Good old days at Waverley.  

Although I have been fortunate enough to witness several Hawthorn grand finals, I still think back to the days when Hawthorn were a struggling club, with very few members, a few ageing stars and a very exciting youngster named Shane, with fond memories.

My best mate Steve and I would turn up rain, hail or sleet (Which Waverley would normally serve up) and take our seats in the Hawthorn reserved seats section on the freeway side of the ground, which was lucky, because your seats had a chance to dry out from the week before being that the sun at least shined on that side of the ground (occasionally). 

But my story is mainly regarding a day in 1999, which just happens to be the year that the youngster named Shane took the reins of his club and leading by example took out footballs highest individual honour (the Brownlow) and held aloft a piece of silverware not quite as good as the last one in 1991, but a piece of silverware no less (remember the Ansett cup).

The game was against a very good side in St Kilda and by half time, roughly ten goals down, Steve and I were discussing whether we beat the car park crush and leave early. Luckily we decided that if the Saints kicked the next goal we would go. They didn't and by three quarter time we were discussing that at least we had chipped away at the 63 point margin and weren't going to be flogged.

Fifteen minutes after that, Hawthorn hit the front and the wave of emotion that rolled through the stand was the most amazing feeling I have ever experienced at the football (I didn't go to the ‘87 grand final). People were jumping for joy, high-fiving each other and generally going off tap, even Steve had vacated his seat and was hugging total strangers in the next bay. At the final siren we had stretched the lead to 13 points, and the song was sung with some gusto that day.

There have been other games where I have felt similar emotions, most notably Ben Dixon’s goal after the siren against Carlton and the sealer from Buddy against Adelaide in 2007. And for raw emotion the line in the sand game, but nothing sticks in my memory more than that game in 1999 at the time the best comeback in the history of the game.

Thank you  (Go Hawks)