Red and Bluebeard

It is often said that a person's true character is revealed when the chips are down, not when times are good. This finals campaign is clearly bittersweet for Chunk, who would love as an individual to be part of the 22, but who also embodies the 'team first' mantra. Faced with a difficult decision like this, he has decided to be with his family, despite that meaning it will snuff out any (admittedly small) chance of playing in a Grand Final (and unlike our last two attempts, starting as favourite). True to what is right until the end, no matter what the individual cost --- which is nothing other than exactly what we have come to expect from him. If this is the end, then it is true to the red-and-blue heart beat that he has always shown. Take a bow, Nathan Jones.

The curse is over. Our time is now.

I like it! If we break the curse, then the curse is real (and broken). If we don't, then it is not real anyway ... :-)

Well, blow me down. How did we get here? Am I going to wake up and think this is all a dream? Does the activity on this thread take a big dive when we win big games? And what is the current price of bananas?

Tingly was misleading as well. Chunk has clearly played the most games in guernsey 2, but that is not the number that put Tingay in the team ...

6 Oliver 5 Harmes 4 Petracca 3 Gawn 2 Jackson 1 Petty -100 Lightning

I like it. So we should have a memorial walk lined with tulips from AAMI stadium to Gosch's paddock named the Flower Walk?

Like Hawthorn in 1990? Then they were the reigning two-time premiers. We won both matches.

My memory is that it was around for a long time before that, at least back to the 1950s. I recall going to the game in the 1970s, and at some point moved away from the QB date (no doubt mirroring our fortunes as a club), probably in the late 70s or 80s. Reviving it sporadically in the 1990s, as above, seems consistent with my memories.

Things really are going to pot!

Much water has passed under various bridges in the past few years. But you know thing are really getting surreal when we play the filth on QB at the SCG. We can write off last year as a weird aberration on all sort of fronts, but in a vaguely normal year like this one, this coming match will always feel like an asterisk in the historical record. Banana smoothie, anyone?

It is an old cliche that a team of champions will never beat a champion team. I think we are seeing the truth of that this season. We do have some absolute champion players out there, but the system and roles we have in place make the process just work whatever the opposition may do. Who would have thought we would have outrun Brisbane without our best runner (Langdon?) Or had Ben Brown in the VFL at the halfway mark of the season? This is simply the best TEAM we have seen, ie having well-defined roles, system and structures. It is almost a thing of beauty to watch the opposite switch sides of the ground and see how well organised our defence is. Getting that all happening together takes a combination of star players, maturity, fitness, and a spread of player types, but it won't come together without the right understand of what makes a team.

Very sorry to hear this. My condolences to you and your family. Lovely story about the ladder, which I am sure is one of many treasured memories. RIP.

So we should thank him?

Eddie who?

DF, you must be in a dark place to even consider such a horrendous thought. You need some penance, I think!

Sounds like the typical day after our games in 2020 ...

That is harsh, DF. That sounds more like eternity in the seventh circle of hell ...

Don't put the Moz-art on us

You have to be Josquin.

No but I am not keeping a Tallis

You can't get a Verdi in edgeways on this thread ... maybe I need to make some overtures.

Have I OD'd OD? O Dear! ??

Too many is not enough!

They probably said the same about Dunkirk ...