The greatest team of all.
Not getting tickets cut me pretty deep at times, but in hindsight unless I had managed to get superawesome tickets (boundary ground level or front row wing) I may have had a better day down at Kardinia Park with 6000 hardcore Cats fans, out despite the threatened and briefly falling rain. It was a little cold, and people with chairs blocked 1/4 of the screen, but I managed to get my photo in the Geelong Advertiser today when my probably-soon-to-be-sister-in-law-Lauren decided she wanted to be on TV, so we went up the front and jumped like maniacs during 3/4 and fulltime... (she got on the broadcast during the 3/4 time break but I was too far back then)... (it's kinda a Where's Wally shot of us in the Addy but it's still cool). So watching the game was ok, big screens, atmosphere.
The moment of doom: Matthew Stokes twisting his knee 6 minutes in and possibly being out for the game, probably for a year or so, after kicking 3 important goals first 1/4 against Collingwood last week...after that Port kicked two points (luckily not goals) (one from a free kick) and were leading for the only time in the match... I was head-in-hands thinking it was going to be one of those days.
The moment of realisation: I'm a bit of a fatalist when it comes to football - if I don't get too excited maybe I won't be so cut at the end - but I started to realise around 3/4 time that we were about 70 points up and it was going to take a miraculous comeback for a team that hadn't looked like trying to get over us.
The moment of incredijoy: Siren. Cats fans all around me at the front near the screens have been standing for about 5 minutes, knowing we had it won, but still, we found something more at the siren. I spent about 5 minutes simply jumping up and down on the spot (and paid for it in sore muscles today) cheering and singing and loving the moment. Hugging Lauren. Being hugged by a random stranger, twice. Cheering. Seeing people cry. 44 years these people have been without a premiership, and I've only been following footy for about 7 years, been a member for 5 - I felt like maybe I hadn't suffered enough, but at the same time I've been a pretty passionate member for those 5 years - so maybe I made up for it in caring, in the pain of the Sydney semifinal in Sydney's premiership year, in the joy of Riccardi's goal after the siren early in my footy gospel, in the relationships and the memories and the amazing scenes in Geelong after the siren...watching a 92 year old get excited because she had been waiting so long, and her sister (98) with windows full of cat posters as we drove past being overjoyed...so much unbridled joy.
And then today, Billy Brownless and Anthony Hudson and Daryl Somers on the stage addressing 28000 fans at Skilled, the VFL team getting up on stage and getting their dues (also 2007 Premiers), although I thought they deserved individual recognition too... the President and CEO, Thompson and the players, Chappy showing his passion and Milburn taking it quietly with his kids...I couldn't get close but it was worth being there. I want to thank them all personally but that might have to wait until next year... they played as a team...very few poor performances...I thought Scarlett deserved the Norm Smith rather than Johnson, but when we watched a video of it last night Johnson was everywhere...
Go Cats. Thank you.