By Mitchell Clarke
Not even a Grand Final in isolation could dampen the spirits of the local Yellow and Black army.
And that was certainly the case for Cranbourne woman Brenda Hilton, who has been following the mighty Tigers for more than 54 years.
While the self-confessed ‘Tiger lady’ would usually be watching on from the MCG in any normal year, she said this year naturally felt very different.
“It was very different but I still got dressed up, even though it was just me and hubby at home. I still had decorations and balloons and there was a lot of yelling and screaming,” she said.
“I was very disappointed that I couldn’t be there but it is what it is. At the beginning of the year when the AFL was stuffing around I thought it was best to cancel the season but I’m glad they managed to get something, they did well.”
Like all diehards, Ms Hilton has been soaking up the recent ‘Dimma-sty’ and said the Tiger’s good form over the past four seasons left her feeling confident.
“I wasn’t worried at all. I felt like we were gonna win. I can’t pinpoint why but I just knew that we would come out in the third quarter. If we’re down and we’re going to take off, it was always going to be in the first few minutes of the third,” she said.
“We did just that and once we did I knew we had it. We were kicking a lot of goals and Geelong didn’t know what to do.”
Ms Hilton said the day after the win was a blur, and not being able to head down to Punt Road to celebrate with fellow supporters was disappointing.
More disappointing was the concept of the big game being played at night.
“They can stick the night Grand Final where the sun don’t shine. The day was exceptionally long and it doesn’t give you enough time to celebrate after,” she said.
She hopes next year the game will return to the day, and provided her boys make it three in a row, she’ll again don her famous Tiger suit.
“I’m just rapt and I think we can do it. We’ve got the team and the depth for it,” she said.
