Mark Knight toon has glum leader pondering the Saints’ resurrection

Who doesn’t love a sporting comeback? The power of sporting events to motivate people is undeniable. How good do you feel going to school on Monday after your team has had a win on the weekend? Pretty awesome, I reckon. AFL fans witnessed the greatest last quarter comeback in the game’s history on July 27 when St Kilda overcame a 46 point deficit* and booted nine – yes, NINE – unanswered goals to defeat the hapless* Melbourne Demons.

To make it even more painful for Dees supporters, star Saints forward Nas Wanganeen-Milera slotted through four majors, the last and winning goal on the siren. Ouch!

A win like that can mean a lot. It says to the players to never give up, keep pushing, believe in yourself and you can overcome. To supporters, it gives the hope that there is a heart that still beats in your team and to never give up hope. This is particularly so considering St Kilda’s patchy form this season. They will not play finals this year and so continues the Saints’ sad old history of only having won one premiership in 1966. But a win like that weekend’s can build belief.

So I thought I needed to draw a cartoon about this win. I considered going down the path of just commenting on the football side of it. About how it was such a huge psychological* boost for perpetual “cellar dwellers*” St Kilda … but then a thought occurred to me. I saw a political parable*.

Being an editorial cartoonist, I’m always thinking about politics and my mind drifted to another team that has had some huge losses lately and dwells at the bottom of the political ladder. That would be the federal Liberal Party. They just got whacked by Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party at the last election and were in dire need of a win.

If ever a team needed a morale*-boosting comeback victory, it was the Libs. I had visions of Sussan Ley, the new Liberal Party leader, replaying the final quarter of the St Kilda game to her depleted party room, hoping some of that fighting spirit might be absorbed by her side. That they might adopt a “never say die attitude”.

In the end, I simplified the drawing with Ms Ley sitting on a couch, wearing her Liberal blues footy gear and holding a football watching the game, wide-eyed, taking it in. Inspired by what she saw, I also had her humming the St Kilda team song with a small change to the lyrics, “Oh, how I want to BE St Kilda!”

Can the Liberal Party do a “St Kilda”? Who knows? Sport is a great motivator. My simple advice to the Libs to start with is that they should all start kicking the ball in the same direction!

POLL

GLOSSARY

• deficit: shortfall, number of points by which the losing side is trailing the winning side during a game
• hapless: unlucky and usually unhappy
• psychological: relating to the human mind and feelings
• cellar dwellers: sports slang referring to the last-placed team in a league or competition or the team with the worst performance record
• parable: a short, simple story that teaches or explains an idea, especially a moral or religious idea
• morale: level of satisfaction felt by a person or group of people who work together

EXTRA READING

Romance reborn in Knight cartoon

Country romance over for Coalition

Pioneer wins Libs’ leadership duel

QUICK QUIZ

1. The St Kilda were trailing the Demons by how many points when their incredible comeback began?
2. In what year did St Kilda win their one and only premiership?
3. Which player put the last points on the scoreboard?
4. Which party won the recent federal election?
5. Who is the current Opposition Leader?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Sport feels
Can you relate to Mark Knight’s cartoon about the feeling you get when your team has a great win in sport, or you achieve a goal or conquer a new skill or challenge?

Write about a time when you can relate to St Kilda’s comeback victory, and how it made you feel. Use descriptive and emotive language to ensure you’re conveying these feelings to your audience.

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical Education, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
Write a speech encouraging a team that anything is possible and to never give up, like St Kilda’s comeback against Melbourne. Your speech should inspire your team to lift and give their best to achieve a goal.

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical Education, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
1. What’s going on?
What’s going on in this Mark Knight cartoon? Outline the following:

Issue –

Why is it newsworthy?

What’s the humour?

Which side of the issue are they representing?

What do you see that makes you say that?

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Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking