What? No AFL Grand Final thread?
Well. What can I say - after 73 years the Swannies have finally taken another flag, breaking the longest drought in AFL history.
I got over there being no Melbourne team in the final. Again. (Well, we can claim the Swans as still being Souths, can’t we?). My heart wanted them to win, my head said the Eagles would take it (incidentally, what was with two bird teams being in the GF?). But mostly, I hoped for a close match. And what a match.
The Swans by less than a kick (8.10.(58) def 4.12.(54)), and what a mark by Leo Barry, deep in the Eagles 50 - an absolute screamer over about 7 or 8 blokes to keep the Eagles from scoring the winning goal in the last few seconds.
But what a match - the Norm Smith went to Judd of the Eagles (how often does a losing player win the medal?) and it’s the closest Grand Final since the draw in 1977 (before I was even born).
So one last rousing chorus for the year:
Cheer, Cheer, the Red and the White,
Honour the name, by day and by night;
Lift that noble banner high,
Shake down the thunder from the sky.
What though the odds be great, or small,
Swans will go in and win over all;
While her loyal sons are marching
Onward to Victory.