What They're Saying - The Bulldogs Media Thread - Part 2

[BRWB]

I understand where your coming from and completely agree. I was referring more to the overall idea of the dogs being good enough and the self confidence that the team and we as supporters have to believe that we can actually do it this year.
Comon mate you and i both know that we have won nothing yet but the next contest is a genuine 50/50 , more-so than any other in recent history. To top that off, we for once in our history we have a fairdinkum home ground advantage.

Watching the Saints 2010 on 7 just now (can't sleep) and even though I hate the Saints - my heart is breaking for them. Hope that ain't us.

As you say it's 50/50.

Our team has something special. As Bruce might say:

"You can just feel it - can't you?"

 

[TimlinOfficial]

I thought the program was good buildup but shouldn't have been titled 'Road to Glory' seeing as we haven't reached any glory just yet. Today's the day. It's going to be a belter. Go get 'em Doggies!

 

[Sharkey66]

Watching the Saints 2010 on 7 just now (can't sleep) and even though I hate the Saints - my heart is breaking for them. Hope that ain't us.

As you say it's 50/50.

Our team has something special. As Bruce might say:

"You can just feel it - can't you?"

Scrolling through Big Footy Watching it with u think we r all he same tonite
hope i meet a few of u guys on Sunday in victory at whitten oval.
P155ed and happy been a fantastic week
#godogs

 

[ScragCity]

I thought the program was good buildup but shouldn't have been titled 'Road to Glory' seeing as we haven't reached any glory just yet. Today's the day. It's going to be a belter. Go get 'em Doggies!

Or you could say that we ARE currently on the road to glory, because we are in a Grand Final. The question is whether or not we reach our destination. If we don't win tomorrow you could still say that we were on the road to glory, even though we didn't make it.

 

[In Repair]

AFL grand final 2016: Luke Beveridge - the two sides of a top dog coach
September 30 2016 - 6:44PM

Football's love affair with Luke Beveridge is neither simple nor monogamous. For to love the Western Bulldogs' messiah is to love two men – the romantic and the ruthless formalist.

The 2013 Norm Smith medallist Brian Lake – who credits then Hawthorn defensive coach Beveridge with a mid-season intervention that year that realigned his career – believes the Bulldogs coach has managed to combine his two sides to locate the perfect sweet spot between mate and "hard arse".

Bulldogs captain Robert Murphy has described him as "the most balanced person I've met in footy. He's clinical and methodical and super-focused, and yet he has this other side where his love of the game, the romance and his passion are equally important to him and the way he coaches."

Murphy described sitting near Beveridge with the Bulldogs' coaches in the final 10 minutes of last week's preliminary final against Greater Western Sydney as "almost unnerving. I was with the statisticians turning into a human pretzel and he's just totally calm.

Luke Beveridge, Bob Murphy and Easton Wood take the plaudits from Western Bulldogs fans. Photo: Justin McManus
"His tone and his messaging were just so controlled. That steady hand when things are really tense and there's a lot happening are quite remarkable when others – well, me – are figuratively and almost literally breathing into a brown paper bag."

But Beveridge does have his unhinged moments, not unlike many great coaches. Although unlike some he listens and converses with others about subjects outside of his own sphere. And he can laugh later at his "psycho" self.

Generally, Beveridge's anger is fuelled by fierce club loyalty or perceived wrongs to his players or coaches. No one laughed when Gold Coast poached his head of fitness, Justin Cordy, last year; Beveridge memorably recalled a group of journalists to vent his anger.

As a footballer, Beveridge played 118 games across Melbourne, the Bulldogs and St Kilda, leaving an impression from beginning to end.

Matt Healy, a fellow St Bede's boy, former teammate and friend, recalls a suntanned, ripped, ringlet-haired but gently spoken surfie arriving in 1987 for his first Melbourne under-19s training session, before hitting the track as if it was grand final week. From that moment, said Healy, he knew what standards were expected.

