football; no more cancelation of training sessions to suit tired playing members of Gen Y; no more 186. I am not singling out individuals but rather, the general mindset which allows the club to be seen as a joke, a sporting basket case. Roos is conjuring up his tempest around a club that mustered up only four wins in this past season and ten in the past three. It's the only way left to go. We are in the eye of that storm but when the tempest subsides, we will land back home fifty years since our last premiership but ready for the next part of the journey. As in Shakespeare's last play, it will be up to us, the audience, to show our approval or otherwise at the finish. I hope it all ends with applause. Sunday, 12 October, 2014 on ABC1 at 10.17pm Tempest at the Drop-in Narrated by Eric Bana, this programme follows mentally ill and socially isolated members of the community as they stage a professional production of Shakespeare's The Tempest alongside professional actors. The programme is being screened as part of Mental Health Week and features community members who receive loving care at Prahran Mission's St. Kilda Drop In centre. Every person has the right to a decent life. Prahran Mission