Sports teams and Phryne Fisher's age - thoughts about Marked for Murder

"All is fair in love and football Miss Fisher."

~ Jack Robinson, Marked for Murder

 I have written all about my thoughts and feelings about the terrorist attack on Stockholm on 7th April 2017 here and here and this entry will not really be about that. More about thoughts I got from walking on Drottninggatan last week.

I talked about the Jersey barriers in the shape of lions in the latest of my entries about the Stockholm attack. They have become sort of symbols for the attack and almost every single one of them has at least one flower bouquet one its head or body and some of them are almost covered with flowers, flags, candles, teddy bears and text messages.

One of the most powerful things from my walk along Drottninggatan last Wednesday was three of the lions standing in a row just in front of the crosswalk to the departement store Åhléns that the truck hit. Each one of them was completely covered but their faces and on top of their head they had one scarf from one of the three major sports club in Stockholm: AIK, Djurgården and Hammarby. Some of the supporters of those three teams are not always the best of friends and it is not uncommon for matches to end in violence. This is why I find the three lions representing each one of those teams such a powerful tribute. They stand together in all the tragedy. (Unfortunately, due to the big crowd surrounding them, my photos did not turn out good. The lions you see here to the right are others.)

The scarfs and the unification in tragedy of the three sports club in Stockholm, made me think about the episode Marked for Murder in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. The episode's major theme is Australian football and the plot involves the two teams Abbotsford and West Melbourne. As far as I have understood these two teams are fictional, but an Australian friend of mine tells me that Collingwood and Carlton which are mentioned by Phryne and Jack do exist.

 The sport is described as a mix between European football and rugby by Wikipedia and it was founded in Victoria (the state Melbourne is in) in 1858. To be honest I do find the sport a bit confusing just reading about it, but I am sure it all makes sense when you watch a game or play it. I did find a video explaining the rules on Youtube:

You can also read more about the Australian Football League (AFL) here and about the Swedish one (AFL Sweden) here. (I actually was surprised that there were quite a few Swedish teams. I have never heard about it over here. The first Swedish team was, according to Wikipedia Helsingborg Saints, founded in 1993.)

In Marked for Murder the games themselves play minor roles. It is not until the very end that we see the very beginning of a match between Abbotsford and West Melbourne. Instead the plot is all about intrigues behind the football field. Phryne is called in by Bert (an Abbotsford supporter) to investigate the theft of Abbotford's coach, Joe Maclean's lucky hat. When Phryne is there, the team's star Harry "the Hangman" Harper is found (fittingly enough) hanged with a West Melbourne scarf in Abbotsford's locker room. Phryne, of course, calls Jack and he and Hugh arrive to help Phryne investigates.

The episode is tied in with the overarching plotline about Jack's ex-wife Rosie and her family and there is some quite interesting use of foreshadowing. You can argue, that you already at the end of Murder Most Scandalous starts to see what man George Sanderson really is, but in this one he really shows his true self. As a West Melbourne fan, he oppose Jack bringing in the West Melbourne star Stan Baines and he does not hesitate using his personal knowledge of Jack being an Abbotsford supporter for personal gain.

Jack: "Rosie, I thought you'd returned to the West Melbourne fold"
Dot: "Yes, father would have loved that, but unfortunately for him, Sidney's a fervent Abbotsford man. Another one."

~ Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Marked for Murder

I disussed how conservative Rosie is in my entry about her and Jack back in November 2016 and this is expressed again in what team she supports. Her father is a West Melbourne fan, but the quote above indicates that she changed alliances to Abbotsford while married to Jack and now she is back as an Abbotsford supporter because her new fiancé, Sidney Fletcher is. This, women changing loyalty to their husband's team is further developed by the discussion Bert and Dot are having later in the episode.

Bert: "Lucky I didn't tell him you're a West Melbourne girl. Until you hook up with Hugh Collins, that is."
Dot: "If Hugh marries me, I don't see why I should convert."
Bert: "No choice. He'll want to take his kids to the game."
Dot: "I'll divide them up. Just like my mum did. Girls for the West and boys for Abbotsford."
Bert: "It's people like you who bring footy clubs down, Dottie!" 

~ Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Marked for Murder

This makes me think that women were not thought of as real sports fan but needed to be loyal to whatever sports team their fathers/husbands supported. When seeing Phryne at the entrance to the Abbotsford locker room, Jack also seems surprised ("A football ground Miss Fisher? The last place I'd expect to find you.") also indicating that sports are not really meant for women. Phryne then tells him that she has been a football fan since she was little, but that she is a lapsed Collingwood supporter since their game against Carlton 1910. This conversation and the addition to it at the end of the episode containing the explanation to why she is lapsed.

I have long wondered about TV-Phryne's age. In the books she is born 1900, and is therefore 28 at the time the books start. TV Phryne seems to be a bit older (Essie Davis is all beautiful and does look younger than her real age of 46-47, but I do not really think she can pass for 28...) and a lot of other plotlines indicates this as well. However in Marked for Murder she states that she was 10 years old at the time her mother forced her to leave her football interest when she tried smuggling Carlton's newest recruit a beer at their game against Collingwood in 1910. This is the most concrete example of Phryne's age we get in the show I think and it indicates that TV- and book-Phryne are the same age.