This has been doing the rounds, but just in case you haven't heard it:
Mick Malthouse, the coach of Collingwood Aussie Rules Club, gets wind of a potential new young recruit who lives in Iraq.
Malthouse and the Neil Balme catch a plane to war-torn Baghdad and track the young boy down.
They risk life and limb dodging bombs, bullets and grenades but finally find him and convince him to come to Australia.
The boy does a full pre-season, plays all the practice matches and gets picked on the bench in the seniors for the first game of the year.
Ten minutes into the first quarter, one of the players goes down with a severe knee injury.
Malthouse turns to the boy and says, "This is it son, go to centre half forward and show us what you can do."
The boy proceeds to play the greatest debut game in AFL history. He kicks 9 goals, takes mark of the year, and kicks the winning goal after the siren from outside 50.
The Pies chair him off the ground and give him three cheers back in the rooms. Malthouse tells the team what the boy from Iraq has been through and that he is a model lesson for all.
Malthouse then pulls the boy aside and says, "Go into my office son, ring your Mother and tell her what you did today".
He proceeds to do so. "Mum", he says down the phone, "Guess what I did today?"
"I don't care what you did today," his Mother replies. "I tell you what happened here today", she goes on. "Your Dad was stabbed and robbed, our house torched, our car blown up, your sister raped and your brother abducted."
"Gee," says the boy. "I feel a bit responsible for what happened".
The Mother replies "So you should be, if it wasn't for you we would never have shifted to Collingwood."
Mick Malthouse, the coach of Collingwood Aussie Rules Club, gets wind of a potential new young recruit who lives in Iraq.
Malthouse and the Neil Balme catch a plane to war-torn Baghdad and track the young boy down.
They risk life and limb dodging bombs, bullets and grenades but finally find him and convince him to come to Australia.
The boy does a full pre-season, plays all the practice matches and gets picked on the bench in the seniors for the first game of the year.
Ten minutes into the first quarter, one of the players goes down with a severe knee injury.
Malthouse turns to the boy and says, "This is it son, go to centre half forward and show us what you can do."
The boy proceeds to play the greatest debut game in AFL history. He kicks 9 goals, takes mark of the year, and kicks the winning goal after the siren from outside 50.
The Pies chair him off the ground and give him three cheers back in the rooms. Malthouse tells the team what the boy from Iraq has been through and that he is a model lesson for all.
Malthouse then pulls the boy aside and says, "Go into my office son, ring your Mother and tell her what you did today".
He proceeds to do so. "Mum", he says down the phone, "Guess what I did today?"
"I don't care what you did today," his Mother replies. "I tell you what happened here today", she goes on. "Your Dad was stabbed and robbed, our house torched, our car blown up, your sister raped and your brother abducted."
"Gee," says the boy. "I feel a bit responsible for what happened".
The Mother replies "So you should be, if it wasn't for you we would never have shifted to Collingwood."
