Sporting the Colours

Today is one of Australia’s big sporting days, with the grand finale of the Australian Football League season played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a sporting venue that is very close to where I live. Thus, even when I don’t attend a game, I can experience the roar of the crowd, albeit at a distance.

I’m a nominal football fan these days, and my team (Essendon) wasn’t playing, so who to nominally support? It was the Western Bulldogs v the Sydney Swans. The choice should be easy after all: a Victorian team (the state in which I live) versus a New South Welsh team. But that would be too obvious. Then there were their mascots: bulldogs and swans; I definitely prefer swans – they are such amusing birds, and I see them every day in the botanic gardens across the road.

there was something of even greater – and more fashionable – interest to me: THE COLOURS.

But there was something of even greater – and more fashionable – interest to me: THE COLOURS. I decided my allegiance would attach to my favourite colour combination. The Doggies, with blue and white and red, and the Swans with simple red and white. Both classic colour combinations; both incorporating stripes of some sort (on jerseys or socks); and both having nautical connections. This would be tricky! Because I adore both, as evidenced already on these pages (click those links above).

In the end, although I didn’t attend the game, and only watched the final quarter on TV, I gallivanted around town in a subtle variant of the Bulldogs’ colours. And in the end, it was the right choice, because the Doggies won the flag after an exciting last quarter, ending a 62-year drought. It’s always nice to be on the winning side if one possibly can.

Fashion Notes

I’m wearing a mix of new and vintage, notably a 1940s red velvet hat, and a 1970s ribbed cardigan.

Photo: Yesterday