Only one sport has followed me throughout my life and all the way to Canberra, and that is Australian Rules Football. I do so love my footy. It was almost as hard to leave Melbourne knowing I'd miss the footy as it was leaving my friends and family!! So as mentioned in previous posts, I am an avid Collingwood supporter (some might say avid is too mild a word, perhaps crazed or fanatical might be more apt). To be a Collingwood fan is to have a very thick hide as we are constantly teased and hassled and therefore we are forced to become even more "one-eyed". When I was 14 I remember vividly when Collingwood drew with North Melbourne in the grand final and then lost in the replay. I was devastated. Years and years passed, years where I was in the cheer squad and when I attended every match and years when we made it to the Grand Final and heartbreakingly lost, earning us the label of "Colliwobbles".
In 1990 I was managing a retail travel agency in Melbourne for two of the worst bosses you could imagine. I liken them to abusive husbands. They treated us like crap, verbally abusing us, telling us we were worthless, lucky to have a job, expecting us to work ridiculous unpaid hours and the what they DID pay us was (as I eventually found out) so far under the market rate it was ridiculous. But just as I would decide to leave, or if I spoke up and made my feelings known, they would shower us with luxurious gifts. They were millionaires and members of every sporting association, they owned a huge mansion (with an indoor heated swimming pool with diving board, and "guest wings" for visitors) and collected priceless wines. They would send limos to pick us up and take us all to the Oaks Day at Flemington (during the Melbourne Cup carnival), give us tickets for the ballet or the tennis, hold lavish birthday parties in expensive restaurants with their own wines (limos again of course). All this of course would make us feel guilty and unappreciative and so the cycle would continue. In 1991 I had finally had enough after another abusive incident and I left. Best thing I ever did, my life went from strength to strength after that, as did my career.
But I digress! They were also MCG members and Golden Cat members of the Geelong Football Club. Geelong were not in the finals in 1990 but Collingwood was so they gave me their 4 tickets for each final, including the preliminary final replay between Collingwood and West Coast, and 2 tickets for the Grand Final. Which we won. It was truly one of the most amazing days of my life, I will never forget it, and it made all the crap I went through working for those people worth it to have those tickets!
Later, the club held a family day at Victoria Park where Lou Richards buried the Colliwobbles and I took Mum. We had a great day and we had our photo taken with the Premiership Cup. This photo has pride of place at my house (much to my non-football-loving partner's disgust!).
This year, twenty years later, we made the Grand Final again. Taylor and I decided to drive down to stay with my family and watch the game (on TV), while Ronin and Chris had a boys weekend in Sydney. It was great to watch the match with my family and friends. At the end, as the siren blew, the scores were level and for only the third time in history the Grand Final ended in a draw! This meant a replay the following week. It was too far to drive down again so the second time I watched it at home, pretty much alone, decked in my team colours, with my Collingwood cupcakes, hand delivered by the lovely Ainslee. And we won! So I am a very happy girl and counting down the days til the 2011 season when it can all start again!
So I bet some of you didn't know all that about me eh? LOL!
Cheers,
Tracey xx
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