Braden Stevens, Todd Currie and Mitch Jolly soak up the rays, makeshift style, at Saturday's BFL grand final.
THE best weather in Ballarat since last summer happened to coincide with the Ballarat Football League Grand Final on Saturday.
But while most eyes were glued to the 36 players on the ground, The Courier kept an eye on the estimated 6400 footy fans packed in at Eastern Oval and soaked up the atmosphere as the crowd soaked up the sun.
As is traditional, the most die-hard fans from both Sunbury and Redan kept well away from each other at almost opposite ends of the ground, with casual observers wedged in between.
Indeed, most Redan supporters kept well clear of the Peel Street end of the ground, where the most vocal Sunbury group were quick to ask any opposition supporter - ever so politely - to check the scoreboard.
Despite the blow-out on the field, one group of boys made sure their day was water-tight.
Sebastopol’s Mitch Jolly declared he’d spent “months” designing his masterpiece for the day - his makeshift pool in the back of a ute gave the Scotts Parade wing a relaxed 1980’s feel.
Hamburgers were shovelled into the crowd like coals into a steam boiler, while younger footy fans did their best copying the “big boys” on the field, snapping goals from impossible angles between bins, trees - anything they could find.
So while many are now dealing with the sunburn that inevitably follows Ballarat’s first decent spring day, no-one can complain they didn’t have a rosy time at the footy in 2012.