St Kilda football director Andrew Thompson remembers the stirring farewell speech the unwilling AFL retiree and teammate Beveridge delivered 12 years later, in the bowels of the WACA before his last game, a farewell that inspired the Saints to an upset thrashing of West Coast.

While assistant coach at Hawthorn, before one big game Beveridge showed the team's defenders the store robbery scene from the Dirty Harry film The Enforcer, in which Clint Eastwood's famous character responds to armed robbers demanding a car by driving said vehicle into the shop and then shooting the criminals. "Don't sit back and let them dictate," was the message, according to the backs' coach. "Take the fight to them."

Brian Lake described Beveridge's quirkiness as a joy for the Hawthorn defensive six to work with: "He'd get online and find photos or videos and characterise us in a certain way and now he's doing it with a whole team. This week I'm sure there will be the twin towers of Sydney, the Bondi billionaires against the Western suburbs boys who need to fend for themselves.

"He'd tell us defenders at Hawthorn that we're not the glory hunters, the glamour forwards – we're the silent assassins who get the job done when you don't see us coming, the bandit boys.

"I liked his analogies. He was a cut above most assistant coaches who are like the nerds who sit around for hours cutting tape and looking at edits. And you never got a rocket from him the way Rocket [former Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade] would give me because you worked so hard not to disappoint him. You just never wanted to turn up on Monday and see that disappointed look on his face."

Beveridge replaced now St Kilda coach Alan Richardson as development coach at Collingwood at the end of 2008, after his famed run in the amateurs where he coached his old school St Bede's to successive premierships from C to B to A grade across three seasons.

Beveridge was at Collingwood for two years, leaving after the Magpies' 2010 flag. New coach Nathan Buckley wanted him to stay, but for reasons involving superannuation, Beveridge returned to his government post where he had been working in a senior national security role fighting money laundering. After one year, his financial issues resolved, Beveridge realised football was his calling and joined Hawthorn, leaving after the 2014 season. He was set to become director of coaching at St Kilda.

"Even though I barely knew him I thought he was very impressive and forthright," said Richardson. "I felt we needed a director of coaching and strategy with an eye on where the game was going and Gavin Brown at Collingwood had spoken very highly of him.

"In coming on board he did make the point that the way he wanted our team to play in a certain area was a little bit unique. So we gave him a laptop and loaded him up with some of our games because he was going overseas with his family for a holiday. Obviously he didn't last as long as we'd hoped."

Richardson's description of "a certain area" clearly refers to Beveridge's focus on accountability and defence. Immediately after winning the Bulldogs job, he told both chairman Peter Gordon and his predecessor, David Smorgon, that Murphy would be playing as a permanent defender along with Matthew Boyd, while Liam Picken, whose career has blossomed under Beveridge, would be freed up.

Andrew Thompson, who had played with Beveridge during his time on the Bulldogs' supplementary list and later at St Kilda, called Saints club chief Matt Finnis almost immediately after McCartney was removed from the Bulldogs coaching position. "We're in trouble," said Thompson. "He [Beveridge] is going to get that job."

Thompson recalled this week that as soon as Luke Darcy agreed to join the Bulldogs' coaching selection panel, the appointment became a fait accompli. "I knew if Bevo was interviewed they wouldn't go past him."

A guilt-stricken Beveridge, who had signed a contract with St Kilda, called Finnis, Richardson and Thompson once the senior coaching job had become a reality. "If you don't want me to do it then I won't do it," he told Alan Richardson, who responded that, having one year earlier departed his contracted role at Port Adelaide for a senior position, he could hardly deny Beveridge such an opportunity.

Hawthorn, too, did not want to lose Beveridge, but could not offer the highly regarded assistant coach a position commensurate with the St Kilda role he never actually began.

The view from several at Hawthorn is that one of Beveridge's strengths is his ability to understand the struggle of the average AFL player, because he faced that struggle himself.

Not that it was apparent at the beginning of his career. Healy said "on day one he hit training like there was a grand final the week after. I realised straightaway that I was going to have to raise the level expected of us."

Like Murphy and Lake, Healy said one of the most attractive things about Beveridge was the double-sided nature of his character. "He has that intensity that comes out in his work ethic, but he's a sensitive guy also," he said.

One of club chief David Stevenson's final acts before leaving the Bulldogs in some acrimony in June was to extend Beveridge's contract until 2020. To that end Stevenson can still feel some ownership to the grand final journey. He will attend the game as a guest of the AFL and reportedly never fell out with the coach, who called Stevenson for a lengthy conversation after the chief executive had left the club.

Healy said Beveridge remained handy at any sport he put his mind to, while Lake endorsed the "cut" description. "He's a little bit vain as well," said Lake. "He ... loved our weights room."

"After the 2014 flag he was the only coach to rock up to 'Mad Monday'," adds Lake. "The boys got around him and tried to make him scull a beer, which he didn't do. As a coach he wasn't our mate and yet he wasn't a hard-arse. He somehow found that sweet spot."

Andrew Thompson recalls coach Stan Alves putting in place a pre-training ritual in which each St Kilda player had to tell a joke before training. "Most guys would try to get their jokes out of the way as quickly as possible, but Bevo would grab a chair and tell the longest jokes, which were so funny along the way that it didn't really matter if the punch line wasn't that funny."

Beveridge had believed he could play on after 1999 but coach Tim Watson disagreed, so – with the Saints having narrowly missed the finals – the player chose to make that memorable farewell speech at the WACA.

"He spoke for five to ten minutes," said Thompson, "and I couldn't tell you what he said, but I remember it was so emotional and so inspirational and we came out and trounced West Coast by about 75 points."

The story of how the Western Bulldogs turned around their club under leaders from Peter Gordon to Beveridge to Murphy after the horror spring and early summer of 2014 will become football legend should they win only their second flag.

Murphy said that as newly appointed captain he felt he connected with Beveridge very quickly. "But we probably didn't have much choice," he said. "We were one-out, the scourge really, in terms of the game and the competition. Everyone was coming at us, so maybe it helped us make that connection. We clung together and there was no time for second guessing."

If it is true, as Murphy says, that he has been waiting all his playing life for Luke Beveridge, the Western Bulldogs might well have been waiting for 62 years.

 

[Testekill]

Brisbane great Jonathan Brown knows from personal experience how tough Liam Picken is

JONATHAN BROWN, Herald Sun
September 30, 2016 7:00pm
Subscriber only

THE first time I knew Liam Picken was tough was Christmas Day 1995 out at Nanna Val’s Killarney farm.

I was steaming in from the long hedge end with a fully taped-up tennis ball looking to knock my next victim’s head off.

There weren’t many yorkers when the clan caught up each summer.

Most of my younger cousins were backing away to square leg, but little Liam — aged about eight or nine — stood up to it.


He was bruised and battered, but didn’t bat an eye lid on Nanna’s bouncy pitch. I remember thinking: “This kid might have something.”

He got me back a beauty 15 years later in the middle of the MCG.

It was the first time we played against each other in the 2009 semi-final between Brisbane and the Western Bulldogs.

Liam Picken has had a brilliant finals series. Picture: Getty Images
The ball bounced high between us and I remember looking up and seeing Liam charging in my direction and thinking: “This is going to be hard, this kid isn’t going to back down.”

We had a big collision and I haven’t asked him, but if I’m really honest with myself, I think he might have committed just a bit harder than usual.

I came off second best, but don’t worry, I didn’t tell him.

Liam is my little cousin and about nine years my junior. My mum’s sister, Julie, married his dad, the Collingwood Team of the Century legend Billy Picken.

His older brother, Marcus, played 25 games with the Lions and was a groomsman at my wedding.

Liam was always a tough kid, who as well as dodging bouncers, would always be up on roofs fetching balls.

My Pa, K.P Mugavin, would always say: “Not that bloody kid up on the roof again, he’s like a monkey”.

Liam was forced to take the long road to the AFL.

Even though he was Billy’s boy, because of his size and stature, he was 100-1 to get a chance at the big league.

Liam Picken playing for Williamstown in the VFL.

Liam Picken and his partner Annie Nolan at the Brownlow Medal. Picture: Getty Images
As a junior he just wasn’t on anyone’s recruiting radar.

He wasn’t seen to be the most skillful kid running around and the truth is he simply wasn’t — he’s had to work really hard on that.

Liam’s the ultimate story of hard work getting you somewhere beyond your limitations.

He had to fight and scrap playing VFL reserves at Williamstown (working full-time for the Department of Defence) and willed his way into the seniors, winning the 2008 best and fairest.

He did a pre-season at Collingwood but they didn’t rate him, fortunately then Dogs midfield coach Leon Cameron did.

The Bulldogs gave him a shot in 2009 after Williamstown stumped up half the cash for his AFL rookie contract.

Liam has never left a stone unturned in his bid to make it to the Grand Final.

He is meticulous in his preparation, and in what he eats, and is often up during the middle of the night icing an injury to guarantee his best performance.

It was the same at school where he worked hard to make it through as a high-achieving student.

As an AFL player he started out as a tagger but Luke Beveridge saw something else in him.

Before Beveridge arrived at the Whitten Oval, Liam was questioning his future.

But Beveridge had a hunch that he had more strings to his bow than just being a run-with player, so he released him, and he’s flourished.

Liam is a very good mark for his size and has become a very sound kick, certainly better than his old man, and, of course, he just cracks in.

He’s as hard as anyone in the competition.

Just as importantly, he is loved by all his teammates.

Liam Picken and his twin daughters Delphi and Cheska at the AFL Grand Final parade. Picture: Michael Klein
He’s an unassuming, modest family man and he’s had some challenges on that front as well.

His twin girls, Delphi and Cheska, were born premature at 27 weeks and spent 100 days in hospital.

Annie, his wife, is vision-impaired, and with another son, Malachy, in tow, it hasn’t been easy at home.


Liam’s father was arguably Collingwood’s best big-game player and there will be no fears for his son on Saturday afternoon on footy’s biggest stage.

He relishes the challenge and is so reliable.

The difference between Liam’s best and worst is marginal. Blokes that crack in every single time are always a good chance to play well in finals.

Just like at Nanna Val’s, I’m backing Billy’s boy to stare Sydney in the eye and help get the Doggies home.

 

[DogDays]

Absolute f$&@ing legend


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Super Hans]

 

[Randomthoughts]

Excellent !

 

[Pannalstaroz]

My mate who produces at Fox Footy said they're doing a Grand Final recap with the players like the Hawks ones. That'll be awesome.

Bevo will be on On The Couch tomorrow hopefully and they've got a Toyd extravaganza on too.

Oh and Bob will be on 360 at this stage. Bob and Bevo have been asked and they believe they'll be on.

It's a Dogs media fest.

 

[NBates]

My mate who produces at Fox Footy said they're doing a Grand Final recap with the players like the Hawks ones. That'll be awesome.

Bevo will be on On The Couch tomorrow hopefully and they've got a Toyd extravaganza on too.

Oh and Bob will be on 360 at this stage. Bob and Bevo have been asked and they believe they'll be on.

It's a Dogs media fest.

As it should be

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

 

[Nath09]

Does anyone know if the Road to Glory special is up online?

 

[Gift]

Someone told me this appeared in the Age today. Funny if true.

 

[Fultons]

Someone told me this appeared in the Age today. Funny if true.

Aww shit someone's in trouble

 

[mambavino]

Did anyone see the player ratings in the Age yesterday? They used the same comments meant for Callum Mills for two other Sydney players as well.

Also the subheading on the back page of Saturdays Age referenced Tony Liberatore rather than Tom.

Cuts in The Age newsroom clearly doing wonders.

 

[jdz101]

Did anyone see the player ratings in the Age yesterday? They used the same comments meant for Callum Mills for two other Sydney players as well.

Also the subheading on the back page of Saturdays Age referenced Tony Liberatore rather than Tom.

Cuts in The Age newsroom clearly doing wonders.

Yeah Papley and Mills were the same comment.

Who the hell edits that paper?

 

[Cadillac]

Not sure why Peter Gordon had to say this on radio. Kind of ruined the moment. Should have kept it between the club and the AFL. I highly doubt Bevo would want the medal anyway.

 

[jdz101]

View attachment 295720


Not sure why Peter Gordon had to say this on radio. Kind of ruined the moment. Should have kept it between the club and Te AFL. I highly doubt Bevo would want the medal anyway.

Mmm he seems really up and about which is good. It'd be great PR for the AFL to just get it done and let it happen for cases like this.

 

[Norm De Guerre]

The Titus view.

http://titusoreily.com/the-monday-knee-jerk-reaction-afl-grand-final-2/

The Adelaide drive-by is a pearler. Unless of course you happen to be from south Australia...


The Monday Knee Jerk Reaction: AFL Grand Final


Footy is a passion, not some cold hearted, spread sheet dominated rational exercise.

On a Monday you want irrational reaction. You want emotion to trump reason.

What you really want is idiotic hysteria.

You’ve come to the right place.

Sydney Swans (10.7.67) v Western Bulldogs (13.11.89)

If you’re a Bulldogs supporter, this was not a dream, this actually happened.

Grand Final day is always the best, and it’s not just because you can drink in public before noon. OK, it’s mainly that, but a game like this one is pretty great too.

I arrived at the ground, and the atmosphere was just electric. For South Australian readers, electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and flow of electric charge. Electrical power is the backbone of modern industrial society apparently.

I take my seat, and there are Bulldogs supporters on either side of me and Swans fans behind me.

The Bulldogs fan to my left already looks like he’s run a marathon and the game is still an hour away. He is not coping.

I buy him a beer, partly because I’m a wonderful person but mostly because I worry he will die if he doesn’t relax a little. The beer cost me $80 if I remember correctly and pairs nicely with the $63 chips.

They have the lap of retiring players, and I see poor Ted Richards who never got to be coached by James Hird. I bet he’ll regret things not working out at the Bombers for the rest of his life.

The AFL entertainment is about to begin and is always an excellent way to find out who is still alive.

It turns out Sting is. Before he comes out, we get Vance Joy who does a perfectly reasonable job, not that anyone is paying much attention.

Then The Living End come out and play a song no one knows. They then play Prisoner of Society and people around me all say ‘oh, I vaguely remember that song’.

Sting is then announced and plays ‘Message In A Bottle’, ‘Every Breath You Take’ and ‘I Can’t Stop Thinking About You’ (yes I’ve never heard of that last one either).

These are not really songs to fire you up before the big game.

At least Sting did well enough that in years to come we will never remember he did this. You have to be really awful for us to remember you.

I get chatting to the Dogs supporter, and he tells me that if they lose, it will be the worst day of his life. I say ‘how could that be when you got to see Sting?’ He stares at me for a long time, and we don’t talk again until halftime.

While the AFL run the pre-game entertainment about as well as they run the draw, there’s one area they never fail in, acknowledging sponsors.

It’s a touching moment when an executive from Toyota gets a chance to toss the coin. Imagine wasting this once in a lifetime opportunity on some sick kid or other undeserving loser?

Of course, the crowd really gets going when the two teams come out. The banners going up and the club songs are about a billion times better than the pre-game entertainment.

The noise in the ground is insane. It’s louder than Adelaide Oval, something scientists and the Channel Seven commentary team previously thought impossible.

Finally, the game is underway, after a solid national anthem from the Bull sisters.

Tom Boyd drops an early mark and a Sydney supporter behind me yells ‘that a million dollars wasted’. It’s going to be a bad day for him, the supporter that is, not Tom, who is about to prove everyone wrong and earn his entire salary in one day.

Early on, neither side is allowing the other to do what they want to do. It’s like watching a bad marriage.

Both sides are so well drilled that there are actual tactics going on. They both know what the other is trying and are competent enough to stop it.

To borrow a phrase from arm wrestling, this is a real arm wrestle.

As we plunge into the second quarter, the crowd is riding every bump. There are a lot of turnovers, but that’s mainly because whoever has the ball is about to be smashed by three opponents.

The Bulldogs get away early, but the Swans then get moving.

In the high-pressure atmosphere of the second quarter, Josh Kennedy and Tom Mitchell start to thrive. The Swans appear to be getting on top and look to be taking a good lead into halftime.

My Bulldog friend next to me looks like someone having their second stroke of the day.

Lance Franklin is throwing himself around but an ankle injury from the first quarter seems to be hampering him a bit, that and the fact the Bulldogs defence is insane.

Just before halftime, though, the Bulldogs get a goal through Toby McLean, and we go into halftime with everyone in the stadium stressed out of their mind.

It’s more tense than when Gerard Whateley interviewed James Hird on AFL360.

I try to cheer my neighbour up by telling him not to worry, as I’ve never seen the Bulldogs lose a Grand Final. For the second time that day he gives me a look you usually reserve for a crazy person.

Conversation dries up pretty quickly after that.

The AFL’s running of the halftime sprint is won by an amateur, but it’s hard to tell as most of the other competitors aren’t exactly household names either.

If there’s a less exciting sporting competition than the halftime sprint I haven’t seen it, and yes I did watch that fast tennis thing.

The third quarter beings and Marcus Bontempelli starts to have real impact. His possessions are all quality. His use of the ball is way more important than someone having a tonne of ineffective possessions. He’s like a surgeon, just slicing the Swans open.

Tom Boyd is also playing the game of his life. He’s marking everything and kicking goals. It’s another reminder that football has been invented to make us all look stupid at some point.

The Bulldogs enter three-quarter time with the lead but in some ways that’s worse. Ask Richmond fans; it’s the hope that kills you.

But something is happening. Sydney looks out on their feet while the Bulldogs seem to be gaining strength. You can see it across the ground. Hannebery is injured, the Bulldogs are running more freely. It appears the dam is about to break.

The Swans though may be out on their feet, but they’re very good, and twice they counter punch and pull within one point. These are two sides that don’t give up; you have to put the other one down.

The Bulldogs are the far more organised team as the fourth progresses, despite the Swans hanging in there.

Liam Picken kicks a goal on the run, and you can see Bulldogs fans begin to wonder if 62 years of being hopeless are about to be washed away in a sea of euphoria.

For me, the moment I knew, was when Tom Boyd kicks from 55m into an empty goal square and the ball bounces one way, then the other. Time stands still and then it bounces through. It’s destiny.

They’re now creating their own luck, and another Picken goal seals it.

It is pandemonium. People are crying, yelling, hugging, doing odd dances.

The siren goes, and the song is sung, and again and again.

My friend next to me is in tears. He is sobbing, and it is kind of awesome. We shake hands, and he hugs me. He hugs me for a long time.

Barely anyone leaves, Swans fans included. Everyone is doing the right thing, showing respect for what we have just seen, two teams give it their all and the breaking of a 62-year drought.

The medal presentation begins, and it’s great, but then Beveridge calls Bob Murphy onto the stage.

So much of footy these days is manufactured emotion, but this is raw, and people are getting even more emotional in the stands, something I wouldn’t have thought possible moments before. It couldn’t be more perfect if you’re a Bulldogs supporter.

It was a great moment, and as Easton Wood and Bob hoist the cup, the release is palpable.

As the Doggies begin to celebrate and circle the ground, a Swans supporter taps my Bulldogs neighbour on the shoulder and says “enjoy it mate; there’s nothing like it.”

Isn’t footy the best? I mean it just is.

They clasp hands and then the Swans fans leave. They are shattered. I know that feeling, and it’s not good. I don’t know what the Bulldogs are feeling, though, but it looks awesome.

What a day. It turns out that if you stick with something for sixty years, you can accomplish anything.

 

[Daksian]

Someone told me this appeared in the Age today. Funny if true.

Christ, if I wasn't actually at the game and saw it with my own eyes, I might have believed that.

