Tomorrow night your Nashville Kangaroos have their 2022 Season Home Opener against our oldest rival, the Cincinnati Dockers. Held at 7pm at Morgan Park just outside the glitz and glam of Downtown, this game is steeped in USAFL history. Your Nashville Kangaroos begin the home defense of our 2021 National Championship. However, it’s far more than a game. For example, did you know that we, the Nashville Kangaroos, and the Cincinnati Dockers are two of the four oldest teams in the entire league? Fact.
The vision of the current USAFL was crafted in 1996 and organized in 1997 with four Founding Clubs: Your Nashville Kangaroos, the Cincinnati Dockers, the Chicago Swans, and Louisville Kings. This early ‘inception’ of the United States Australian Football League, USAFL, was known as the Mid-American Australian Football League, or to its friends, the MAAFL.
Quite literally then, your Kangaroos and the Dockers have been battling each other multiple times per year within the USAFL for 25 years. It’s a reasonable notion to share that these two teams have likely squared off against one another more than 100 times over the years, with each contest existing in our collective consciousnesses and memories for reasons as diverse as the stars in the skies.
But one theme does run consistent, strong, and true through the memories of every enduring Kangaroo to whom I spoke about this article: that Cincinnati PLAYS HARD. One eight-year Kangaroo veteran I spoke to shared that he has played against Cincinnati 13 times, and that “while their numbers can either be super or quite low, every time they’re on the field against us, they played their guts out, and were little, fast, and so damn skilled.” If you’re new to the footy world, “little, fast, and skilled” is a compliment of the highest order. Another retired Kangaroo chimed in, “I played 4 seasons, and always loved playing Cincy because those dudes were like us. Relentless. We were known as crushers. The dockers were known as dancers. Imagine the outcome, haha.” Indeed, my friend.
Whether tomorrow night’s tilt is the 100th game between the teams or whether it’s the 1000th or anywhere in between, a good, hard, fast, skilled game of footy is definitely on deck for you at Morgan Park in the Germantown area of Downtown Nashville at 7:00pm. Come out and pop a squat with the teams and all the supporters and enjoy some down under sporting via the MUSIC CITY USA. It’s always free to come watch and enjoy all the festivities. Bring a cooler, some friends, some folding chairs, some beers, and do Friday night the way the Aussies do it. At the FOOTY!
GO ROOS!!!!