10-04-2015, 03:44 AM
I've only seen three Grand Finals live.
The first was 1968, my dad let me camp overnight at Princes Park to buy tickets and I was 6 rows from the fence at the Punt Road end with my eldest sister.
Wes Lofts belted Geoff Blethyn in the first 10 minutes without even giving away a free kick and Blethyn wasn't much good for the rest of the day even though he kicked a few goals.
Nicholls played a huge game in the ruck and we won by less than a kick for our first flag in 23 years, we wasted a lot of chances and should have won by more but I didn't care at the time.
The next was in 1987, stinking hot and I planned to drink lemonade and enjoy the win, we had a stellar team and I was very confident.
In the first 10 minutes Dominator took out Tuck, Harry Madden fixed up Dipper and Peter Dean frog marched Russell Morris and sat him in the first row of the crowd, all this after Johnno did a head count at the first bounce and won us a free kick for Hawthorn having too many players in the square.
To say we were switched on that day would be a massive understatement.
Braddles and Johnno ran Hawthorn ragged and kicked 5 between them and Harry dominated in the ruck.
They sold out of lemonade before quarter time and I wound up blind drunk on the top deck of a double decker bus doing laps of Lygon Street, after which I passed out on the half forward flank in front of the Gardiner Stand.
In between those two I went to the 1980 Collingwood/Richmond Grand Final, a mate of mine was an old South Melbourne supporter and Sydney was playing in the reserves Grannie and he asked me to go with him.
My mate told me to watch one of the young Sydney players in the twos, he said he was a ripper.
It was David Rhys-Jones.
In the big game Stan Magro chased Bartlett around for most of the day trying to whack him but couldn't catch him and KB kicked 7, we left just after half time and went to the pub but it was OK seeing Collingwood get touched up, even if it was by Richmond.
I had a ticket in 1995 but I knew we'd win and gave it to my youngest sister who'd never seen us win a flag live, at the time I assumed there'd be more to follow.
I think I'll be waiting a while until I get the chance again and I won't be giving the ticket away.
The first was 1968, my dad let me camp overnight at Princes Park to buy tickets and I was 6 rows from the fence at the Punt Road end with my eldest sister.
Wes Lofts belted Geoff Blethyn in the first 10 minutes without even giving away a free kick and Blethyn wasn't much good for the rest of the day even though he kicked a few goals.
Nicholls played a huge game in the ruck and we won by less than a kick for our first flag in 23 years, we wasted a lot of chances and should have won by more but I didn't care at the time.
The next was in 1987, stinking hot and I planned to drink lemonade and enjoy the win, we had a stellar team and I was very confident.
In the first 10 minutes Dominator took out Tuck, Harry Madden fixed up Dipper and Peter Dean frog marched Russell Morris and sat him in the first row of the crowd, all this after Johnno did a head count at the first bounce and won us a free kick for Hawthorn having too many players in the square.
To say we were switched on that day would be a massive understatement.
Braddles and Johnno ran Hawthorn ragged and kicked 5 between them and Harry dominated in the ruck.
They sold out of lemonade before quarter time and I wound up blind drunk on the top deck of a double decker bus doing laps of Lygon Street, after which I passed out on the half forward flank in front of the Gardiner Stand.
In between those two I went to the 1980 Collingwood/Richmond Grand Final, a mate of mine was an old South Melbourne supporter and Sydney was playing in the reserves Grannie and he asked me to go with him.
My mate told me to watch one of the young Sydney players in the twos, he said he was a ripper.
It was David Rhys-Jones.
In the big game Stan Magro chased Bartlett around for most of the day trying to whack him but couldn't catch him and KB kicked 7, we left just after half time and went to the pub but it was OK seeing Collingwood get touched up, even if it was by Richmond.
I had a ticket in 1995 but I knew we'd win and gave it to my youngest sister who'd never seen us win a flag live, at the time I assumed there'd be more to follow.
I think I'll be waiting a while until I get the chance again and I won't be giving the ticket away.
The only thing in this world worth more than a hill of beans is the Carlton Football Club.