CSM: Chapter 8.
8. Cause and effect. Going into any new season, there’s always a sense of optimism. Even if you’re the worst possible team, you can always hope that things will get better. That mightn’t actually be the case, or the season might quickly disabuse you of that notion, but initially your expectations are pristine. When you’re a grand finalist – even a pummelled grand finalist – the hope burgeons. (Well, usually.) You know you’re thereabouts. But for a bit more luck, an absence of injuries, younger players improving, and an injection of new talent, you have all the ingredients which suggest that perhaps, just perhaps, you might be able to go…
CSM: Chapter 7.
7. Trading: Part 1. About a week after the grand final, the SANFL (South Australian National Football League) had their grand final: Port Adelaide versus Norwood. Port Adelaide were the SANFL’s version of Collingwood, only successful. They regularly got to grand finals and regularly won them, whether they were the favourites or the underdogs. Nobody else came close to them for flags in the SANFL. I often wondered what that would be like. If Collingwood were even below average – had converted only forty per cent of their grand final appearances – they’d still be miles ahead of any of their rivals. Not so. Port, like Collingwood, wore black and…