I watched Richmond narrowly beat Essendon tonight on TV, enthralled till to the end, and embarrassing as it sounds, my passion exploded into a volley of repeated fist punches into the air. The dogs were looking at me like I was an idiot. It’s been so long since I have felt this way about footy – I really thought that I would never be as passionate about my team as I used to be in the mid-1990’s, when I even wore yellow and black jocks to games as good luck. To me, the game itself has become more clinical and predictable nowdays, and until recently it had got to the point where I just didn’t bother following it much. In the last two weeks they happened to be on TV, and I noticed that I had enjoyed watching the boys play – it seemed they were just going hell for leather and running and risking it all. It’s the same reason I used to love watching Bulldogs games – because it was just attack, attack and more attack. It dawned on me that for 5+ years, we’ve had coaches that were sceptical of the team skill level, and who opted for an extremely defensive game plan. We all know where that got Richmond. So, it’s like I’m watching a whole new team who are making it fun and exciting again. I really don’t care if they win or lose, it’s just nice to enjoy my sport again.