The horror

I'll be at work during the Fremantle game on Saturday. Undoubtedly a bad thing, but given the horrific memories that surround this fixture it might be beneficial to my mental health to stay well away.

The scene: Friday June 4th, 1999. The Melbourne Cricket Ground, Jolimont.

For some reason I was there two hours before the game. Due to my declared abstinence from drinking intoxicating substances before or during AFL matches (for obvious reasons. Have you ever sat next to me? And how bad do you think I'd be if I was off my face?) and a lack of funding precluding me from hanging out in the Ponsford Stand TAB facilities, so along with a couple of other Friday night football fans I was sitting near the fence watching the Dockers warm up. Two young girls are standing there perving on Tony Modra and Clive Waterhouse (probably just Tony actually..) and call him over for a photo. Suddenly a camera is thrust into my hand and I'm commanded by these random women to take a picture of them posing with Modra. The coversation went a little bit like this,

Adam: "Ok now.. You two smile, and you [pointing finger] don't kick ten goals"
Plenty of laughter all around. Hillarity ensues etc..

The game begins.. Modra runs riot and drills his tenth right in front of where I was sitting. Absolutely shattering. We lost by 54 points, but I took consolation in the fact that surely he'd go into the post-match press conference and give me a massive mention. Something along the lines of "I'd like to thank the dumbass kid who told me not to kick ten for inspiring this huge bag", but he didn't even mention it. What a piece of trash.

It was bad enough that we'd been beaten by the 1999 Fremantle Dockers, a side that featured Mark Gale and Andrew Shipp just because they had nautical names, and all sorts of duds like Ashley Prescott. But to cop that sort of beating and not even get a mention for my prophetic comments to the matchwinner? Shattering.

Almost as bad as the time I told Shane Woewodin that he was going to win the Brownlow after Round 9, he issued a frantic denial and then failed to mention me in his acceptance speech. Let's be frank that was the reason I didn't go wild when we traded him to Collingwood - I was still bitter.