(regretfully) Reminiscing as a Saints fan

by Joseph Walker

Carlton. I’ve always kind of respected them. Not warmed to them, but respected them. Maybe I feel sorry for them. Since they’ve had such a bad last decade.

Let me take you back to 2006. I was a 7 year old confident of my team, St Kilda. The weekend before we’d thrashed Carlton by something like 94 points. The Monday morning afterward I was chatting to my friend David about how Carlton had only 18 points at three quarter time! ‘We might even make the Grand Final now,’ I told him.

You’ll probably call me delirious. Remember, I was a 7 year old tortured by the preliminary finals that my team had lost over the past 2 years. In the first one, we’d just missed out by a goal. Both of the teams we’d lost to went on to win the grand final.

Fast forward to the Second Elimination Final of 2006. Demons v Saints. This game coincided with the school musical for WPS. Getting into my costume, I was obviously thinking of what was happening in the game. I wanted to find out, badly. Only a miracle could give me the scores.

And then it came. As I was walking out of the change rooms the show of Better Homes and Gardens on the TV  backstage randomly switched to the big game. It showed a replay of Dal Santo kicking the ball to Riewoldt for a goal. We were up! I was focused solely on that Television and not even a nudge from David could stop my eyes from being fixed on it. But then it switched back to Better Homes and Gardens.

The musical went smoothly, I did my part. Afterwards I rushed to my parents, anxiously yelling for the scores. They didn’t know. I sprinted to the car and tried to turn the radio on. I fiddled around before dad came, calmly turned the key and pressed the button. I stared at him blankly then listened intently, trying to dissect the final scores. (Hint: the drive home was filled with tears.) My sister hugged me, rubbing my arm, trying to calm me down. ‘We were supposed to make it to the Grand Final!’ I screamed in her ear as she told me that we at least made it into the finals.

A week or so later David left the school and moved to Broadmeadows. This made me the sole grade 1 St Kilda fan in WPS. If you don’t think that would torment me for the rest of my time in primary school, think back on St Kilda’s past two years on the footy field. Somebody at my school called the Saints, to put it in the nicest, homosexual pieces of poo that take too many steroids.

Now to come to Round 7, 2011. It’s Carlton v St Kilda. Monday night ‘blockbuster’ they say. I’m hoping for a win but I haven’t penciled one in. Carlton is a formidable opponent now and is a top four contender this year. Fev is gone and there is no gossip to speak about with the Blues now. It is a welcome change for them.

At around 10pm I rush in my pajamas to my bedroom where an alarm clock radio awaits me. I jump onto my bed’s pillow and sit down. I pick up the radio, I press the button, and I instantly hear the voice of Drew Morphett loud and clear in my ear. I pull the radio away from me, cringing. ‘He comes in…’ says Drew. ‘And… it… is a goal! They’ve pinched it! He’s been a great small forward for them this year and has just won them the game!’ ‘Milney?’ I think to myself. But then… ‘Andrew Walker has won the game for Carlton!’ I am confined to quietly sobbing into my blanket. But I don’t. ‘It was inevitable’ I think to myself. ‘We were always going to lose’. I put on my poker face and with my best effort manage a sly grin. I’m a St Kilda supporter, now I can manage a loss like this one. I sink into my doona, looking forward to round 24, the next time we play Carlton.

Reminiscing on your losses, but looking forward in hope. It is what comes with being a Saints fan.

About Joseph Walker

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