How to Celebrate Save Your Photos Month on AFL Grand Final Friday?📷🦁🏆🏉📸

Every September

Looking back through the photos that I took today on my phone I realized that September is 'Save Your Photos Month' and some of these photos I took today are worth saving for years to come.

After the AFL Grand Final parade, we got into the MCG for the Captain's Run, which maybe the only time this weekend that we get into the MCG, as we still don't have tickets for the game tomorrow, so it's not looking good for us watching the game in the stadium at this point.

But it's been worth the trip down so far, even if we have to watch the match in a pub somewhere close by.

Why Do People Celebrate AFL Grand Final Friday?🏉🦁⚓🏆

Looking through my photos from today I realize that I got so caught up trying to catch stray footballs that came over the net from the Lions players kicking practice, that I forgot to take photos of the players on the field:-)

I'll have to get my son to give me some of his photos if he took any while we were watching the Captain's Run.

Because that's all the photos I took inside the MCG today.

Still, it was good to get a feel of how it would be sitting in the stadium tomorrow for the lucky fans who do have tickets.

I like how there are two cups on the Footy Fest sign, hopefully the Lions will have a third this time tomorrow;-)

How to Celebrate Sport Purple for Platelets Day in 2026?🌊💜⚓

After we left the Footy Fest, we headed for the Pullman Hotel for a drink, only to check out the hotel where the Pullman 5 scandal played out this year.

We only found out after we had left The Pullman from another Lions fan that the Lions were staying there:-)

After spending the afternoon in the city, we headed to the Eureaka Building to get some nighttime shots of Melbourne and the MCG from 88 stories above the ground.

I never realized until I looked at my photos that Melbourne had exit signs in the sky;-)

When I was down here in 2016 10 years ago this building below, the Australia 108 wasn't built then.

Australia 108 

It's now taller than the Eureaka Building.

There's the MCG all light up tonight above.

And the coldest view of the game
out here blowing in the wind

I guess I could say that my view of Melbourne has literally changed since I was down here 10 years ago:-)

Eureaka Tower

Eureka! Friday's Joy?

How to Celebrate Sport Purple for Platelets Day in 2026?🌊💜⚓

Last Friday of September

Unfortunately, there was no way I was going to wear purple today, as that's the Fremantle Dockers colours and TEAM KYLIE colours ... kind of.

There were a lot of people wearing purple around Melbourne today, but I doubt it was because it was for 'Sport Purple for Platelets Day' somehow;-)

It was also 'Hug a Vegetarian Day', so I bought a Veggie Delite Footlong Sub and ate it in the window of the Subway across the road from the Victorian State Library, hoping for a hug, even though I'm not a Vegetarian:-)

Fourth Friday in September

Veggie Delite® with Avo

Nobody gave me a hug though, which is just as well for those wearing purple, that is;-)

Why Do People Celebrate AFL Grand Final Friday?🏉🦁⚓🏆

Why Do People Celebrate AFL Grand Final Friday?🏉🦁⚓🏆

Brisbane Airport Thursday night

Friday before the AFL Grand Final

Leaving Brisbane airport on late Thursday night for Melbourne, my plan was to watch my first ever AFL Grand Final Parade live Friday morning and hope to get two tickets to the AFL Grand Final on Saturday, if not, I'd watch it on a big screen close by on the day.

September 25, 2026 – September 27, 2026

The night before I met a young woman who was holding a sign to take with her on the plane and I asked her what it meant.

And she told me that her and her family members didn't have tickets to the Grand Final (like me and my son) and that she was going to try and get on the national 'Sunrise' morning TV show and score some tickets.

I wished her well but thought she had Buckley's chance of that happening.

Every September

But Friday morning while I was in line for my buffet breakfast at the hotel I was staying in, I looked up at a TV they had playing on the wall, and there she was with her sign:-)

Whether she got any tickets to the game or not I have no idea, as the sound was off.

Every September 25th

I guess her mother (who I was also talking to at the airport on Friday night) would have been proud of her getting on national TV on 'National Daughter Day' whether they got tickets or not for her effort:-)

I was starting to wonder how much luck me and my son would have getting tickets to the game on Saturday, as our plane seats on the flight the night before were in row 13 and our room was on floor 13, so it's lucky I'm not a superstitious person, I guess?

SPOILER ALERT UPDATE: we didn't get any tickets to the game:-(

I guess we were lucky that we didn't get stuck in the lift, as this lift with the X was making a terrible noise on the way down to breakfast and when we came back up to our floor was marked with an X.

Every September 25th

Batman's Hill tram stop

As we were waiting at the tram stop, I looked up to see it was named Batman's Hill and laughed, as today is 'Comic Book Day':-)

Something my hometown of Brisbane hasn't had since I was a little kid is trams, so it's a novelty to me to be catching trams all around the place, and this weekend in the city you could ride them for free.

I hadn't been to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for 10 years, so it was a rather nostalgic feeling walking through Yarra Park and seeing the stadium again.

We got a spot under a tree with some Lions fans that we hadn't met before and waited for the parade to start, as a heap of Freo fans on the other side of the path eyed us off.

Being the Year of the Horse, I just had to take a photo of the cops on their horses as they rode past us:-)

Everyone was getting a cheer from the crowd as they went past, even the garbage man:-)

The Wiggles were the first celebrities to pass by us this morning, unless the garbage man was someone like Tom Cruise in disguise?

There's The Trophy both teams will be wanting to get their hands on after the final siren tomorrow.

I'm pretty sure that wasn't Kylie going past us in the above photo;-)

How to Celebrate World Maritime Day on National Punctuation Day?!🌊⚓🦁🏆🏆🏆🏉

I asked the Brisbane Lions' coach how many GFs we could win in a row, and he seemed to indicate 5, unless he was just waving at me;-)

Charlie Cameron and my youngest son both came into the world on the same day, which was the same month and year the Freemantle Dockers were founded.

There was a little girl near me who had Lachie Neale's number 9 painted on her face and he saw her and pointed to her and then pointer to his face, as if to say I see you wearing my number.

Her mother commented on it and said that she wished she had photos of Lachie acknowledging her, and I told her that I had the photos of him doing it and that she could use my phone to select the photos she wanted and text them to herself and delete the text afterwards, so she did.

Well, if I didn't get any tickets to the game tomorrow at least I got to see the players and wish them luck ... the Lions players that is, not the Freo players;-)

The Fremantle Mermaid?🌊🏊⚓🏆

I didn't spend $13.95 in Fremantle last July on a purple mermaid to wish them luck in a Grand Final against my team;-)

Every September 25th

But maybe I'm just dreamin'?

I still say that Freo has Buckley's chance against us.

Ode To Sirens?⚓🦢🏊🦈🦁

GO THE LIONS!!!