You Know You Are Old When - An AFL Supporters Guide

I can see a milestone birthday on the horizon and I don't like it. I don't feel old and if I listen to my more generous friends I don't look old. But when I start to look around me at the changes that have taken place over my lifetime I start to question just how old I am.

What better way to actually ascertain my real age than using Australian Rules Football as the control subject.

With over 118 years of documented AFL (VFL) league history, the control will cover the lifespan of every human still alive on the planet.

So I am off to find out just how old I really am (in AFL years).

But the real question is how old are you?

Just click on the answer that is the oldest one you remember and let's see how old we all are.

The AFL Age Quiz doesn't lie...

Surely I am Peter Pan, but alas I have scored a terrifying 66% which means that I only have 34% of my life left (what on earth have I done with those 2/3rds I have already spent?). I'd either better get fitter or start forgetting everything I know about AFL football. That way I can reduce my score and kid myself that I am young and strong again.

Who was it that said that self delusion is the sadness form of the condition?

I can't remember.. and so it begins.

Put your score in the chart below and see what company you are keeping in this inevitable plunge towards our mortal end.

Not so long ago I joined two Facebook groups that were set up by former students of the two schools I went to. After the initial glow of catching up with a few people I hadn't been in touch with for many years I suddenly started to feel very old as it turned out that some of the same people I had gone to school with were now grandparents.

In their 40's and grandparents. For gods sake!

And then I started to read many of the posts and apparently everything was better in yester year. Yes we have HD television, mobile phones and iPads, but apparently everything that comes in black and white memories was better.

Many of my peers had embraced the same philosophy that we had derided when we were kids. As a kid I hated to hear older people tell me how everything before I was born was better (food tasted better, the air was sweeter and the streets were safer. Really, you lived through the second world war...) and to this day I still deride anyone who says that 30 years ago was better than today.

If I could be 18 again and had a choice of the 80's or today, I would always come back today.

Even if it was just for the internet and free porn.