By Luke Voogt
Torquay’s Josh Benham could not believe he had made it to an AFL Grand Final, until he was alongside 100,000 screaming fans at the ‘G.
“The anxiety about the ticket was almost as much as about the game itself,” the long-time Eagles fan said.
Benham, 34, scored the last-minute ticket from a friend-of-a-friend from Perth in the Eagles cheer squad, whose son was unable to attend.
“I had to get up really early to get my ticket,” he said.
After hearing horror stories about scalpers he worried about being “screwed over”.
Instead he got through the turnstiles to watch West Coast defeat Collingwood by 5 points in a Grand Final classic, in his first time at the big game.
“It felt like there were as many Eagles supporters as Collingwood supporters, if not more,” he said.
Eagles fans went nuts after Dom Sheed kicked the winning goal from an extremely difficult angle, with just a minute and 50 seconds left.
“I was covering my eyes with my scarf,” Josh said.
“It was a once in a lifetime thing. There were probably ten people around me who were crying with joy.”
Sheed marked the ball after a controversial “non-call”, which some football commentators believed should have been a free against West Coast’s Willie Rioli for blocking.
Josh disagreed, saying, “Rioli was going for the ball before Sheed got there”.
The win was vindication after some commentators wrote the Eagles off earlier in the season following injuries to players like Nic Naitanui, Josh said.
And his $5 bet on the Eagles winning the premiership before round 1 was the icing on the cake.
“I won $335!” he said.
