Grand Final in January

On Saturday, I marked the Grand Final experience for 2008, in the style to be expected without the threat of internal bleeding and death. And wow, that win just keeps getting better!

Melissa had ordered several slabs of special commemorative edition Carlton Draught just after the win, with team photo, the score, and Premiers 2008 plastered on it. With that, and a gathering of Hawks in our lounge room, we were set to do it all again.

Rick, Melissa, Jenny and I took in the build up on the Victory Pack DVD, and then selected the Triple M commentary, just to mix it up. Being assigned a player for the match lead to us really feeling how many touches Hodge, Ozbourne, Ellis and Sewell got respectively. Man, they were good!

Taking it all in again, we soaked in Croad limbing back up from the rooms with 5 minutes to go, high on painkillers after breaking his foot and missing much of the game. Watched him embrace and draw blood with many of his Premiership teammates, which those crutches. We loved the presentation, with Campbell's hug for the kid presenting him his medal - cute! The moment of the cup raising...and of course, Crawford's elation.

So absorbed, we jumped back to halftime, to watch that Third Quarter again...so, so good! What a memory!

A pub meal at The Empress to take the beery glow down a notch ended the day. And now, I think we are all keen for the 2009 season to start! Go Hawks!