Mixed emotions at Hawks win

FOR Keysborough’s Connolly family, last weekend provided the climax to a bittersweet football journey.
Family patriarch Errol Connolly died earlier this year and was a life member of the Hawthorn Past Players Association.
That Errol, a committed Hawthorn supporter, died just months before Hawks would taste premiership glory for the first time in 17 years seemed unfair.
And to add insult to injury, son Gary, assistant coach at Port Melbourne, watched as the Boroughs went down to North Ballarat in the VFL grand final.
But something about the Hawks’ premiership win brought a smile – and tears – to Gary and his mum Ellen.
“When the national anthem was on before the (AFL) grand final, I was thinking about dad a lot, and started to get a bit teary,” Gary said. “He was so full on into Hawthorn, he should have been here.”
Mrs Connolly prepared for the match by visiting Errol’s grave at Springvale and laying a Hawthorn flag and yellow flowers.
She said Errol would have been watching the Hawks’ victory from up above.
“Errol was in my thoughts a lot that day,” she said.“He’s probably got the angels singing the club song after the match.”
Former president of the Hawthorn Past Players Association and close friend of Mr Connolly’s, Ken Beck, said the committed clubman was in his thoughts.
“He was a loveable bloke, and very popular down there,” Mr Beck said. “Errol worked very hard for us, and it’s a great pity we lost him before our great day on Saturday.”
Gary said the family celebrated the Hawks’ victory by visiting the Past Players Association room at Glenferrie on the Sunday following the premiership.