2017. Still the greatest moment of my life.
Any mention of that Grand final still brings me to tears. The songs that played at the MCG that day are like implanted happiness triggers and they detonate regularly, so far with no loss of power.
My day started early, i owned a pub and although we were predominately a music pub, grand final day was one of my big days.
I had a rule, if your team was in the grand final you did not have to work, otherwise it was all hands on deck. I had a manager who was a Hawthorn supporter, he sure got some value out of that dumb rule.
Anyways, it was my turn to take advantage of a rule I invented mostly for me but enjoyed by everyone except me in the decade i had owned the pub. I still had to set the joint up though, putting up projectors, setting up portable bars, moving furniture and organising the crew had me working until midday when the pub opened.
A quick pint failed to calm my nerves and so it was off to the train with my old man to start a journey we'd both been waiting for since 1982. In 1980 i was 8 and lived in Tasmania. My memory of that Grand Final, apart from Kevin Bartlett's hair, is of my inebriated dad kissing and hugging the evening paperboy when he delivered the good news in print.
We'd secured our tickets via the ballot and would be standing at M7, PRE. The journey towards this goal was subdued, the train crowd was typical of home and away but there was more nerves, excitement and tension, like a cartoon powder keg ready to explode.
The game was the game, we all have our own recollections of it but I've watched it so many times my memories of being at the ground are all now just emotions, high fiving strangers, that enduring musical soundtrack and the endless loop of "oh we're from tigerland...".
I cried when every players name was announced for their medal, I cried when Richo brought up the cup ( All those years i had wanted to hear "Number 12, Mathew Riiiiiichardsooooon" and had imagined the moment I was now living ). I soaked up the victory laps and couldn't leave until every player had left the ground and the song was sung in the rooms.
The journey home on the train had a post coital feel to it, we were all pretty pleased with our performance so we could look each other in the eyes knowing we'd shared something great and if we played our cards right we could do it again. There would be no walk of shame this night. The walk from the station to the pub with the old man was almost silent, I was really close to shutting down from the pride and Joy that I was experiencing and needed that time to reflect.
I'd had a couple of texts from people in the pub, so they knew I was on my way back. The moment I walked through the door of my pub is one I will never forget. The Joint was absolutely heaving and it seemed like everyone in there was aware that a long suffering tiger tragic was about to walk through the door, and i did, with my Knight poster held aloft like a premiership cup, i was greeted with a wave of cheers that rattled the windows, high fives, hugs and beaming faces. Strangers were looking at me wondering if they should know who I am, friends were congratulating me like i'd won the cup all on my own.
Everyone wanted to get me a nosebeer, they wanted share in the joy and find a way to feel like I felt, they couldn't of course but who was I to reject their kind offers. I was emitting some kind of vintage Tigers pheromone and it was creating hysteria not seen since the Beatles first toured Australia.
My Hawks friends welcomed me to a joy they are almost sick of, Collingwood friends looked on with jealousy at how easy it was for us, my bombers friends smugly congratulated me because we'd finally done it (like those guys have any right to still be smug), Melbourne friends looked on with hope that it may someday be them ( i feel sorry for them that their drought was broken interstate) and my Carlton friends just hung around like a puppy waiting for a pat...
At some stage the emotional exhaustion kicked in and I ghosted out and headed home. I was still wired like an 80's stockbroker so the only thing to do was watch the replay for the first of many, many times.
At the ground i was still nervous well into the last quarter but the replay showed me the unreliability of my emotions, the tigers were an unstoppable force from the second quarter. It was never in doubt.
What a day. It will never be repeated in my lifetime ( never again for current tiger fans with regular premierships hopefully the norm).
I think perhaps it was the perfect storm, My age, the Tiger era i've lived through, that long drought...whatever it was, it was worth it.
What a team.