‘I would like to send my condolences to the Drapton family, and everyone who knew him, as a friend, or just a person’ read the obituary handed out from the priest - written from Nouse

It wasn’t a happy ending for Coburg. The saviour killed in a hit and run, with the perpetrator still on the run. His description was a tall man with long hair, but that was about it.

As the funeral ended, the team started to leave, commanded by Nouse and Jack. When they were just about to get on the bus to leave, a man standing in the corner caught the attention of Nouse.

He was a tall man, maybe 6’3 with a clean shaven beard and buzz cut - it was too clean. Something about him caught the attention of Nouse, but somehow not anybody else on the team.

‘What are you doing here’ asked Nouse, suspiciously.

‘I’m Lachie, Lachie Bennet. I worked with Scott when he was the Manager at Bevmarks’

This tracked, as Scott was the manager 15 years ago, before he became the coach. However, Nouse was still sceptical. He had a silver watch on his wrist, something far too fancy for a funeral.

‘Nouse’ called out Jack. ‘Let’s head off man, it’s getting late’

‘Alright’ responded Nouse. Before he left, he brought himself close to Lachie

‘If your gonna want to take over the team and run the team into the ground, then your not making it out alive. I’m always strapped’

Nouse flashed a Swiss Army knife from his pocket. This was enough to get Lachie to back off. He never responded however.

On the bus, the team passed the intersection between Edward St and Sydney Road - the place were Scott was hit. A flower memorial was placed outside Surging Steaks, and the tram arriving had a small memorial advertisement for Scott. Coburg was rallying around Scott like never before.

‘Jack, what should I do with those flowers, I can’t just leave them here on the street’ asked Nouse.

‘It’s your choice, we can probably plant them outside the stadium’ replied Jack

‘Alright, I’ll come down tonight’

When Nouse came down that night to bring over the flowers, he had the trauma rushing back. Memories of seeing Scott get hit and dragged, his flesh running across the road. Nouse almost forgot that he was still on the road.

After almost joining Scott in heaven, he traversed over to the flowers, there were almost 50 separate bunches of flowers, along with notes and cougars from build a bear. However, a photo was tucked into one of the flowers, a bouchet of Red Lilly’s, with a piece of paper sticking out. Nouse put it in his pocket without opening it.

Taking the flowers over to the stadium wasn’t the hard part, it was keeping his emotions together. He believes he should of been there aswell, if Scott ever went somewhere, Nouse did as well. The one time he didn’t, he left his only family. The rest of his family was still back in Senegal.

After arriving at the stadium, he spent the rest of the night planting the flowers on the outside of the stadium. There is a path leading from Scott’s house next door to the entrance, and for the rest of the night Nouse planted the flowers individually across the grass patch.

It left a mark, a wave of colour in a dark time. From that point on, that would not only be a sanctuary for Nouse and the Cougars, but the place for his gravestone to be layed.

By the time Nouse was done, it was almost morning. Nouse’s phone started to ring.

He ignored it.

It rang again.

He ignored it.

It continued to ring.

Nouse finally brought the phone out of his pocket, an unknown number. Against his better judgment, he answered the phone.