The End

Only 3 days to go 'til we can all sleep til late Feb.

In an otherwise troubling year it's been a relatively good and refreshing season:

- The Hawks are out. Thankfully they'll be in rebuild mode after next year.

- The Dogs are up and about, as a team, as a club and as a serious thing. The fact this has come pretty much out of the blue is a wondrous thing. It gives hope to those of us who support clubs on the south side of the success barrier.
- The Sainters have a rigorous heartbeat.

- The Dee's have a pulse. 

- The Crows have bounced back well from tragedy. We can hate them properly again next year.

- GWS are exciting, although as natural as botoxed plastic, and thankfully ultimately unsuccessful as yet.

- The Dons haven't yet rubbed there arses in our faces (wait til next year).

- The Cats showed it takes more than deep pockets and cherry-picking for ultimate glory.

- Likewise the Pies' recent habit of desperately purchasing celebrity big-name, high-flying, fan-appeasing footballers has led them arguably drifting further from the prize rather than closer.

- Tigers, Roos, Freo, Brisvegas, Gold Coast and, perpetually, Blues all in rebuild.

- Port scratching their heads.
- West Coast may as well go back to the crystal meth. It worked last time.

- And then there are the Swans. There's never a story with the Swans. They're like Kraftwerk only nowhere near as good.

In the land of the Drunk, Bernie, the peoples' favourite, took the silver-plated tinware.
Never has an award been more richly deserved, more popular. More surprising.
He's more than one of the family, he's part of the furniture. And he's really fucken comfy.
Congratubloodylations Bern!

The elephant in the room this year has been the League of Drunks fantasy league comp. Ok, small elephant, but unimaginably important to a very small number of us. It barely rated a mention all year, but all you need to know is Lloydy won again. It must be his 8th, 10th, who knows how many titles. Most importantly he beat The Traders. These are a bunch of, I think 3 guys who do this as their 'thing'. Professionals. Losers. We have the winner right here. Go Andy.

But there is, of course, still unfinished business. 

Tonight we eat, drink and potentially make arses of ourselves as we fork over bucket loads of cash to Bern, Tas, Dickwad and Jackpot Rob.

And on Saturday Ando and I go head to chest (have you seen how tall that fucker is?) in the Grand Final tip-off. May the best me win.

Here's the paper trail:

Finals W1

 Things look a bit like this now:

The tips. All one-sided games apparently. Seems no-one took reality into account.

R23

Today, that young man is no longer young, and the dream is now reality.

There are few PunchDrunk Founding Fathers still going around. From memory Franco Schena, Franco Trobbiani, maybe Harv and, I don't believe so, but maybe Stavros.

As those sage gents were cutting the ribbon on the first (pre) Drunk season in 1988, there by their side, was a young child, agog and still pyjama'd. Possibly still smelling vaguely of breast-milk and up way past his bed-time. That boy, that Founding Foundling, that tousled toddler was none other than Bernie. Bernard O'Seamus Padraig Phelan.

The boy has finally joined joined the ranks of adult Drunks. This year he can sit at the big table with the rest of us, this year he can have the avocado with his his prawn cocktail. This year he can pass on the shandy and have a real VB.

Today this boy is finally a man living his dream.

It won't come as a surprise to any of us that, after leading for the past 15 rounds, Bern has not only held his lead, but continually extended it whenever anyone even looked like making a move.

Congrats Bern old chum. In your modest manner you claim we were foxing and intended to cruelly snatch your impossible-to-lose victory at the last minute. Or worse, took pity on you and let you win. If it were possible both would be true, but alas, they cancel each other out, so you must have won fair and square. You may not believe it, and neither do I, but there you have it.

Tas and Dickwad each gave it a red-hot go, finishing second and third respectively for the second successive year, each with identical point scores to last year. Freaky huh.

Bob Brookmeyer finished 4th, thereby replacing her husband Heylow in this year's finals. Matt and Ando were always hanging about and hung on for finals berths. Garth, after a fourth last year finished 7th and is in for his second successive finals series, and yours truly, Drunkenstein, fell into eighth on the last game of the season after 5 years in the cellar. BobCatter stuck his neck out a little too often and a little too far in the final round, dropping out of the eight. Death or glory.

Here's the final ladder:

A voice from Tigerland

For anyone left on Earth who is yet to hear this or anyone else, including Tigers, who needs more of a laff (do the clicking thing):

R22

The dream bites the dust for yet another year. It all comes down to one final weekend for that dust to settle and officially see where we're at.

From where I'm at I can't see this round holding the necessary 2 or 3 swing games for Bernie to be dethroned or defrocked, even by Tas. But maybe that's why I'm not sitting up where it's at.

However the small places may come in for a bit of a shake-up and the 8 is still a little interesting. Especially for those of me who are sitting in what's become The Land of the Tiger – ninth.

The only other real point of interest was also wrenched from our grasp last weekend, when Rob took a small break from producing and feeding heirs to put his hand out for nine wins, a zero margin and virtually a year's complete jackpot. $380. Easily the biggest jackpot payout in the history of the Drunk, largely courtesy of the Demons' shameful capitulation to Rob's own Blues. Uninterestingly the only other Drunk to tip it was Taffa. This was Taffa's ONLY correct tip this week.

It's time call in the Drunk debts now, so you count up your bucks and I'll shoot through details of where to send them.

Remember to draw a line around Thursday 29th of September, that's when we'll have our knees-up.

R21

The Bern-out we've all been expecting and hoping for just hasn't eventuated. I reckon we can pretty much call it Bernie's Cup this year dammit.

But things are humming and spring-timey in other quarters.  A cosy bunch of Drunk loyalists had a small drink a week or so back at the Union, I'm just back from a week in FNQ, the new laptop's working, the new phone's good and, oh yes the Dees are up and about all dreamy-like. At least until Saturday, when new-found hope will most likely be dashed. But hey, 6 days of hope in a season is better than we've had for 10 years, better than none.

And so to this:
Bernie's bolted for sure but it's a multi-way battle for 2nd and 3rd, and for the 8. There are enough interesting games to shake things up a fair bit I reckon.

And more importantly the jackpot tab is up to a scary $380. The highest in Drunk history.