Must confess I'd given up too. Thought we'd just lost to the better side on the night & like others, didn't feel too terrible about it. Words like gallant, &, dare I say it, brave, were going through my head. I accepted that you're not going to win every game you play.
The Acres goal completely threw me into chaos again. Firstly I thought he'd missed, so I had my head thrown back in despair, only to look back & see the players celebrating. Then it was our game to lose, so I started stressing again

I had earphones on but couldn't hear the commentary. People were asking me how much time remaining & I was embarrassingly useless to them. Then I thought I heard the commentator say 30 seconds, so I let everyone know.
The siren went about 10 seconds later

Again, got confused thinking hang on, wasn't there meant to be 30 seconds? Was that really the siren?
Bugger it, yep, of course it was the bloody siren.
I went in the MCC with a medico mate of mine who I hadn't seen in 10 years, & we just became children in the pandemonium. Street Fighter 2 impersonations. Hugs with each other, & with randoms. Glances at the moron Melbourne supporters who'd been stationed behind us. Just amazing, the whole ending was like getting a governor's pardon when you're on death row.
The walk through the park to the city afterwards was unforgettable, so many chats with strangers over the noise of cars honking like it was 1995 again.
Had late night Chinese in the city & tried to break down together what the hell had just happened. We both concluded it was a game where you simply have to watch the replay. All we could recall was someone had passed to doc who took a really good mark & found Acres. And that there'd been some ripping smothers late.
Got home at 1:30, stayed awake til 4 even though I had tennis with the kids in the morning. Just didn't care.
I really, really don't want this to stop.
I had the radio on as well, but there was a pretty crappy delay and when they had the kick in after the Kennedy behind I thought there was about 30 seconds left. I also had a double take when the siren went very soon after!