While the situation our (once) great Club is in now causes me pain and heartache, I've been looking back, and thinking.

Thinking about the fact that while the last few seasons have been like hitting ourselves in the head with a hammer - it's nice when it stops - I, and we, as Carlton supporters have so much to be thankful for.

I give thanks to Carlton for

• The ability to wear my club's jumper with pride
• Being envied by supporters of other clubs, for we are Carlton
• The almost non-stop years of success, from my early childhood, into the mid-90s
• The memories of greats of the game running around in Navy Blue
• Knowing that part of the reason we were hated was mostly jealousy of our success and a begrudged respect


I am still proud of my Club, nothing will ever stop me from being that.

I still hold my head up with pride when I say I'm a Carlton supporter. I wear the knocks, the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" (as that old Bluebagger Will Shakespeare put it. He would have been a Blueboy, no doubt about it) because I know others revel in our abjectness because it's a diametric opposite of how powerful and successful we once were. And I know that Carlton will rise again. I know that each insult, each joke, each retort we have to wear will be stored in a communal memory bank, not to be lashed out at, now while we are weak and ineffectual, but when we grow strong again and will make those jealous haters eat their words, cold and with a dessert of humble pie and humiliation.

So, thank you Carlton, and all the mighty greats who donned the famous Navy Blue who have made me of stronger stuff than that what opposition supporters are made of.

Thank you for giving us so much over my lifetime, great happy memories which serve as a golden counterpoint to the darkness we are going through now. Memories which will endure far beyond the angst.

I'm Navy Blue now.

I will be always.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

...and for beating Essendon*, even when we are crap!

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“Every single element of the Club has to be the best in the league, meticulously and methodically, and only by doing this will we be elite and challenge for number 17.”
Greg Lee

Indeed!

Forgot that one!

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.