A nation slowly chipping away at its own historic framework, which once made it so great. A nation like so many others, drowning under the mire of keeping up appearances, and having to be "politically correct".
Once a year Australia, our proud nation gets the opportunity to appear from under the rubble of the new world, and head to the MCG for what is, the Boxing Day Test.
For die hard Australian sporting fans, the Boxing Day Test is their annual "Retreat", a place they flock to with passion and deep seeded anticipation.
For five days each year many put their spiritual, physical and emotional differences aside, to cheer on our great nation as they help us remember what a great place we still have.
If the Melbourne Cup is the race that stops the nation, then the Boxing Day Test is the race that unites a nation of cricket fans.
On a balmy Melbourne morning, on December 26th 1950, two young Australian batsmen (K.A Archer and A.R Morris) walked out to the crease with one sole ambition, to defend their nation. And so it was that a great Australian tradition was born.
There is a great group of people that all Australians have to be thankful for in helping unite this great country, the English. It's that love hate relationship with all thing English as most of us come from English stock.
Since 1950, every four years a group of enthusiastic Poms have travelled by boat or by plane to attempt to conquer our great shores. In recent years, the Barmy Army joins them and we enjoy them as much as the cricket.
Arriving with a swagger that would make Mick Jagger proud, the English cricket team, the MCC, they come to win 'The Ashes' and hopefully, the Australian cricket team wants to see them leave our shores distraught and bemoaning of lost opportunities.
In general, the English cricket team has just made it so easy for us to enjoy the frightful contest over the years (sometimes we win, sometimes we lose); and all the fanfare is aided our country's cricket fans uniting in this good cause.
When the English Cricket Board sends players like Ian Botham and Phil Tufnell to our shores it has only compounded the thrill of the contest.
This Boxing day, eleven Australians will walk out on the pitch wearing the coveted Baggy Green cap, ready to wrestle the Ashes back from those our compatriot 'Poms'. This is a Boys' Own in complex history and sporting field drama.
Although there will only be eleven Australian cricketers walking out, there will be millions of Australian cricket fans with them in spirit, willing them all the way to victory.
Ricky Ponting is in for the fight of his life, a fight that will determine the state of his legacy as an Australian Captain in the years to come.
Everyone wonders whether he might enter the arena as a liability with his little finger injury. But as a fan, my lips are wet with anticipation, of the folklore that he might create by scoring a century on the opening day of this Boxing Day test. Even if it is only with one hand.
Either way there is one thing that is for certain...... every cricket fan will be watching (along with their family members who endure the cricket on television).