Now, it's just friggin hilarious.

 

[Daksian]

Mmm he seems really up and about which is good. It'd be great PR for the AFL to just get it done and let it happen for cases like this.

Respectfully disagree. The moment was beautiful and perfect without turning it into a crusade. If Bob wants to give it back and Bevo agrees, that's between them. I don't think it should be used as debate fodder.

 

[stefoid]

You cant give your medal to someone and expect another one to be made, and Im sure Bev doesnt.

It would just cheapen the gesture anyway.

 

[compact72]

The Titus view.

http://titusoreily.com/the-monday-knee-jerk-reaction-afl-grand-final-2/

The Adelaide drive-by is a pearler.


The Monday Knee Jerk Reaction: AFL Grand Final


Footy is a passion, not some cold hearted, spread sheet dominated rational exercise.

On a Monday you want irrational reaction. You want emotion to trump reason.

What you really want is idiotic hysteria.

You’ve come to the right place.

Sydney Swans (10.7.67) v Western Bulldogs (13.11.89)

If you’re a Bulldogs supporter, this was not a dream, this actually happened.

Grand Final day is always the best, and it’s not just because you can drink in public before noon. OK, it’s mainly that, but a game like this one is pretty great too.

I arrived at the ground, and the atmosphere was just electric. For South Australian readers, electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and flow of electric charge. Electrical power is the backbone of modern industrial society apparently.

I take my seat, and there are Bulldogs supporters on either side of me and Swans fans behind me.

The Bulldogs fan to my left already looks like he’s run a marathon and the game is still an hour away. He is not coping.

I buy him a beer, partly because I’m a wonderful person but mostly because I worry he will die if he doesn’t relax a little. The beer cost me $80 if I remember correctly and pairs nicely with the $63 chips.

They have the lap of retiring players, and I see poor Ted Richards who never got to be coached by James Hird. I bet he’ll regret things not working out at the Bombers for the rest of his life.

The AFL entertainment is about to begin and is always an excellent way to find out who is still alive.

It turns out Sting is. Before he comes out, we get Vance Joy who does a perfectly reasonable job, not that anyone is paying much attention.

Then The Living End come out and play a song no one knows. They then play Prisoner of Society and people around me all say ‘oh, I vaguely remember that song’.

Sting is then announced and plays ‘Message In A Bottle’, ‘Every Breath You Take’ and ‘I Can’t Stop Thinking About You’ (yes I’ve never heard of that last one either).

These are not really songs to fire you up before the big game.

At least Sting did well enough that in years to come we will never remember he did this. You have to be really awful for us to remember you.

I get chatting to the Dogs supporter, and he tells me that if they lose, it will be the worst day of his life. I say ‘how could that be when you got to see Sting?’ He stares at me for a long time, and we don’t talk again until halftime.

While the AFL run the pre-game entertainment about as well as they run the draw, there’s one area they never fail in, acknowledging sponsors.

It’s a touching moment when an executive from Toyota gets a chance to toss the coin. Imagine wasting this once in a lifetime opportunity on some sick kid or other undeserving loser?

Of course, the crowd really gets going when the two teams come out. The banners going up and the club songs are about a billion times better than the pre-game entertainment.

The noise in the ground is insane. It’s louder than Adelaide Oval, something scientists and the Channel Seven commentary team previously thought impossible.

Finally, the game is underway, after a solid national anthem from the Bull sisters.

Tom Boyd drops an early mark and a Sydney supporter behind me yells ‘that a million dollars wasted’. It’s going to be a bad day for him, the supporter that is, not Tom, who is about to prove everyone wrong and earn his entire salary in one day.

Early on, neither side is allowing the other to do what they want to do. It’s like watching a bad marriage.

Both sides are so well drilled that there are actual tactics going on. They both know what the other is trying and are competent enough to stop it.

To borrow a phrase from arm wrestling, this is a real arm wrestle.

As we plunge into the second quarter, the crowd is riding every bump. There are a lot of turnovers, but that’s mainly because whoever has the ball is about to be smashed by three opponents.

