NO ONE really cares about pre-season football, do they? Just like no one really wants to be premiers in March, a full six months before the business end of the proper season.
No one, that is, except the success-starved Western Bulldogs and their loyal legion of long-suffering fans on the eve of the NAB Cup grand final.
It has been 40 years since the Doggies last contested a grand final of any description, and even the night trophy they raised in 1970 was something of a loser’s cup, awarded to the winner of an end-of-season tournament between the eight clubs that didn’t make the VFL finals that year.
So you might forgive me for getting just a tiny bit excited about the prospect of seeing the Dogs run out on to Etihad Stadium tonight for a game offering sparkling silverware and early bragging rights to the victors.
I was born in 1970, so I’ve never experienced my team making it this far before, either in pre-season or home-and-away competition.
In the past, I’ve had a simple philosophy for footy contests at this time of year - if we win, we’re taking it very seriously but if we lose, it’s merely a practice match.
Needless to say, I’ve watched plenty of pre-season practice games.
But this year it’s different.
We have a genuine tall full forward and a genuine reason to feel optimistic that perhaps it might be our turn to break a premiership drought that stretches way back to 1954.
We shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves, though, so that’s why I’m taking it just one week at a time namely, tonight’s showdown with St Kilda.
I have my lucky socks washed, dried and laid out on my dresser ready to wear; my daughter has her inflatable ‘Go Dogs’ paw blown up, packed and ready to wave; my mum is also raring to go, and probably hasn’t unpacked her footy bag from last week in case all our good fortune falls out.
Even my son, who doesn’t particularly like footy that much but comes along to keep me happy, has told one of his best friends he’ll miss the end of a much-anticipated birthday party.
“I have to leave early to go to maybe the only Bulldogs grand final in my life,” he emailed his mate this week, showing true understanding of what it can be like to follow the Doggies.
I guess that pessimism has rubbed off from his relatives after many preliminary final letdowns.
Mind you, winning the pre-season competition is no guarantee of September success.
Last year, Geelong became only the third team behind Essendon and Hawthorn to achieve the premiership double.
And who could forget Carlton’s pre-season victories in 2005 and 2007 - they went on to finish last and second last in those years.
But at this stage of proceedings, I’d be willing to take a grand final win in whatever form it was offered . . . for now, anyway.
St Kilda fans, who have been waiting since 1966 to raise the AFL Premiership Cup aloft, have won the pre-season competition three times in the past 14 years, most recently in 2008.
So I’m guessing their eyes are firmly focused on the main prize and they have a little less at stake in this NAB Cup clash. (At least, I’m hoping that’s the case.)
The coaches are playing it super-cool, indicating it would be nice to win but there won’t be too many tears shed by the loser.
Maybe not in the coach’s box, but I can guarantee you there will be plenty of raw emotion in the crowd if the scoreboard is not in the Doggies’ favour when the final siren sounds.
To put it mildly, we’re sick of wearing the loser’s jumper and we’re desperate to be premiers, even if it’s only what many people refer to as Mickey Mouse football.
Ironically, tomorrow’s game comes exactly a year to the day after the death of my grandmother, who was the matriarch of our family dynasty of (mostly) Bulldog supporters.
About 15 or so of her descendants will be there at the match, and we’ll all be sitting together up on level three, just as we do each week throughout the regular season.
This time, we’ll be reminiscing during the breaks, mixing our memories of Grandma in with our regular quarter-by-quarter reviews of the state of play and in-depth discussions of how the umpires are crucifying us, again. (And no doubt she’d agree with us on that score.)
There’s probably no place we’d rather be on what would otherwise be a solemn day for us.
Our fingers and toes are crossed in the hope that on the anniversary of losing someone we loved so much, we might finally end up on the winner’s list and have a special reason to celebrate.
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