Well, that was a crazy week!

View of the field from sitting in the gods. (Smartphone) | ​Vincent Cavanagh © 2026

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On Sunday (7 June 2026), I experienced my first ever AFL game with a group of friends at the SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground). Not that I really understood any of it, to be honest. But I will say that seeing it in real life is far superior to watching it all flattened out on a giant flatscreen TV.

As for the match itself, well, that was hardly the (ahem) introduction I was expecting. St Kilda trouncing Sydney Swans in the first quarter and it then taking the Swans the whole of the match up until the very end of the last quarter to finally get out in front on the leaderboard. Calling it tense would be an understatement. Not that I had any “skin” in the game, mind you. I have never followed any team or sporting code in my life, and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.
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Also, the ferocious passion of multiple stands full of grieved Swans supporters making known their disagreement with referee decisions over player actions is not something I would ever want to be one the receiving end of.
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A clouded dawn over Nobbys Head. (Nikon D5300) | Vincent Cavanagh © 2026

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And then on Wednesday (10 June 2026), I got up at 4:00 AM to catch the train to Newcastle to photograph the sunrise around both the foreshore of the Hunter River and Nobbys Beach with my old DSLR.
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I’m amazed that I actually did it. The kernel of the idea for doing it got stuck in my head sometime last year and I would have preferred to have done it earlier in 2026 when we were still in the summer months here down under, but that was a stretch too far for me in that prior moment for varying reasons.

Port of Newcastle Pilot heading out to meet the bulk carrier in the Hunter River. (​Nikon D5300) | Vincent Cavanagh © 2026

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The main reason I had for taking my DSLR—apart from better dynamic range than a smartphone—was an intention to give it a ‘one last hurrah’ before parting ways with it. Something that I am still no closer to doing after taking it out with me on Wednesday, which my shooting wrist was haranguing me over continuously the following day with accompanying pains and twinges. Most of my focus that day ended up being funnelled into making most of the morning’s golden hour light and pushing myself to try and beat a bulk carrier on its way out to sea before it reached Nobbys Head, which of course I did not accomplish. I am not Superman. Nor was I set up for jogging and, believe me, those bulk carriers can move!

What I did catch was carrier's stern before it passed behind Nobbys Head. (Nikon D5300) | ​Vincent Cavanagh © 2026

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I think I haven’t exerted myself so much since WYD Lisbon, and after what I put myself through on Wednesday I could not in good conscience kid myself into thinking I could do a World Youth Day again. My spring doesn’t spring back like it did 3 years ago and I don’t think it likely that I’d have anyone with me to call me out pull me back from the brink of burning out.

WYD is a youngster’s game and I’m not that young anymore.

Or should that be: foolish anymore?

 
Vincent Cavanagh
14 June 2026