Day 5 - My favorite memory

Ok, so many memories, and favorites for so many different reasons.

I could post my wedding photo, first pics taken with my beautiful new born children, my school days, my birthdays, my holidays - the list goes on and on and on and on... (sorry, got hijacked by Glee for a second and almost broke into Don't Stop Believing by Journey!)

But if I have to pick a moment without making either of my kids think they're my favorite, and a moment that made me absolutely the proudest and happiest I have ever been, well here it is...

This is the moment the siren sounded at the end of the 2001 AFL Grand Final.  Alistair Lynch is the man with the ball.

My dad, uncle, brother-in-law, son and I had driven down to Melbourne for the game.  It was the year Ansett collapsed, so we had a great road trip down the Newell Highway discovering the small towns of NSW and Victoria along the way. 

I remember being so happy just to be at the G for a grand final.  The fact that my team was one of the teams playing was an added bonus.  We were never meant to win.  We may have earned our place in the final, but Essendon were the power team, and they were easily the favorites in the lead up to the game.  Fortunately for us, no one told Brisbane that.  It was a great game, and we met some really interesting folk along the way. 

Every Essendon fan wanted to chip us - either for the fact that we had merged with Fitzroy and jumped on the band wagon when we began to win, or for the fact that our fabulous full forward (Lynchy) was a drug cheat who had gotten away with taking a banned substance (Lynchy had CFS and one of his medications turned out to be a problem with the AFL).  Amazing how hitting the lead and staying there silenced so many of them that day.

Winning was incomprehensible, but win we did.  It was the best feeling.  I'd been there through the worst - wooden spooners, bad news Bears, the merger - so to be there at their best was the most amazing reward for loyalty to my club.

This was the first of a four year tradition for the last weekend in September for my dad and I.  The first three years were great - we won.  The last year would easily fit into my worst memory ever top ten!  Longest drive home from Melbourne ever!