Tribute to a great Saint

One of the things Mikko has missed out on in a big way is the resurgence of his beloved St Kilda football club. One of the few teams to have won just a single premiership - and that all the way back in 1966 - he adopted them because his Australian family, the Colquhouns, were all Saints fans. (I do hope they were allowed to keep the jersey they gave him for his 30th: they weren't sure about the gift idea when I suggested it, but he 'fucking loved it'.) And together, Saints fans back their boys through hard times, and only slightly less hard times, year after year.

I personally reckon there was something about the Saints that made them beloved to immigrants: I'll not forget going to a Saints vs Blues match once with 4 belgians, the Finn and one other Aussie, and only the locals were barracking for Carlton.

But I digress. Again.

Apart from the great Nicky Winmar, who was a genius on the field, and off-field both an advocate for Aboriginal rights and, often, a 'messed up bloke' (Mikko's greatest heroes were always people who were battling adversity - witness the late great Hunter S Thomson - and he both admired, feared and wanted to emulate them), Mikko's other St Kilda hero was the club's elder statesman, Robert Harvey. Sometime captain, dual Brownlow medallist, a veteran of 383 games over 21 years, 'Harves' has seen everything but a premiership cup.

The lads gave everything to get him one this year: at 37, he didn't have another season in him; but after winning the pre-season NAB Cup, running a typically up and down season, then surging into the top four in the last week before the finals, they fell at the last hurdle to Hawthorn, who at least went on to win on Grand Final day. There's no shame to losing to the top side all season, but I know Mikko would have been bitterly disappointed at the result.

Maybe today's news would have brought a smile: Harves has been voted by his peers throughout the AFL (and a big margin!) as the AFL Players Association Madden Medallist: an award established in 2007 to recognise the game's greats in the year of their retirement from playing. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke.

Harves has now joined my beloved Bluebaggers as Development coach, and I somehow don't think the Finn would mind me now sharing his favourite. When our teams played each other we could hardly stand to be in the same house, much less go to the game together (one of us always ended up sulking, no matter how generous the winner was), but when our teams played someone else, we always knew who we were barracking for!