I’m feeling shaky. No – not about the Tiges, I have tipped us objectively to win the 2018 flag. No reason to think we can’t get over Carlton on Thursday night.
But I think I’ve got First Round Fever – is that a known diagnosed condition? I have been starving for a feed of Richmond. I have had simultaneously too much and not enough footy.
The AFL’s attempt to fill the depth and width of the sporting landscape like expanding foam has just been exhausting over the summer. Surprisingly little of that foam was expended promoting AFLW, but there were endless thought bubbles, puff pieces, and even an entire puff competition in AFLX. Surely something is wrong when you have symptoms of a football OD in January.
On the Richmond front I have been reading and re-reading Konrad Marshall’s Yellow and Black, watching and re-watching the finals, listening to the radio calls over and over while mowing the lawn and walking to work. And last week we all saw Peter Dickson’s Break The Fall which really sharpened that feeling of having lived through a really amazing moment for Richmond.
But I haven’t been hoovering up every bit of pre-season Tiges news or madly buying premiership memorabilia or sketching out projected tattoos. I have really been trying to have an off-season.
On top of First Round Fever I am a bundle of nerves just because I am coming over for the premiership flag unfurling, bringing my sons, and making these sorts of plans turns me to jelly. Plain anxiety.
Just getting the boys from schools, to the airport, remembering all the pieces of paper I need to get us from home into the MCG, and locating Dugald and Clare, our hosts at the game. Then there’s the social side – so many people I know online and in real life will be at the game. I would love to get around and see everyone at half time. But I don’t want to misplace the boys (one of whom doesn’t even like footy) or miss a quarter stuck in a queue. After the game we need to catch up with our overnight hosts Nuning and Andy and hopefully have time for a chat with them before bedtime. Then up 6, taxi to airport, fly home and drop kids back at schools.
I know for most people this kind of thing is a snap – not me. Now I have booked the Skybus in and a taxi back out again, printed all the tickets and packed a bag I am starting to feel more normal and actually anticipate the game.
I hope everyone has a great night at the G or at home, and we have settled it by three quarter time. Go TIGES.