Haidee and I took our old neighbors to Timothy O’Tooles, a pub in downtown Chicago, where a couple of Americans who have never been to Australia before, but love the footy, booked a private room and invited anyone who was interested to watch. There were about 20 people there, mostly Geelong supporters, but the one Hawks supporter who was there was obnoxious enough to make up for it. No doubt there were some funny umpiring decisions in the first half, but his commentary and tirade against the umps made me feel like I was in the MCG again! The game started at 11:30 pm Chicago time and ended close to 3am. What made the pain worse was that I had to lecture at 9am Saturday morning. And all the students were late so I was fuming.

As far as the game went, it was like I was watching a game of the cats from years ago. You all remember the ones when they fluffed around with the ball, couldn’t hit their targets and couldn’t kick straight. It felt like we really redeemed ourselves last year and showed we weren’t mucking around any more…suddenly everyone loved the Cats! From what I’ve been reading online, the handbag jibes are back….bastards.

I didn’t get to read a lot through the week before the GF, but from what I read, Geelong’s win was a fore-gone conclusion. I never like that talk, and the weekend’s performance showed why. I sure hope Mark Thompson decides to include a plan B into the training…you know, what happens if things aren’t going so well and we are actually losing?

At least they will remember how losing feels next year, and should be hungrier than ever to win the next one.