Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
A tad dramatic? Hell no! I'm officially back in the desert at the moment and the fact I'm typing this deep in the heart of Freo is a testament to my ability to sleep through two alarms and a noisy bloke downstairs instead of getting my act somewhere near the airport long before dawn on a Monday. Nothing more, nothing less.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx07A8dZAPU&feature=related]
So, here it comes again. The end. One more game but, if we look a little deeper into it, from a weird angle and with the sun in our eyes, we might discern something a little more than just the last game of another disappointing season. We can see a changing of the guard. And the guardhouse. And whatever it was they were guarding. There's an element of madness present, of course. Isn't there always?
It started well enough. We ventured off into enemy territory and, after the relative peace and calm of another lazy sun soaked summer, fought out a close loss with a foe who would, as the season progressed, resemble Charlie in so many ways it couldn't have been scripted. From there on in, it just went massively pear shaped, didn't it? We bombed ourselves silly, missed our targets and went AWOL at odd moments. As far as a concerted military-precise operation went, it wasn't.
As if that wasn't bad enough, we also had to contend with the inevitable media speculation about players, their worth and the over-riding imperative that they should retire or be delisted. If we managed our list the way the media at large suggest we should, we wouldn't have a list. Some of the bleaters around still shouting that so and so should be delisted might want to have a headcount first, just to make sure we have enough players left... know what I mean? Sure, deal, trade, recruit and draft all you want... but it has to be out there to grab it and sometimes there ain't nuthin' out there Sarge, but the wind in the tree tops and your own fear staring back at you from the green depths of the jungle, out there where life begins and ends, where we all came from and where we all have to go back to...
oops, sorry. That happens sometimes. Where was... ok, players leaving. The first to go, quietly into the night with no fanfare was Matty Carr. We forged onwards upriver but the further we went, the faster came the falling bodies, Peter Bell, Soreknee McManus, HeathBlack and finally Mark Johnson... demonstrating a chivalry and camaraderie for his team-mates out of proportion for his short time in our midst in his laying down of weapons and altruistic simplifying of a team list with one less M Johnson to worry about through his actions.
It hasn't ended there, either... Schwabby's headed back to Melbourne to be a proper Dad and good on him for that, while today we hear that Robert Shaw is likewise headed back home to family after spending 3 years with us here, upriver, behind the lines on a mission from hell but we wouldn't have it any other way because every minute we spend back there in Saigon means Charlie's out there, getting stronger...
I'm getting twitchy already and this season isn't even over yet. Twitchy, as in chomping down hot coals twitchy. Twitchy, as in you couldn't drink this much coffee and live, son, but come on in and try it out anyway.
We've got one more game left. I won't be here for it, I'm upriver again like Marlow on some quest that never gets defined properly but the game is a chance for some of the twisted strands of this season to be rewoven into some semblance of order. Personally, I'd like to see us deliver some sort of whupass on the Pies, just because it's them... and for the sake of decency. No other club has had so many serious off field incidents in one season since... well, you know who I mean, yet, nothing from the AwFL about sanctions against Collingwood for bringing the game into disrepute. We shouldn't be surprised, the AwFL has been encouraging their supporters for years in allowing that fat gold clad buffoon into games and onto TV, while as for Joffa, the less said the better.
Still, it's not about them, it's about us. In among the mire of a year gone bad and the sadness or regret over farewelling favourite players without having achieved major success, we find the bright glint of new beginnings and fresh promise. We look to be in good hands although the drafting and trading period this year will be immense for us going forwards.
In other words, we find our hearts in the darkness. Eat your heart out, William Conrad.
As an aside, in closing, it might alarm some and delight others, while the majority will be superbly indifferent, but if work can find someone to do whatever it is I do, I'm off for a holiday later this year, in Laos. Upriver.