Jubilant Hawks fans at Glenferrie Oval on Sunday.  Jubilant
Hawks fans at Glenferrie Oval on Sunday. Photo: Getty Images
The Colonel's attachment to the Hawthorn Football Club is an
object of fascination to me.  The Scottish poet Robert Burns
declared a love so great it would last until "all the seas run
dry and rocks melt with the sun". You'd have to summon a
similarly extreme image to describe the Colonel's passion for
the Hawks, which he got from his mother, his Richmond father
having failed to dislodge her football loyalties in 40 years of
marriage.  After a week of quiveringly bad nerves spent in a
mining camp in north Queensland, the Colonel hit Melbourne two
days before the grand final and proceeded to celebrate footy's
festive occasion with his customary gusto and conviviality.
After attending the grand final parade on Friday morning, he
texted me a photo of himself and a Freo supporter, arms round
one another, standing in front of Chloe in Young and Jackson's
Hotel.  I didn't watch the grand final w