I don’t want to talk about it, think about it, or mention it yet that is all I can think about.
Collingwood in September.
My somewhat schizophrenic range of thoughts on this issue can be highlighted in various You Tube videos.
One minute I have images like this in my head –
And this –
And I can even go this far back (mum… I thought dad would love this…)–
But then this comes along –
And this kind of rubbish –
And yes – even this disgrace –
But then I think back to this –
This is going around in my head 24/7 and this is NOT healthy in the slightest. I can hardly concentrate on anything and my brain is truly exhausted. Surprisingly, Bill is putting up with these antics swimmingly well and is even even on the Didak bandwagon!
To save me explaining 50 million times over to everyone who asks, there is a plan in place for whatever may happen.
* As a Legends Member, if Collingwood makes the Grand Final I am guaranteed a seat. So yes, I have a ticket and I don’t have to worry about that.
* As we have done all season, the only way we can experience and of the finals games is through listening to the radio live streaming over the internet. Sometimes someone in rural Australia will put their live feed up of the game over the internet but this has only happened twice this year. Our building would not grant us access to Direct TV which meant we could not get Setanta Sports that would show a few AFL games each week. Since then, there has been a huge fallout of AFL coverage in the USA recently (Setanta are no longer showing it) and the Australian Bar in Midtown will be trying to deal with these broadcasts accordingly. Some live coverage can be had through the ESPN 360 website but our internet provider is not one the providers that ESPN deals with. Basically everything here sucks with AFL coverage and the AFL just continue to show how inept they are when negotiating international broadcasting licenses. They are useless. JUST PUT THE LIVE STREAMS UP ON THE WEBSITE AS A SERVICE TO OVERSEAS SUPPORTERS. The AFL website is managed by Bigpond and they won’t run a live stream of a game. Absolute disgrace. So I am more than content to sit in my jammies, in the dark at ungodly weekend hours and listen to the MMM or 774 broadcast. (As a note regarding this the AFL are so far behind they don’t even provide direct streaming for Macs… what is this? 1997? So I use a freeware media player program that allows me to stream the AFL on the Mac.)
* Indeed, I have flights booked. This means I depart on Saturday September 19th, arrive in Melbourne on the Monday morning and then return to New York on Tuesday September 30th, back to work on the 31st. Let us not even think about what this is going to do to my body clock! If we make the Preliminary Final and play on the Saturday afternoon that game will finish at about 3.30am here in New York. If we win that game, at 3.30pm that same day I will have to be on my way to the airport. If we play a Friday night Prelim, then that gives me a bit more time to comprehend what will be happening.
* If we don’t make it, my flight will not be wasted. It will instead go towards the inaugural Bill & Jenelle trip to Australia in April next year.
* If we make the Grand Final I will be at the last training session on the Thursday, at the Grand Final parade and cup presentation on the Friday and then, the game on the Saturday.
The only last thing that I think of in this situation is a video that Favs from Nick’s Collingwood Board put together for the finals last year, the time has come to make things right Pies!