The Bulldogs get away early, but the Swans then get moving.

In the high-pressure atmosphere of the second quarter, Josh Kennedy and Tom Mitchell start to thrive. The Swans appear to be getting on top and look to be taking a good lead into halftime.

My Bulldog friend next to me looks like someone having their second stroke of the day.

Lance Franklin is throwing himself around but an ankle injury from the first quarter seems to be hampering him a bit, that and the fact the Bulldogs defence is insane.

Just before halftime, though, the Bulldogs get a goal through Toby McLean, and we go into halftime with everyone in the stadium stressed out of their mind.

It’s more tense than when Gerard Whateley interviewed James Hird on AFL360.

I try to cheer my neighbour up by telling him not to worry, as I’ve never seen the Bulldogs lose a Grand Final. For the second time that day he gives me a look you usually reserve for a crazy person.

Conversation dries up pretty quickly after that.

The AFL’s running of the halftime sprint is won by an amateur, but it’s hard to tell as most of the other competitors aren’t exactly household names either.

If there’s a less exciting sporting competition than the halftime sprint I haven’t seen it, and yes I did watch that fast tennis thing.

The third quarter beings and Marcus Bontempelli starts to have real impact. His possessions are all quality. His use of the ball is way more important than someone having a tonne of ineffective possessions. He’s like a surgeon, just slicing the Swans open.

Tom Boyd is also playing the game of his life. He’s marking everything and kicking goals. It’s another reminder that football has been invented to make us all look stupid at some point.

The Bulldogs enter three-quarter time with the lead but in some ways that’s worse. Ask Richmond fans; it’s the hope that kills you.

But something is happening. Sydney looks out on their feet while the Bulldogs seem to be gaining strength. You can see it across the ground. Hannebery is injured, the Bulldogs are running more freely. It appears the dam is about to break.

The Swans though may be out on their feet, but they’re very good, and twice they counter punch and pull within one point. These are two sides that don’t give up; you have to put the other one down.

The Bulldogs are the far more organised team as the fourth progresses, despite the Swans hanging in there.

Liam Picken kicks a goal on the run, and you can see Bulldogs fans begin to wonder if 62 years of being hopeless are about to be washed away in a sea of euphoria.

For me, the moment I knew, was when Tom Boyd kicks from 55m into an empty goal square and the ball bounces one way, then the other. Time stands still and then it bounces through. It’s destiny.

They’re now creating their own luck, and another Picken goal seals it.

It is pandemonium. People are crying, yelling, hugging, doing odd dances.

The siren goes, and the song is sung, and again and again.

My friend next to me is in tears. He is sobbing, and it is kind of awesome. We shake hands, and he hugs me. He hugs me for a long time.

Barely anyone leaves, Swans fans included. Everyone is doing the right thing, showing respect for what we have just seen, two teams give it their all and the breaking of a 62-year drought.

The medal presentation begins, and it’s great, but then Beveridge calls Bob Murphy onto the stage.

So much of footy these days is manufactured emotion, but this is raw, and people are getting even more emotional in the stands, something I wouldn’t have thought possible moments before. It couldn’t be more perfect if you’re a Bulldogs supporter.

It was a great moment, and as Easton Wood and Bob hoist the cup, the release is palpable.

As the Doggies begin to celebrate and circle the ground, a Swans supporter taps my Bulldogs neighbour on the shoulder and says “enjoy it mate; there’s nothing like it.”

Isn’t footy the best? I mean it just is.

They clasp hands and then the Swans fans leave. They are shattered. I know that feeling, and it’s not good. I don’t know what the Bulldogs are feeling, though, but it looks awesome.

What a day. It turns out that if you stick with something for sixty years, you can accomplish anything.

Love Titus, has quality work and makes me laugh everytime

 

[BRWB]

JMac on trade radio in 10 minutes

 

[Doggstats]

Jmac about to be on AFL trade radio:

http://www.afl.com.au/AFL/live-radio-popup?id=52c7cc45