Well, this is it.  My season of purple pilgrimage is about to begin - and it's proving hard to pin down my emotional state leading into Round 1.

Previous seasons have either been greeted by wild hope (very wild hope in the Drum years) or satisfied expectation.  Neither of these ever seemed to lead to much in the end...even the banner year of 2006 took until halfway through to really get rolling.  For good seasons or ill, we do seem to be slow out of the blocks.

Pre-season form has been patchy, to put it mildly.  I believe Harves when he said that he was using most of our practice matches to try out new configurations and play as much of the list as possible.  Unfortunately for the success-starved Purple Army, the resultant shoddy disposal and lack of structure has done little to boost confidence.  For the first time, I do not really want to dare to dream for my team - after 2007, I want to wait and see what happens before making any judgements.

But I'll be there at the MCG on Saturday, watching a new journey unfold step by step.  I hope many of you will be, too; I'd much rather swim in a sea of Imperial Purple than drown in a tsunami of black and white.  Will Chris Tarrant rise to the occasion and prove the Magpie ferals wrong?  Can Belly's body stand up to the rigours of a double-barrelled commute?  Can Sandi and Warnock give us ruck supremacy?

I really don't know.  But I am hopeful.  Because where there is the Dockers, there is always hope.  Up your anchor for Season 2008!