Three of the best marks I’ve ever seen on a footy field were from players sprinting back with the flight of the ball. If I was trying to explain the appeal of the sport to someone who’d never seen it, I’d show them the marks of Mark Harvey, Nick Riewoldt and Jonathan Brown. But why? I’d probably mumble something about courage and commitment and any of the other cliches peddled by coaches and commentators. The truth is there is something visceral about an act like that, a sort of car crash fascination that gets us out of our seats even more than a screamer or a close game.
It’s a young man’s act. Young men will do silly things under orders and out of fear of embarrassment. One of the first things you notice about older footballers, at least when the prefrontal cortex fully develops, is the different way they assess risk. Even Harvey, as reckless and as fearless a footballer to play the game, had a measure of restraint and self-preservation in his later years.
