The 2020 Football Writers' Festival at Manly in Sydney was a wonderful celebration of football, writing and ideas
23 November 2020
First, I want to say thank you to James Johnson for giving up part of his Sunday to be here. We know you're the CEO [of FFA], James, but you’re also a husband and dad and we understand how busy your job is and, therefore, we appreciate you being here.
I’d like to thank the authors, journalists, writers and guests who have been part of the program, whether as a chair of a session or on a panel or in the spotlight. Once again, all of you have alternatively challenged, entertained, encouraged and motivated us.
I thank you all for forsaking a speakers' gift in lieu of a donation to either the Pararoos ($250), the Indigenous Literacy Foundation ($250), Amnesty International ($50) or Northern Beaches Community Cancer Care ($50).
I would like to make a point of the contribution of Adrian Arciuli. It’s tough being an MC at any time, but especially for the better part of two days straight, and keeping a bunch of your peers to time and to moderators' guidelines, and balancing that with the requirements of the venue for breaks and cleaning.
The Football Writers’ Festival is made possible thanks to:
Thank you to all; and also thank you to StreamGate and Dennis Fernandes for providing the live stream, especially for those who couldn't make it from Victoria and Queensland.
He's had to leave a little early, but thank you also to Todd Blackwell from Newcastle who was our honorary photographer looking resplendent in the Festival t-shirt, designed by Anthony Siokos of Football Cult.
It’s been a tough year for everyone. Bushfires, Covid, job losses, economic and business downturns, no football in most of the country, and more. Those of you who follow the Football Writers' Festival or Fair Play Publishing will know we’ve been determined to have the Festival this year because we think all of us needed it. We thought we needed to get to a point in the year where we could be together, have a vigorous and respectful debate, and catch-up with old and new friends – and some people behind Twitter handles. Thank you to all of you for making the effort to be here. I hope we see you next year also.
Finally, some of you have asked me this weekend why am I defending the legal action brought against me by the President and CEO of Football Queensland. There are three simple reasons.
First, what I wrote is accurate.
Second, we should stand up to bullies and those who seek to intimidate us.
Third, it’s for all you other writers out there, especially the young ones. If they bully, intimidate and silence one of us, they do so to all of us. It is happening more often in broader society at the moment, and what is happening in this instance, by the action brought by the two from Football Queensland, is a microcosm of that.
For those of you who watch the Netflix series The Crown, you may have noticed Margaret Thatcher quote Scottish poet Charles Mackay when the Queen notes that the then Prime Minister had made enemies. It reads like this:
You have no enemies, you say? Alas, my friend, the boast is poor.
He who has mingled in the fray of duty that the brave endure, must have made foes.
If you have none, small is the work that you have done.
You’ve hit no traitor on the hip.
You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip.
You’ve never turned the wrong to right.
You’ve been a coward in the fight.
I hope if one overriding message comes out of the past two days, it is this: we agree that football needs to broaden and celebrate its culture and its cultural offering. Reading, writing, talking about the game, having a bespoke writers’ festival – the only sport with its own writers' festival – is part of it.
But please don’t ‘be a coward in the fight’.
You can contribute to broadening the culture by supporting football media, football writers, journalists and authors and by supporting football publishers.
You can contribute by not just writing the ‘feel good’ stuff or the 'fun' stuff, but by applying the brain you were given with analysis, inquiry, judgement, context and, yes, a good dose of scepticism.
You can help develop it by valuing diversity, not just between individuals and the colour of their skin or their cultural background, but in opinion.
And you can help by valuing accountability, transparency and holding truth to power.
Thanks again for being part of the 2020 Football Writers' Festival.
Happy reading and writing!
See you next year.
The above are the closing comments given from the founder and director of the Football Writers' Festival, Bonita Mersiades, at Manly Pavilion, 22 November 2020. Below is the Notice of Motion from James Griffin MP in the Parliament of NSW on 18 November.
