Monday Milestone: Bali

 Stand down on Dolphin Point on the northern edge of Coogee Beach in Sydney, and you feel the loss. The peaceful ocean provides stark contrast to the local footballer deaths in Bali the renamed cliffs commemorate.

It’s been ten years yet still that day resonates inside many Australians. A world in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 was already heightened with fear, when we started hearing stories of another terrorist attack, this time closer to home. Much closer…

The Milestone sombrely parks in 2002, when the once-thriving bars of Kuta in Bali, Indonesia were blown apart in a vicious attack killing 202 people, including 88 Australians, and injuring many more. Among those, were North Melbourne footballer Jason McCartney.

McCartney had been such a promising youngster. After first arriving at Collingwood, and then spending three seasons in Adelaide, he was quite the journeyman by the time he came to Arden Street in 1998.

But his career was flagging by 2002 and Jason McCartney had headed to Bali for a holiday in the offseason. That night a decade ago, he was in Paddy’s Bar with fellow North Melbourne alumni Mick Martyn, and when the bomb went off at the Sari Club, the heroics of his actions have since become legend. Believing his own injuries were less than others he set about saving all those around him. Adrenaline can be a remarkable thing.

When McCartney succumbed to his injuries, he was subsequently taken on a special chartered flight back to Melbourne for surgery on second degree burns to more than half his body. This was real. He almost died under the knife.

Imagine the horror that he must have faced. This was human atrocity at its worst. Most of us would have walked away from that night, left it all behind, and begun a new life somewhere else. Nobody would’ve blamed him. Surrender is so much easier, and for most of us, the much more appealing option.

Jason McCartney is not most of us.

Imagine the rehabilitation. It must have been excruciating. Success seemed impossible yet against all odds, eight months later McCartney, selected on merit, ran out for North Melbourne against Richmond at the Telstra Dome beneath long sleeves, a plethora of bandages and protective gloves. The numbers 88 and 202 were emblazoned on his jersey that night in memory of those that didn’t make it.

It would never be his best game, but dishing off to Leigh Brown who would kick the winning goal that night was apt. McCartney had achieved what he set out to do, what nobody considered possible after that night in Kuta. He’d more than proved himself. As such McCartney would play that one game and retire. 

Australian Rules, like any sport has ways to measure its players. Victory is defined by the number of points on the board. Effort is defined by the statistics. Courage however, is defined by men like Jason McCartney.

We can learn a lot from that man. And his fight that continues today.  

 

The Milestone Five:  Truly Courageous AFL players of the modern era

5. Nathan Brown – The Richmond Tiger whose shocking broken leg disgusted so many and was considered career ending by many returned for four more seasons.

4. Tom Lonegan – The Geelong Cat who returned from a lacerated kidney to continue his career and win a premiership in 2011.

3. Troy Broadbridge (1980-2004) – The Melbourne Demon whose final act was saving his wife during the Boxing Day Tsunami. His death was felt across the AFL community

2. Adam Ramanaskus  – The Essendon Bomber and 2000 premiership player survived cancer and played on, twice.

1. Jason McCartney – The North Melbourne Kangaroo, Bali survivor and hero who defied the odds by simply returning from the fire to be selected for his 182nd and final AFL match.

 

With thanks to Ian Waldie/Getty Images AsiaPac for the picture