AS PART of our On The Road series, Tiger Shane Edwards takes afl.com.au through the build up to the Dreamtime at the ‘G, and the Tigers' sad aftermath.

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Come behind the scenes of round nine with the rest of our On The Road series here.

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Gameday morning
I WOKE up at about nine on Saturday morning. I got up straight away so I wouldn’t lie in bed and think about the game. I’m nervous before every game but especially this one as it had more meaning behind it. I had big butterflies.

Then I went and had breakfast. The family I live with like to sleep in on a Saturday morning so it was quiet while I was eating my cereal and toast. During breakfast I try not to think about the game because I don’t want to think about it too early in the day.

After breakfast I just watched a bit of TV. Then I went and met Tas (Tasman Clingan) at Highpoint shopping centre. We just walked around and then had a bit of lunch which kind of took my mind off the game a bit.

When I went back home I slept for about an hour. I got up at 2.30 and that’s when I really started to think about the game. I had a shower and put my suit on like it was a new day. That’s something the club advises us to do when it’s a night game, to go for a nap and after you get up, treat it like it’s a new day.

Pre-game
While driving to the MCG, I had two sandwiches, that was about 4pm. I arrived at the MCG at 5pm and watched a quarter of the indigenous game. It was a really quality game and really fun to watch. Then it was into the rooms and some of the other players were already there. Everyone has different ways of spending their time before the game. I like to just walk around and keep myself relaxed and talk to players. When I put all my gear on, that’s when I really start to tense up, but you’ve always got to try and keep yourself relaxed.

There was a different atmosphere in the rooms this week. You could just tell it was special for everyone. It was Andrew Krakouer’s 100th game. Danny Frawley (former Richmond coach) came in and spoke to the team because he’s a close mate of Krakouer’s. He talked about how special the game is because of the ‘Dreamtime’. He sang Krakouer’s praises and talked about how Krakouer’s become the man he is. It pumped everyone up heaps.

When I ran out onto the field I noticed that there was a much bigger crowd and you just knew that it was going to be a big occasion. They were setting up a stage on the field during our warm up and we knew that the next time we ran out onto the field for our line-ups it would be huge.

When we did come back out onto the field, I felt tense but then, you always feel tense. Once the warm up starts it just feels like another game. You can’t get any more pumped up than when you’re out there.

The game
It was a huge moment when Andrew Krakouer scored his 100th goal in his 100th game in the first quarter. It came up on the big screen. It was a huge moment in the game especially considering that it was Indigenous Round. All the players went to him, we were so pleased for him.

We were behind at quarter-time because they kicked a few quick goals early but we did a good job of just holding them for the rest of the quarter. We didn’t let them get away from us and they were still in our sights.

At half-time we were ahead, but we’ve been in a lot of winning positions before [without winning a game] so we knew it wasn’t the time to take the foot off the pedal. The Bombers hadn’t won a Dreamtime game yet, so we always expected them to come out strong.

We were still ahead at three-quarter-time, as we have been before, but this time was different. There was just a feeling that something big was going to happen. No one relaxed at all, we really wanted the win.

In the last quarter when Chris Newman made a tackle (on Winderlich) and the ball went straight to the other end and Richo scored a goal from it, we were three goals ahead. You kind of felt that that’s the type of stuff that wins games. When that happened, you just didn’t think that anything could go wrong.

But then they came back so quick. It was almost like you just blinked and they were in front. I think we just lost concentration. They got on a roll and we didn’t really do much to stop them.

When Richardson scored the goal (to go ahead which was disallowed), I had started to run over to celebrate. Then, all of a sudden Essendon had taken the ball back and my man was 50m up the field so I had to chase him down before the play started again. You don’t have time to think about why it’s turned over, the first thing you think of is 'Where’s my man?'.

I felt so sorry for Richo after all he’d gone through this week, with all the pain he’s had, to have him play well and almost be best on ground. It was such a big effort from him and that’s why it was so disappointing.

When the final siren went I just couldn’t believe it. We had been winning just a few minutes ago. We just couldn’t believe that we didn’t take away that win. I would have given anything there and then to have won it.

Post-match and the next day
After getting changed, I went straight home. I live a fair distance away from the ground so I didn’t get home until about 12.30am. I was buggered. I just sat down and had dinner with (teammate) Daniel Connors, who stayed at my house. We just watched TV and went to bed - we didn’t really want to talk about football at all. It was really hard to sleep because you’re just thinking about what could have happened.

At recovery on Sunday morning, I was still thinking about the match. You just want to win. I’ve never won an AFL game so I’m just really curious to know how it feels.

When recovery ended, we were free for the day. I went to Daniel’s house and then accidentally locked my keys in my car and spent half the day trying to get them out, using a coat hanger to try and unlock the door.

Overall it wasn’t a good weekend so I just stayed at home for the rest of the day and got an early night.