Great day with a huge turnout - at least double last years numbers!
I was amazed at the line lengths when we arrived but when we wandered over to the first tent and saw a small gathering around the side with Sheeds signing autographs. We hurried over and he posed for a photo with my young fellow. There was lots of people calling out 'Welcome back Sheeds' and 'Go SuperCoach'
. He signed his name with his number (10) which was a great indication that he feels like he has come home.
That tent was a little goldmine for us from that point on as the players keep arriving in carts and then sneaking in the back...but not before we got autographs though. We scored Postie (who is a great bloke - had a chat and was very happy to be there), McMahon (who was getting tired of the whole thing), Cotchin (great photo with my youngen, nice fellow but shorten than I expected) and Moore (funny bloke, almost took off with my sons autograph book on a cart with Browny
, big unit).
Funniest autograph story was when a big group of supporters were around Hislop and no one near Connors who most people didn't recognise so Connors took off his hat, lined up and got his hat autographed from his mate 'Tizzy' (what the players called Hislop).
The jumper ceremony revealed a few interesting points of news including that Cousins, Rance, JON and Vickery will definately be playing this Thursday. TW even said that if a Collingwood person was int he crowd they now know who they are choosing.
JON has a new number (22?) and is being played off the HFF rather than out of defence this year. Sounded like this was his final chance. TW also gave the impression that Hughes was on his last chance too.
Richo was funny - with all the other players they waited until TW gave them an introduction but Richo just waved to the crowd, did a couple of muscleman poses then went to stand at the back of the players forgetting to get his jumper. Bowden tried a similiar act with only a fraction of the response.
Cotch recieved a huge cheer as did Lids. White was popular along with Simmo and Foley. Cousins recieved a big cheer but was outdone by Richo, Polak and the others I just mentioned which I found interesting. Obviously the crowd felt he had to still earn their love before they gave it in the same outpouring as they did to Richo and co.
great day
Stripes