winners = grinners

josh, em, jesse and i arrived at the ground early and feasted on some yummy nosh to cure the hangover from the party the night before. then it was off to the members’ area where em had wangled us some tickets so we could all sit together. the ground filled up steadily, tho it was less than the expected 50 000. we’d seen it busier before - last year during the brisbane lions game that broke our hearts. as we’d feared, just about every vestige of the events involved with the indigenous game in years past had been stripped from the schedule. there was a welcome to country:

but there were problems with sound quality on field all night, and we couldn’t really hear what was being said then or at any other part of the ceremony. a video collage of heaps of past and present aboriginal players, professionals and kiddies, played on the big screen with powderfinger’s ‘love your way’ as the soundtrack. it finished with a slow shot of goodesy winning the brownlow last year, which was kinda cool, but also kinda ‘haven’t we come a long way baby’. then the two mums tossed the coin, in what was a pretty special moment, ‘treaty’ by yothu yindi started pumping thru the speakers, and it was time to play.

we were going for the swans, which was lucky, because they ended up winning fairly comfortably. an unexpected turn of events at half time saw me win a coke competition, albeit rather deceptively, and have my stupefied grin broadcast live all over the stadium. i got lots of free stuff including a tray of meat pies (!) which i donated to em’s work. but then the footy resumed, the swans sured up the points and maxfield accepted the trophy from senator aden ridgway with a nice speech.

the boys did half a lap of the oval to thank the fans, and once they left it was all over for another year (tho we did meet kerry nettle for the first time afterwards, which made josh’s night. i expect we had a much better time meeting her than nicole kidman, who graced the swans’ locker room afterwards to make the sunday headlines).

so it’s all true, it is just another game now. i wonder how much will be left to celebrate next year?