Journalists are a pretty cynical bunch, often too cool for school to be quite frank, and loath to betray too much obvious excitement for anyone or anything short of the Second Coming.
Which is sort of what it felt like on that day back in 1993 when Gary Ablett senior walked into the old Age offices in Spencer Street to pen his first column for The Sunday Age.
Even the crustiest hacks were whispering and pointing like little children as I accompanied him down the corridor, preparing to "ghost" his first public musings of any description about the game he'd dominated for some time.
A notorious media recluse, "Gazza" had finally decided it was time to start utilising his superstar status for some more material rewards. For our newspaper to be able to boast "Gary Ablett – Sunday Age columnist" was indeed a coup.
Legends: (From left) Bob Davis, Tom Hafey, Ron Barassi, Ken Hands and Ron Carter with Rohan Connolly in 2008.Credit: John Donegan
For about five minutes, I was awestruck as well. Then reality set in. Because that's all it took to realise that, given Ablett's reluctance to talk about his own exploits, or even those of the Geelong teammates he didn't want to embarrass, we weren't going to have a lot of material.
With the well of ideas having all but run dry, I suggested maybe we could talk about the Brisbane Bears, a young emerging team against whom Ablett had starred with eight goals the previous weekend up at the Gabba.
Next problem? Gaz was so good he'd never had to worry much about his opponents. After some filling in of the blanks, finally came a few crumbs. We talked about young Brisbane players such as Darryl White and a couple of emerging tyros called Nathan Buckley and Michael Voss. But we needed more.
"So what about Nathan Chapman?" I asked. "No, sorry mate, you've got me there. Which one is he?" Ablett said. "Actually, Gary, he's the guy you played on for the whole game."
That man again: Geelong’s Gary Ablett takes a mark against Bombers Derek Kickett and Chris Daniher en route to kicking 14.7 in 1993.Credit: Darrin Braybrook
Yes, it was a short-lived column. Perhaps not helped by what happened the very next day. Against Essendon at the MCG, Ablett played arguably his greatest-ever game, kicking 14.7, incredibly, in a losing side.
Naturally, the office was pretty keen on some words from the great man about a performance his coach, Malcolm Blight, had just dubbed the greatest individual effort he'd ever seen. For about 20 minutes, I had to hover near the shower block in the Cats' rooms waiting for Ablett to emerge, desperate to grab some quotes.
"G'day Rohan," he said cheerfully when he was finally ready. I told him the office was on my back, and of what Blight had just said. "Gee, that's nice," he smiled. "Just say that I'm disappointed we lost." At least I had a story for the grandchildren, I thought, as I trudged back to the press box.
Nearly 25 years after that, I still intend to tell it to them – if and when they arrive. But the focus won't be on failing to get a headline-grabbing quote. It will be on how privileged I was to have front and centre access to the greatest player I've seen, and to one of football's great moments. As I have been, repeatedly, over the 30 years I've worked for The Age.
There's been some pretty wacky moments along the way. Like being locked inside the SCG very late one night in 1990 after Victoria had infamously lost a state-of-origin game to New South Wales and I'd taken a little too long to file my copy. I might well have been the first person to scale a high fence to get out of a major sporting event rather than get in.
It was at the same ground six years later that I dictated to then Sunday Age sports editor Mark Fuller the top two paragraphs about a pulsating preliminary final between Sydney and Essendon, and Tony Lockett's famous point after the siren to put the Swans into the grand final at the expense of the team I followed. That one wasn't easy.
I've never been one to hold back, even in the press box, and over the years that's cost me several dozen pens, a couple of old laptops and, one day, a broken bone in my hand after I slammed the desk a little too enthusiastically.
I've been privy to important stories way beyond a mere football game without even being aware. Like the day in 1993 when indigenous St Kilda star Nicky Winmar famously raised his jumper to the hostile Collingwood crowd and pointed defiantly to the colour of his skin.
Age photographer Wayne Ludbey captured one of the most important photographs in Australian history. But over in the press box, banging away about St Kilda's first win at Victoria Park in 17 years, a dozen of us from various media outlets were completely oblivious to Winmar's gesture until I got a phone call from the office a good 90 minutes later to ask exactly what had happened.
Sometimes, big stories fell in your lap. In 1996, The Sunday Age broke the news of both North Melbourne's bid to merge with Fitzroy, and Hawthorn's attempt to join forces with Melbourne.
The latter came to light after a mate with zero interest in football had been at a boozy Saturday night party where an official a little under the weather had let it slip that the Hawks and Demons had secretly signed a heads of agreement to merge.
"Is that of any interest?" he asked me, perhaps somewhat naively. "Yeah, I think we might be able to do something with that," I responded, trying to keep a straight face.
Big news stories both. But they're not my favourite memories. As important as are the political machinations surrounding the AFL, the scandal, the contract disputes and the boardroom power plays, they're all just a means to an end. Which is the actual game.
My fondest memories remain covering innumerable classic matches, and the great players and coaches I've been fortunate to deal with, absorbing their knowledge about the game while learning more about them as people.
I feel honoured to have in 2008 chaired a panel of footy legends who selected their top 50 players of all time, getting to debate the merits of various candidates alongside Tom Hafey and Bob Davis, those two sadly no longer with us, Ron Barassi, Ken Hands and long-time Age chief football writer Ron Carter. That will remain a treasured memory.
I've been able to spend weeks at a time inside various clubs, sit in on team and selection meetings, and in coaches' boxes on match day to give football fans and readers an idea about what makes clubs tick.
They have been fantastic learning experiences. But the overriding lesson I continue to take away is that no matter how much the AFL is a professional workplace, what drives a vast majority of those involved isn't money, fame or, in our case a headline, but, more essentially, a lifelong love of and passion for the greatest game in the world.
This is my final piece for The Age. But I will stay just as involved in football via my work with SEN, the Marngrook Footy Show, and my own website called, appropriately, Footyology.
It's a bug, really. One I can't shake. But what a beautiful affliction it is.
* You can find me on Twitter at @rohan_connolly and Facebook facebook.com/RohanConnollyAFL