'Max of the Day'

While I first met Max through my younger brother Zac, it was on the football field that I really got to know him. My friends and I regularly played against him and his crew, or the 'Understudies' as we referred to them. The matches between both teams were always highly competitive. I think being 5 years older, we always felt we had a point to prove, unwilling to give up our position as the dominant power in Queens Park. Max and his friends were always very keen to prove they were now the real force to be reckoned with and were always fiercely up for the challenge. That's why we all really loved playing against them, because of the significance of what it meant to win and lose and the bragging rights it provided in the pub after the game.

I know that Max particularly loved playing in these games, I saw it the joy he took when making a fool out of me or one of my teammates with a new trick and the pleasure on his face when he scored a goal against us. Despite his easy going attitude off the field he was a fiercely competitive player who relished making tackles and winning headers. He was of course a player of exceptional skills and grace and his genius lay in his ability to go round players and score goals of a very high quality. Although my friends and I would never it admit openly to him, we all knew and he was a player of a different class.

I remember playing against Max and thinking how vastly different we were in ability and skill. Max was a naturally gifted footballer and had the ability to do most things on the pitch. I, on the other hand am the complete opposite, I play a containing game based on working hard to restrict players like Max from expressing themselves, I was always the artisan, he the artist. Both he and I were very much aware in this difference and I think that's why we loved playing against each other, we were polar opposites and it meant a whole lot to us both to come out as the victor in this battle between two very different styles of play. Not surprisingly, he ran rings around me most of the time and I recorded personal victories against him on few occasions. I will cherish long and hard the memories of actually managing to tackle the guy, it meant a lot to actually win the ball off a player like him. To make a good tackle on a player as good as Max meant that you were playing at the top of your game and you remember things like that.

Now he has departed, it seems only fair to document that his team were always more superior to ours in skill and flair. This is obvious to most of the guys that I play with, even on the occasions that we actually came out winners. I know Max would have loved to hear me admit this. I also know he will dearly miss not being able to record another victory against us. We have yet to arrange a game in his honour, but whenever it is, I'm sure he will be watching somewhere with great interest. At least now, instead of having to play against someone like me, he can continue to hone his skills with players of similar caliber and class, like George Best and Bobby Moore for instance.

'Max of the Day' you were dearly respected by myself and all my teammates and you will be sorely missed.

Josh Mendelsohn