This will be my first game of the year and while I am usually pumped early in the season (even last year) I am actually a bit unsure of what today will bring.
I have been to one win live in god knows how many years (missed 2009 due to a stupid function) and have been traumatised by many, many games on TV. It’s usually when i get together with a group of people that we fail most miserably and the embarrassment is so much worse. I once drove 2 hours out of my way, on an already very long drive home from a holiday, to not miss & watch an ANZAC day game with EFC supporting family in the country a couple of years ago. Only for the game to be well and truly over at quarter time.
My mood more than any other time previously, is as up & down as the results for the year. We have truly already had a bit of everything in our performances, plenty of skill & hope in wins, mixed in with shocking results and a game that was over before it started. I can understand some of the sentiment around here of preparing for the worst/hoping for the best, and while the boys will not be effected by previous results, the fans have been traumatised & are rightly a bit pessimistic on what is a massive & important day on the footy calendar. It is not just another game, it is the biggest game of the H&A season bar none, and a massive stage for the club.
It would make a nice little chapter in the whole “come back story” theme the club has been using this year to win. And would probably mean a hell of a lot more to all the fans than almost any other potential win this year, after all we have been through for the last 4 years. It would be something to savour even if we don’t make finals.
As i type this more rain is coming down, and my hopes & mood are turning a shade darker like the clouds. I will gladly sit through a cold, wet afternoon if we put up any sort of fight at all, just don’t get blown out of the water in any one quarter. I am still hopeful of a hard fought, close, epic win. My heart says yes we will do it, but my head says no we won’t. Either way I will go off my tree in support, but geez it would be special to really pound this team physically, if nothing else.
Now that I have got all that off my chest, I feel much better so… FIRE THE FARK UP EVERYONE AND GET DOWN TO THE G TO SUPPORT THIS MIGHTY TEAM OF OURS! I can’t wait to hear the roar of a massive, largely pro-Essendon crowd, it always gives me tingles. Hopefully the largest one will come late in the game when one of our boys (don’t care who) slots one on the run to seal a victory.
