I often wonder how much of our individual sporting passion — especially when it comes to following a specific team — can be attributed to nature, and how much to nurture.
As always, the answer is unlikely to be black and white — or red and black, or yellow and black, or brown and gold (you get where I’m going) — but rather lies somewhere in the grey margins.
My eldest daughter, Eden, 6, is already an extremely passionate and hopeful Essendon supporter.
She is yet to experience the generational success-gap that I and my siblings (and my wife, Grace, for that matter) are enduring, and will hopefully get to experience a rich vein of form over multiple decades like my father and his father have seen.
But if I wasn’t already bleeding red and black by the time I could walk, would she also have gravitated towards the Mason Redmans and Bonnie Toogoods of the world as her sporting heroes?
Realistically, I don’t know, but philosophically, I can see the same enthusiasm for all sports in her that I have built my career and most of my hobbies and interests upon.
Whether she is now growing into a sports nut because of me or in spite of me is, in the grand scheme of things, probably a moot point.
Just like the Bombers, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has become the focus of our household.
Multiple screens have been set up in the lounge room, various Aussie merchandise has been acquired and makeshift beds have been made.
Bonnie, 3, is just along for the ride (and happy for an excuse for a later bed time) — but Eden has well and truly caught Olympic fever from my wife and I.
She had demanded the archery be put on, marvelled at the gold caps bobbing at the front of the swell in the pool and celebrated early hockey success as her own — having done five weeks of Hookin2Hockey this year, of course.
It was a miracle that I didn’t wake her up during the ridiculous 6-5 result for the Matildas against Zambia either — but she would have been happy to be watching that as well.
It brings more than one tear to my eye to see her so enthralled, knowing that at the same age I was revelling in the Sydney 2000 Olympics and an Essendon premiership.
Hopefully we can share some (any, please) red and black success together soon.
— Tyler Maher is the editor of The News.