dannyboy wrote:
So the farmer has hung up his boots and I just wanted to say thanks. It was a tough field that you worked on, plenty of harsh conditions and for many years one which struggled to bear any fruit but you, like all farmers, wiped your brow, shrugged your shoulders and got back to work, day after day, year after year, playing on opponents too tall, too small, too fast...yet you just accepted the assignment, wiped old mud off your boots and went again and again.
It must be an easy gig when the conditions are right, surrounded by players, coaches and supporters on the wave of winning games, sadly that was not your lot, you worked through the lean years, the years of drought when wins were as hard to come by as water in the desert...many could have been broken by the environment, you just kept on working, supporting others, taking up the challenges working over summer for the winter, through the winter for the next year and so on.
From what I've heard you are a top bloke, supportive, salt of the earth type, so thank you Lachie, thank you for the games, for wearing the jumper, for working through the lean years to help us get to this point where we think now we may have a harvest.
All of us want to wear this famous old jumper - you did!
All of us dreamt of playing this game at the highest level - you did!
You took the swirling mists of childhood ambition and carved out a career, you played this game, took the knocks, took the highs and lows, beat opponents, was beaten by opponents, won some, lost many and kept, working, supporting, playing.
Thank you Lachie, thank you for the effort, the games played, the training sessions endured, the boos, everything. I know it was never about the money, it as about honouring that little boy who held the oval ball, inhaled the leather and dreamt such a dream that life found its path and set you on your way.
Thank you for the games, the smiles, the bumps, the aches and pains, the work; the work that you and so many players have put in that have slowly, like the barren fields turned fertile, helped turn this club around.
When Carlton players hold that cup aloft many will have forgotten your role in the tough years preparing for the feast, but know this Lachie, all Carlton players, all of them, have some sort of connection to those cups.
Thanks you and enjoy putting your feet up.
I have a tear in my eye
By all accounts a decent bloke which is far more important than being a decent footballer or coach or whatever
But if someone like Plowman gets a game your team is in trouble
Loyalty is only reciprocated so far
Diabolical decision maker
Good VFL player at best
Had a crack but played 145 games because we were ordinary
But let’s hope if he wants to play on somewhere he does what Michael Gibbons did on The Murray last weekend.