Even though the Point was only a half an hour's drive from the Port, the two towns didn't have much to do with one another. The footy was really the only place where Nungas and Goonyas got to hang around together.
It may be only a half an hour's drive between the towns but in reality the Port and the Point are a world apart. Neither community has any interest in interacting with the other. The only aspect of their lives in which they willingly come together is football. Football is a language that is spoken by all races, colors, and communities. It is a passion for both sides so that if a person is good enough to play on a team then they are considered good enough. This also shows how sports can unify and the unique power that it has to tear down boundaries that politics is incapable of breaking through or removing.
Next Saturday we play Wangaroo for the Peninsula Junior Colts Premiership. The whole town is talking about it. It's the biggest thing to happen here since the second prize in the S.A. Tidy Towns Competition (Section B.) Jut shows what sort of town I live in. Hopeless.
Blacky despairs of his town. It is incredibly insular and has absolutely no concept of what is going on in the greater world as a whole. It also shows that there are very few opportunities or outlets for people's interests. Most towns would have something more earth-shattering than an inter-town tidiness contest to consume them or to refer back to when talking about the town's most triumphant moments. The town has no history to brag about and no interest in creating more challenging or inspiring environments for its inhabitants.
The fact that the entire town is focused on the football game is also very pressurizing for players, and it explains why Blacky is so worried about having to mark Thumper. It also explains why he devises a cunning dodge play to avoid humiliation. Blacky is painfully aware of the limitations of his own town and the way it must appear to outsiders and he is essentially ashamed of this but does not understand these feelings himself yet.
