Timothy Reddan-A'Blew

Not quite 'Saturday morning': Yesterday - too late to post then about it before the power went out and my internet access with it - I had, for the first time since '25/9', a flash of the pleasant feeling of Friday expectation of footy. Then I snapped back to October. Had it been real, we'd certainly have been on the teev. And I think it means I'm ready for 2022! Though I'm not letting go of 2021 just yet...

Earlier, somewhere in the mass of other threads and posts since '25/9', I did. Or rather, I described my thought, watching in real time on the night, that it had not travelled 15 but that I later realised, after the multiple replay binge, that during the change in camera angle Brayshaw added another 5 metres with his run and dive, from where he'd called. In that post I also posed that Bowey was intending to kick to the Brown/Daniel mismatch (equally demonstrating the smarts discussed here) to which someone suggested (probably quite rightly, and even better demonstrating the smarts) he was kicking to the space in front of it. Per the discussion above, I'm in the school of Brayshaw's raised - not pointing - arm, and whatever call went with it, having been for the handball. Maybe someone will ask them one day?!

Still up here (my even more modest pre-match display had babies at 3am on the morning of the26th...). I believe the circumstances demand they remain up for 57 days... At least.

There's no question.

As with the post-game thread, posters on this thread to date - too many to acknowledge individually - please accept this 👍from me. Pretty much every day I have a flash of clarity, that my 'belief' that there would be another premiership in the relatively few years remaining of my lifetime was a self-protective pretense, not supported in hindsight by any real evidence and shadowed by a niggle that the reality was that there would not be another. Every year there was a team, or more, better destined than us. But then follows the realisation that it did happen. It is a thing of wonder that something bad, lurking soooo long at one's core, is just no longer there.

I've got to agree, this fella's expression is wonderfully raw and expressive. Though(?) - and this has been sitting with me since first viewing, on the night - looking at his mannerisms, I'm thinking it comes from some degree of (and I apologise for the poor choice of words available to me) disability. Others, better experienced to consider this, may have a more informed and nuanced view? It is one of the images of the night for me.

Let himself down here: all he had for it was "What a kick", in the background...

😋,😋,😋 Then 😋,😋 Then 😋! 😋! 😋!

Check out the Gary Lyon pre-GF interview with Simon on the Club's website. Is he the right guy? Hell, yeah! (p.s. Don't mind the nature and delivery of 'Gaz's' questioning either - very respectful and intuitive of what SG has meant to what has unfolded...)

Check out Lauren Magee's day in quarantine on the club's website. Enjoy the insight, Lauren? Sure did! Dedication, good humour, and remarkable tolerance to lukewarm styrofoamed sustenance. Looking forward to you smashing it this season, Lauren (our women's Jake Bowey!)

My 👍 is soooo tired...

This was his second goal, I think?

I'm inclined to agree, Jontee (and others) but I realise I'm seeing it from the perspective of an old fart whose work life was generally one of obligation. It's entirely likely the boys are doing what youngsters, used to being very fit, would be doing anyway while 'on holiday' (at least when the tempting alternative of 'seeing the world' is off the agenda!)

Mods, could the beer brand battle go to another thread? (maybe No T$ No B$? - give the bananas a shake!) Whenever this thread comes back to the top I think an announcement's been made!

Did it work, old dee? 😉

The Club is evidently publicly happy with it, given the 'Training Gallery' on the website (though you could be forgiven for thinking only Fritsch and Smith had 'permission'...)

I'm looking forward to this moving from annoying to just wannabe at their trek to the mystery that is Casey in 2022.

Words that are unfolding for me as these Tales unfold are quietness, humility, respect, wonder, embrace. What have others got? Maybe it's the 57 years - we'll see how they are after next year's premiership😉 - but I can't help thinking these boys stand apart for the character of their reflection, from the other teams who have been able to reflect on a premiership.

Snap, Brother! (see my post on the '3 goals in 32 seconds - the quickest 3 goals ever?' thread in Week One of our 'Bran Nu Dae' (aka 28/9)). As I incorrectly observed then, it was 'a beautiful tableaux', which I now correct to 'tableau'. Mind you, 25/9 held 'beautiful tableaux' aplenty!

MCG? Non-negotiable.

Source? (Indeed; GO DEES)

Another 'sliding doors' moment: Had it reached Brown, would he have converted, from the tighter angle? With the benefit of (much-rehearsed!) hindsight, Angus was never going to miss. While Ben...

@binman, @daisycutter, @John Crow Batty, et al, Just watched Haymes's 'All Of The Melbourne Goals' again (just 'cos we can, can't we?!) I'm now calling 'Mark'. Split-second thinker that he is, I reckon he turned and saw the then empty goal square, knew he had momentum in the right direction, looping around on his right, and knew he could at least bounce it through. (As to the possibility of 'touched', the Dogs player 5m from Salem certainly was trying, with an arm upwardly very outstretched, but the lack of umpire and Ch.7 response is telling) And on his other goal (re my query on behind-the-goals vision of it) I see now that he turns away from the kick and to the crowd before it's even half way to the (dead centre of!) the goals. Maybe a glance over the shoulder but, wow... Finally (yeah, right...) I've thought Bowey's kick* to Brayshaw was doubtfully 15m but I've come to realise that might have been the case as the kick was released but, during the camera angle change, Angus made, then dived, a good extra 5m. Ditto, wow... (*Also, I've been thinking Bowey's was another of the shortfall kicks in that passage; I reckon he was trying to spot up the mismatch between Brown and Daniel just past where Angus marked?)

@CHF (c.c. @Jontee) I missed it originally (you leave Demonland for half a day and this thread is half a dozen pages closer to 2022...) so belated thanks for your observations about the 'bottom (hah!) six'. We have such a Team!

Apologies, good sir, but it's yet another gift of this amazing team/year that we can make cheeky confident upgrades to others' posts. finish