thirty-one

Umpires could probably have a longer career than players - they need mental sharps and physical fitness and these can be maintained much longer since they don't take the battering that players do. At a much lower level - local leagues - my brother in law was umpiring into his 70s until a heart incident brought that to a stop. (He was fine after a stent.)

So excited! All the players I read about, well a bunch of the players I've read about, actually running around and playing footy in the 64 GF! I had Mum's scrapbooks (which I gave to the club, they better still have them!) and pored through them, reliving past glories that I'd never seen since I was born after the 12th flag.

Actually, while I think of it, it's interesting to see the moves that they were doing at training in January and (early) Feb are starting to pull together. Really interesting. And Narrm is winning games! GO NARRM!

This is a very good way to start my Sunday in Seattle. I can watch the game in full some time later. So good to see the lads happy - Clarry was going off and Trac is so focused these days. GO DEES!

I am loving a pic I saw on a Fox footy post on the Borg. Alas I can't share the pic because I cannot make it smaller than a megabyte without losing a lot of detail. They are clearly happy, a few are enjoying a frothie (as I hear they are called these days, not a coldie) and some either about to shower or just out of the shower. They look like a close bunch.

I thought I was seeing things when ?Chin? kicked a goal and Kolt runs up to him and puckers up. And then late in the game, another pucker up after a goal. (I now finally have access to Watch AFL after the club and Watch AFL handpassed my lack of access between each other like a hot potato, so I can go watch the rest of the Richmond game at my leisure. And watch for those kisses.)

GUILTY as charged, yer 'onour. Not that I've actually managed to see much play this year as Watch AFL and I are having Words - my voucher number doesn't work and I can only watch because some kind Demonlander has loaned me their credentials, but I don't want to rely on that because yannow I paid for a digital membership for myself.... Anyway, GO DEES! I'm off to bed. It's after midnight here and I just can't stay up until 3 or 4am any more. Wrecks me the next day.

I was thinking your Demon Army socks will be banished to the back of the sock drawer. Yay lucky Dees socks!

Yay for the upgrade, well done Andy and Nasher. Dark mode is very pretty - navy and red.

Pluckafrigging duck. We had our chances, almost got there....

Thanks for the offer. I've dug through my email (glob there's a lot of rubbish in it) and i can't find it. Given it was in December (when I was in Japan, then Oz and super busy and you can't activate the membership within Oz anyway), it could've gone into the old spam box or promotions/socials (which I nuke quite often) and it's gone. I'll just have to wait until Monday Oz time.

Last year I got the code and everything was fine, but for this season they told me the code they sent me wouldn't work and yeah, they didn't even send it! Not paying USD182 when I've already got a digital membership.... Anyway nice to "See" another Dees fan overseas. Guess I could try listening on streaming radio.

Bah humbug, can't even watch the game on the telly, paid for a watchafl membership (plus a regular one) and the club didn't send me a valid activation code. And I've only just found this out. Someone in the membership dept is going to discover a very grumpy email from me on Monday.

Rain wouldn't keep this Melburnian Seattleite away! Living in Seattle has taught me how to deal with rain. (Living in Melbourne didn't....) However there's the little matter of noone has developed a teleporter yet so I'm stuck here for the nonce and only able to watch on the tv.

Wow, that sounds intense! I had to look things up. You are there trying to support refugees in camps, correct?

Thanks for the uh update, Andy. Mojo for getting everythign up and running again without many snafus.

If Dogga came back, he can't have #6 back. I seem to have a thing for whoever's in #6. (Who had it before Dogga?)

He walked happily in the Midsumma parade with BBB, Hester and the Ruby Demons. He seems like a really nice bloke from the little I've had to do with him. He looks strong and fit.

Well I'm not there for starters. I'm now a long long way away. I told Max that we'd better have a good season, I want to see him in September.

Cries. I'm going to miss training tomorrow and there looks like there's no more open sessions before I go back to Seattle. (Literally cries. I was hanging on seeing two more sessions before I leave.)

I saw him talking to a ?trainer? on Wednesday, saying he was feeling a hammy whilst poking at a spot right under his buttock. "A bit of hamstring awareness" I thought to myself but apparently it is a little bit more than that. Didn't mention it at the time because we had other excitement going on plus there was no indication that it was anything at that point.

Roo tackled Max at one point, brought him to the ground and held him there, showing a bit of aggro. Bill Laurie outran Clarrie at one point, which rather surprised me, not that Clarrie is really fast but I didn't think Laurie was either, and also laid a ferocious tackle on ?Clarrie?

In cleaning out the attic, I'm finding all sorts of gems that I've been lugging around since the late 90s when the parental home was sold. This is a goody! The menu that my mum must've gotten signed. She was passionate about the Dees but I'm not sure she ever saw a live match after they sacked Smithy. I can even read most of the signatures, which would be rare these days.

Look at that coach running around having fun. He looks as fit as the boys.

Something I realised - Clarrie doesn't have his shoulder strapped any more. How long was it strapped for? When did the strapping disappear? Also, in the runs back and forth at the end of training, he was not the fastest in the first two or three but by the last one (after a bunch had dropped out), he led the pack. Also I sorta wonder that if some of the guys were pretty knocked around by the heat on Monday - it was freaking hot. I see Tmac was back in full training on Friday.