Play and Pray
By D. M. WALKER
MANY football fans have considered turning to. God for help when their team needs a goal in the dying minute of the final quarter. But Pastor Cameron Butler, 29, who became the Melbourne Football Club chaplain this season, steadfastly refuses to pray for a Melbourne victory: I won't pray for the team to win but I'll pray for the players to be free from injury.
Butler, who is also minister of the Assemblies of God in Australia church in Doncaster, does not rule out divine intervention in football. He moved into sports ministry to "get involved in chaplaincy beyond the four walls of the church", but he admits to some "pre?season nerves".
I stood there outside the clubrooms at the start of the season wondering what on earth I was doing there, and what would I achieve." He was approached by his friend and Richmond Football Club chaplain, the Reverend Paul Cameron about joining Melbourne. The Reverend Cameron had been asked by Melbourne's football operation's manager, Danny Corcoran, about possible pastoral recruits to fill a vacancy.
Butler felt his first match at Melbourne was a quasi?religious experience. "We played the Bulldogs in the pre?season and, with the quietness in the change room, you could have broken the air half?an hour before the match with a knife. You make sure you don't say anything wrong and it's hard to even smile at somebody. The intensity and the focus in the room beforehand hits you pretty hard. "Butler was reminded immediately of the atmosphere in a church service. certain ly wasn't expecting to see it in the club. 1 was expecting shouting, the players to be pumped up and fanatical, beating the chest and getting all excited."
But he did not just find the match difficult from a pastoral perspective. "I'm a born?and?bred Doggies supporter; absolutely love the Doggies," he croons of his beloved Western Bulldogs. I asked Paul Cameron, 'Do you barrack for Richmond?', because I was scared. 1 mean, did I have to give up my allegiance?" The Reverend Cameron admitted to supporting Melbourne before being welcomed into the Richmond fold.
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 | | Demons are his business: Chaplain Cameron Butler at a training session. |
But Butler balls his fist in anguish, his knuckles turning white, as he explains split loyalties almost made him cry at the first match Melbourne played against the Western Bulldogs.
Butler spends roughly 10 hours each week visiting players in hospital, attending training twice a week, as well as pre?match sessions and the match itself.
On Sunday, he rushes from morning service in Doncaster, at 12.30pm to reach the ground by 1pm, but says the effort is worth it. "I'm really the only neutral person in the heart of the club, The players can approach me on issues where they wouldn't approach staff members because it might threaten their position on the team."
Butler said nine AFL clubs taking on chaplains reflected a more, holistic approach to player welfare, rather than seeing footballers merely as athletes.
Team members have overcome initial feelings that Butler "is there to convert them", arid regularly approach him to discuss family problems, relationships and spiritual matters.
"The club doesn't just want to make better players, the club's committed to making better people as well. It contributes to their performance on field, and it complements their discipline."
'In the past, clubs have said, 'Don't come to us with your problems; You deal with them, just get out there on the field and play.' But there's more to a sports person than his physical ability.'
But Butler says sports chaplaincy is riot every minister's cup of tea.
If you're a bit too sensitive, you could be affected by all the swearing and seeing all the naked bodies but, because I played footy, I understood that was part of the process."
And does Butler mind fans calling former Geelong star, Gary Ablett, "God, and seeing football as all ersatz religion?
If a god is something to be worshipped, which 1 think it is, then the majority of Australians worship the players and the game. It consumes their lives with their team winning.
"But there's more to life than just sport and ...God wants you to enjoy life to the max;" he says.
"But I think, for a lot of Australians, all they have to hope for and cling on to is sport and, at the end of the day, that will run dry."
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