Australian Rules footy and Channel Seven, they went together like pies and sauce, Collingwood and hatred – even Richmond and disappointment. Then, thanks to some absolute numbnuts’ in Sydney, home of that other code, after more than 40 years of bringing the great game into our homes the network let it go – leaving us faced with substandard coverage from channels Nine and Ten – replays of minor incidents while goals are kicked, and what about the Collingwood president calling his own team’s games – hmm, massive conflict of interest anybody?) Still, at least the great wordsmith Denis ‘centimetre perfect’ Cometti made the transition, so things haven’t been completely lost.

Heart of the Game is a bit of a self-congratulatory summary of all those years, put together by the justifiably pouting football team at Seven Melbourne as what can probably best be described as a kind of obituary upon discovering they’d lost the rights to televise the great game. Hosted from an armchair with a pleasingly fan-based vibe by

Oi, where's the tinnie?!

Kevin Harrington (who many will recognise from The Dish), it’s a movie-length presentation which actually manages to sum up fairly well so many years of history. Footage from utterly classic footy telly such as World of Sport, League Teams and even, for some of us, the Junior Supporters Club, through great moments from ever so many games – finals and otherwise - merely scratches the surface of what’s on offer here. Factor in interviews with pretty much anybody who ever pulled on a set of headphones for Seven to bring us their unique impressions of the English language over the years – McAvaney, Landy, Davis, Roberts, Williamson and the list goes on – add to this grabs with many a champion such as Campbell, Sheedy, Watson, Worsfold, Barassi, Nicholls, Hopkins, Salmon, Walls, Matthews and Dippy… erm, Dippier, umm, Doppelgangy – oh stuff it, ‘Dipper’ – plus a few hoods like John Bourke, Wayne Carey and Tony Liberatore - and still the surface of what footy has given so many of us over the years is still but slightly rippled.

There’s also more than a sprinkling of those spectacular moments the likes of which nothing else on Earth offers us. The superstars, the speccies, those superhuman goals, that Grand Final draw and, unfortunately, the seamier stuff – not to mention perfect examples of just what the game means to so many, by way of the outpourings of grief and respect at the passing of the great Ted Whitten, the death of Fitzroy and that tragic day an interstate team first nicked off back home with the flag.

As well as the vital, Heart of the Game also tackles some of the more ancillary, often silly stuff which adds so much to the whole spectacle of Aussie Rules. The half time “entertainment� at the Grand Final (has it ever actually been entertaining? Well, perhaps Angry Anderson and the Batmobile came close), the pisshead factor amongst supporters, the lunacy factor amongst supporters, the sartorial silliness and endless blondeness of the Brownlows and, of course, those utterly dreadful songs like Up There Cazaly - the only single everybody owns, throws away, then inexplicably finds amongst their 7� collection once again the next time they go for a vinyl rummage.

The standard rules of compilations apply here – with footage dating back to the 1950s the more sane would expect some examples of dodgy video, and Heart of the Game doesn’t fail to disappoint at times… Sure, there are speckles, video glitches, frequent lapses in detail and vision that bobs up and down like a cork in the ocean on occasion, but it’s all that’s out there surviving, so if you can’t deal go off and follow polo, we don’t want your type here anyway.

In what will come as no surprise, audio is delivered by a predominantly monaural mix punted out via Dolby Digital stereo. Earlier inclusions are often rather flat or slightly distorted, but even though there’s a distinct lack of subtitles few should rue their omission, as everything is basically as understandable as can be when taking into consideration those muttering the various collections of syllables that are on offer throughout.

As for extras, if you don’t mind umpire there’s not a sausage to snag, this disc’s as naked as the Sahara even - zip, nada, nothing. This is, of course, a tad disappointing.

A lovingly assembled ode to the game most of us have grown up with from back when we could call umpires white maggots whether colourblind or not and knew what channel would actually be covering our respective teams’ game each week, anybody after an entertaining summation of the most special sport in the world to plop in a special place in the pool room is sure to find Heart of the Game quite, erm, special indeed (cheers Bruce!)

Until next time, keep on punchin’…