Beautifully evocative piece by Dugald Jellie on the Melburnian connection to place and seasonality as the footy season dawns like one of March’s calm rosy sunrises.

Come Thursday night, with the MCG light towers aglow, when crowds follow pathways through a forest dark – between the boles of scar trees, through history – when football starts anew, there’s only one ground where the eyes and hearts of barrackers will be.

Australian Rules Football, still partly a tribal affair. We’ve even resurrected the departmental footy tipping competition!