Another win

The Cats had a win on Saturday. North Melbourne drove the long way home. It was a cold afternoon on the Gary Ablett Terrace and I enjoyed every frozen minute of it.

I have been watching the football from the same spot in that ground since 1988. Before that I used to go to the game with my father and sister and sit in the stand. But as a man I have become one of those old men who has seen the ground develop and the game speed up in front of my very eyes.

Gary Ablett Junior is clearly our best player. I remember seeing his father playon this very same ground. A very different player, but this is a different time. Junior is a more complete footballer.
I saw Senior play against Essendon and he kicked fourteen goals in one game. Amazing performance, we lost. I saw him kick nine goals in the grand final with one astonishing snap from a boundary throw in - we lost.

Junior gathers possessions like Scanlons footy cards. He's the go to man. He's the premier on-baller for the competition. It's not his job to kick the goals, he sets them up, but when he does have the chance to kick one - it's a lock. He doesn't miss. If Junior kicks three for the match - we win. If he has forty possessions - we win. The father was great but the son is more complete.

We have our own place. Not too many other clubs can say that and with this place comes an identity. The Standing Room used to stretch around the entire ground. Today it is the smallest component of the stadium but it is still here and it is named after Junior's dad.

When we started standing - it was a hot February day. We were at a practice match - Geelong and Hawthorn or Melbourne, I can't remember. But it was an empty terrace. Over the years it has filled up and we are being squeezed out. The weather has gotten dramatic. It has hailed, it has rained and it has blown us away. It has been dusty and full of cigarette smoke. VB cans and pie wrappers. New gravel and old blundstones. A bloke has dropped dead in front of me at the end of a big game and we have only secured one premiership from six Grand Final appearances... and I support this club. I was there. At each of the losses and I was there for the one win as well.

The win is great, but it's the experience that makes the success worthwhile. It's no good waiting for the song to start before you go out to buy the jumper. You make a choice and stick. Loyalty is a much more invigorating journey than a casual interest in success.