By Lynda Carroll
Season 2022 has started. The MCG is busy and bustling, once more graced by its regular tribes. The cricket pitches are a distant memory, the goalposts are well and truly in use, and the crowd noise is almost back to familiar volume.
It was a happy result on Wednesday night for the reigning premiers. How strange does that title still feel? From the time Ed Langdon kicked the first goal of the season, through the bumps of an expected Western Bulldogs comeback, to the ferocity of Petracca and the goal kicking amazement of Gawn; it was all there despite some anxious moments in the middle of the game.
Meanwhile, way in the depths of the MCC Library, a lady found a bookmark that she left in a book two years ago. What more could you ask for? She’s right to finish that chapter. The last two years loop around and get us to here and now. It’s a good feeling.
Seeing the premiership flag unfurl, helped along its way by Melbourne legends in Wells, Alves, Viney, Lyon, Neitz, Jones, Mann and Barassi – what an illustrious combination! – was another way of linking past to present and embracing every generation from the 1950s to now, to 2022 and to whatever lies beyond this special time.
The Premiership Cup was, naturally, also in attendance. Cup and flag, legends and crowd, red and blue. Bringing everyone and everything together for Round 1 was not exactly easy, but the good cheer throughout the crowd was palpable, from the smallest supporter in oversized guernsey to the veteran Demon, happy to add this occasion to their Melbourne viewing portfolio.
With the Western Bulldogs providing a challenge akin to that one day in September, it was the toughest and most determined of the game on display. You really didn’t need the promised but abandoned fireworks. There was more than enough fire and enthusiasm in the actual game to put on a show.
The spirit on the ground was echoed in the stands. From function rooms abuzz with supporters, to the Demon Army, colourful and catchy with the ‘Grand New Flag’, the animation and atmosphere of the Grand Final, of December celebrations, of every heart beating true, was evident wherever you looked.
Of course, there are long months ahead, and this early autumn evening, balmy and still, will turn to winter. The humidity will swing to freezing winds, the season will – hopefully – settle into a familiar groove, and we will have (say it softly) losses. But always, no matter where we are and when, we’ll be able to remember this Round 1 win, on a warm night, when the red and blue shone proudly, and when the cup and the flag met in the middle of the MCG, in the company of legends.
Lynda Carroll is delighted to be watching Melbourne playing at the MCG in 2022.
She spends most of her time in the MCC Library, researching, writing, working on a match day, and cataloguing books.
The term 'reigning premiers' is still sinking in for her, but seeing the flag being unfurled in Round One certainly helped.