I may have some sort of magical power rather like the Rain God in Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker books. Why do I say this? Well, unless you're a St Kilda footie team fan and you believe strongly in the Jinx, read on:...
Item#1 In 1986 after moving to England to attend Warwick University I started going to Coventry City games. Coventry were the local football team and you could always get tickets because Cov had never won anything in its 104 year history. Eight months after I started supporting Coventry they won the FA Cup, the most important trophy in English football and the only one they have ever taken.
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Item#2 In 1993 I moved to New York City and because I was living in Harlem and working in Washington Heights, naturally I became a Yankees fan for baseball and a Rangers fan for hockey. (I don't like basketball or American football). In 1994 the Rangers won their first Stanley Cup in 54 years and in 1996 the New York Yankees won their first World Series in 19 years.
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Item #3 In 2001 we moved to Denver, Colorado and started going to Colorado Rockies games. In 2007 the Rockies got to the World Series for the first time in their history and although they lost, it was still quite an achievement for them to take the NL Pennant.
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Item #4 Last year we moved to St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia. I quickly discovered to my dismay that no one really cares about soccer or rugby in this town, but footie - Aussie Rules - is everything. I started watching Aussie Rules on telly and found that I liked the game. But which team to support? Well there was really no choice: we live in St Kilda, my daughter goes to St Kilda Primary School and every Monday the St Kilda FC boys come to the Sea Baths to ruin my swimming session (but we'll forgive them that) so it had to be The Saints. What has happened? What do you think? St Kilda are in the Grand Final with a chance of taking the whole thing for the first time since 1966. Are they actually going to win? I don't know, but I wouldn't bet against them.
