BY DAN

It’s been a banner year at the Sportress.

Our fifth year on this beat has been our most successful (however you want to measure it). We’ve written close to 160 articles, and 140 thousand words, which is frankly ridiculous. No wonder I’m tired.

The good people that read this blog and chat to us on social media made it even better. Some of you we met, others remain our online buddies. But all of you made it even more fun. You have no idea how much we enjoy “hanging out” with you.

And the Raiders. What a joy. The 2019 Canberra Raiders will go down in history as one the team that took our decades of pain and turned it into hope. Even your humble scribe, the most pessimistic sports fan on earth, believed.

It was the most fun I’ve had in ages.

We wrote last year that meaning of Christmas is that Christmas has meaning. It’s a line from one of our favourite Christmas themed episodes of Community.

This year that feels trite though. As we watch our country burn all we can hope is that Christmas brings respite for those in danger, and hope for those who have already lost everything. There’s little solace in this, but we are thinking of you.

For the rest of us make sure you take advantage of what you have. Hug the people you love. If you’re fortunate enough to be with the people you love on Christmas, fucking tell them you love them. If you’re fortunate enough to have some spare coin, make sure it finds its way to someone in need. It won’t be the last time we do this, so we better get used to helping each other out.

So thank you to all of you. We’ve said it before; it we see every comment and every share. We appreciate anyone that has helped spread the word about us over this year or in previous. It never fails to amaze me that people read our words, and we are eternally grateful for your support. We’re a couple of jerks with a keyboard and some takes. Your support makes it so much more than that.

Merry Christmas!

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