A BURST of raw emotion blew the lid off Geelong and spilled onto the streets as a city too often tortured by tragic endings celebrated the greatest grand final win in football's history. Church bells rang, flags flew and tears flowed as the 44-year premiership drought broke. A title they dared not dream of was delivered, finally.
The screams prompted by the final siren echoed through the night along city streets as cheering supporters climbed over parked cars. The sky above Skilled Stadium had threatened to open all day but the moisture instead ran down the faces of crying Geelong fans as they let out dammed-up emotion.
They are used to a team whose pulse beats to heartbreaking defeats, and having to draw strength from despair. Now they had a victory to savour.
Heidi Danzinger, 35, drove three hours from Echuca with her two children for this moment. Geelong born and bred, she had watched her team fall in three grand finals before winning yesterday's long-awaited seventh premiership.
"I'm welling up with tears because I've waited a long time for this," she said.
"This is the first premiership of many. Look out, we're here now."
Forgive her some hubris. This city kept its emotions in check until now, beyond the Minor Premiership, the Rising Star, the VFL title and the Brownlow, rather than risk jinxing a victory that had slipped too often from its grasp.
The locals call it The Lid. It was last spotted at half-time yesterday, high above Corio Bay, before rising too high to cast its long shadow over the city.
More than 6000 Cats supporters watched the game on big screens at Skilled Stadium. Max Dunn, 58, who spent two hours painting his hands, face and nose navy blue and white before arriving at the ground, recalled queueing for five days for tickets to Geelong's last premiership win in 1963. Clearer still in his mind are the games lost in 1989, 1992, 1994 and 1995.
"I'm quite used to them losing grand finals," he said. "Now I'm ecstatic."
Geelong's pubs and clubs stayed busy late into the night, with celebrating Cats fans showing no sign of fatigue. Many planned to keep partying until the players' scheduled arrival at Skilled Stadium this afternoon.
But only the hardiest might hope to last until Wednesday's victory parade along the city's streets.
In 1963 the triumphant team arrived home that night to be greeted by thousands of fans at city hall, led by a local brass band. This year's winners opted to remain in Melbourne until today, a decision that 1963 winning coach Bob Davis said was "disappointing".
He famously described himself as Geelong's only surviving premiership coach. Now he must share that title with Mark "Bomber" Thompson.
The crowds saved their biggest cheers for the coach and local favourites Gary Ablett and Brownlow-medal winner Jimmy Bartel, who was born in Geelong and played his earliest football for the local Bell Park club.
Geelong is a proud provincial club in a one-team city. Cheriee Voskresensky, 31, remembers getting paid two cents-a-quarter to give her dad shoulder massages while he watched Geelong greats Gary Ablett and Billy Brownless go around the paddock to great acclaim but no premierships.
Her dad died two years ago, and she wished he could have seen the win. "Footy's footy but, mate, this is like nothing else on earth," she said.
Anne Cummings, 69, travelled back to the city of her birth from Melbourne with her son yesterday. She had seen her team succeed in both the 1951 and 1952 grand finals and now had another flag at last.
"I have been very nervous all week and tried to keep a lid on it, but this is just fantastic," she said. Her son Michael, 29, is a Carlton supporter, but reckoned he had been to more Geelong games in his life than to see the Blues.
It was hard luck being a supporter of any other club in Geelong yesterday, let alone a fan of Port Adelaide. Standing alone in Skilled Stadium was Power supporter Sinisa Milovac, 26, who travelled from Adelaide to watch the game with his brother-in-law, a Cats fan. He dressed defiantly in teal and silver, with a Port Adelaide flag hanging precariously from his backpack. Each time it fell to the ground he picked it up, only for it to fall again. It wasn't his day.
Late last night, thousands of Geelong supporters gathered in Moorabool and Ryrie streets to chant and cheer. They embraced and even danced on car bonnets.
Vehicles were doing laps of Ryrie Street, with people hanging out the windows, waving scarves and flags, blowing car horns and shouting, "Go, Cats." Every time the shout went up, pedestrians automatically joined in shouting "Go, Cats" back.
Some of the cars circled the block for hours. Sam Young, 21, painted his car in Geelong colours for the evening. "The boys did it," he said. "I did this to support them. I've never seen anything like this before. Geelong is going off." With
REID SEXTON
