Footy is (almost) Back!

It seems like it wasn't that long ago when we were complaining that the footy season is over.   Even though the season hasn't officially started yet, we were excited to hear that Hawthorn was playing in one of its NAB cup matches in Tassie and was excited for preseason to start.

When we heard they would be playing Collingwood, we knew it would be a massive game for Tassie so we made sure we got our tickets early. We thought it this sign that was put up at the Launceston airport was very funny and clever.

Jalen is not a lover of footy, so he stayed home while Harri, Kobe and I went along to the Hawthorn training the day before the game.

I guess because it was a NAB cup match and most of the main Hawks players didn't come down, people weren't as interested in going to the training, but it was great for us as there wasn't a huge crowd fighting to get players autographs.    I just think how lucky we are that the team we barrack for are in Tassie so often and just down the road from home, and it may not always be that way, so I don't want to miss an opportunity to take the boys to see them while we can.

I was devastated that Hodgey didn't come down, but Kobe was very excited that his favourite player Jack Gunston was playing.  He was lovely to the boys and had a little chat to them and was more than happy to sign Kobe's footy card. He asked Harri if the Hawks were going to win and Harri said 'maybe' which made him laugh.

As we were leaving a lot of the players were walking to their hotel.  Taylor Duryea and Ben McEvoy were lovely and stopped for a photo with the boys.
Dad hadn't been to a game for years, but when he got lots of energy in the few months before he passed away, he said he wanted to come to the game with us.   We kept thinking about that when we were there as he would've loved the atmosphere with the big crowd.  Mum came along to the game with us and it was a beautiful night.
We took this photo and posted it on Instagram and then saw on the screen that they were asking people in the crowd to hashtag their photos, so they could be displayed on the screen. I edited my photo and added the hashtag but didn't really think much more of it.

During the break after the first quarter we were shocked when we saw our photo appear on the screen!  It was funny to get text messages from friends and family in the crowd who also saw it.

 

It was a strange feeling having most of the crowd go for the other team, as we are used to most of the crowd in Launceston going for Hawthorn. Hawthorn was thrashed by the Pies but we had heaps of fun and loved the big crowd.

 

 The boys were excited that they could have a kick on the ground after the game had finished.

It was nice to run into these guys on the ground afterwards.  We are sad that they have moved away, so it was nice to catch up with them again. 

 

I still don't know who I am - taking the boys to the footy and actually loving it!  I'm sure Aaron's love of footy has been transferred to me somehow.  We are looking forward to the season officially starting!

p.s: every time I want to do a blog post and see how awful my phone pics look compared to my good camera, I wish I took my good camera everywhere but it's such a pain to take around and it's just so easy to pull out my phone whenever I want to capture something. I guess now I'm blogging about photos I've taken and things we have done, rather than taking photos to blog about, and I like it being that way.  I'm looking forward to the day when an iPhone takes photos as clear as my Nikon ;)