Captains’ Corner | Vice Captain, Tom Burns

Fresh from a wonderful weekend at Tennyson, where our Football 1st XI drew in a tough match against our rivals, Nudgee, and our Tennis 1st IV led the program to a clean sweep across the board, I thought I would take the time to talk about the value and power of support. 

It was four years ago when the concept of ‘support’ finally clicked in my head. I had been at Terrace for three years and had watched countless games of rugby, football and cricket. It was where I felt at home. However, I never really thought, besides from the initial tunnel we made for our players, that our support had much effect on the outcome or momentum of the game. That all changed on a cloudy day back in 2015, out at our home, Tennyson. 

It was nearing the end of the Rugby season, and I had unfortunately missed out on a major portion of my team’s season due to a dislocated elbow. With my elbow brace, I sat next to the others in the casualty ward of the season whilst my team ran out to play a dominant BBC side. Much to my disappointment, the mighty 13As were not doing too well and we were down by a number of tries in the first ten minutes. With my team behind, it only took a slight raise in the noise level from the crowd behind me to turn around. What I hadn’t noticed behind me was the number of people who had gathered to watch the 14As in what I later found out to be the premiership game. 

I had never seen so many grey shirts gathered on the sideline for a game like the 14As. From end to end, the boys ran and yelled, slowly destroying the hallowed Tennyson turf, as their team made their way down the field and then were forced back. I watched on in pure disbelief at the energy these supporters were putting in as most by now had drenched their shirts in sweat. But what shocked me more was that it wasn’t Year 12s leading these boys, it was boys from Year 9. They had organised themselves to come out and support their team because they knew the effect it would have. They knew how much it meant to the team. They knew that just a little effort from them would make a difference. It was at this point I truly knew how much support meant. 

The 14As that year were not meant to defeat BBC. But they did. The 14As pulled off what was thought to be impossible. And, in my opinion, they pulled it off because of the people they could see on the sidelines. They dug deep and fought till the end because they knew they had the full support of their mates who took time out of their day to come and watch them. 

Now this may seem very irrelevant to life outside of sport. But as I have slowly discovered every day since that day four years ago, support matters everywhere in life. Whether it is in the seminar room and you need help with your Japanese, support from your mates will help you. Whether you are struggling to keep studying after a couple of hours during exam block, support from those around you will help you to keep going and achieve the marks you thought were just out of reach. The truth is, we all need support and it is support that can help us to achieve the impossible just like the 14As in 2015. 

With this in mind, I encourage everyone to offer support to someone. It may only be small, and it may seem like it is having a very small effect on the person, but I can assure you it is having a greater effect than you think. 

Good luck to everyone competing this weekend, and as Mother’s Day was last Sunday, thank you to all the mothers for your endless support and time you give up for us. All in!

God Bless.