OK, Canberra. It's time to take the Brumbies out of the deep freeze. Like many of you over the past 20 years, I've drifted in and out of love with the team.
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Questionable decisions, dubious governance and an arrogant self-importance turned me off. The team and organisation lost its way and they lost me.
I won't fill in the salacious details or bore you with a "world according to Pembroke'' post-mortem, but what I will say is that the sins of the past don't belong to the team that will take the field on Saturday night against the Otago Highlanders.
These boys deserve a full-throated, rowdy, old-school Brumbies' crowd. Tom Wright is mercurial, Corey Toole electric and Tamati Tua must have spiders on him.
''Sideshow Bobby V'' Rob Valetini is a menace on both sides of the ball while my favourite, the ''giraffe on roller skates'', Nick Frost, is just getting better and better.
Allan Alaalatoa, on retirement, must surely join the Brumbies fall of fame. Stephen "Bernie" Larkham and his coaching team have done a superb job in shaping this young team.
His insistence that the team re-establish its relationship with the community has been persistent and sincere. His admission on his return from three years in Ireland of the mistakes he made during his first stint as Brumbies coach was heartfelt and humble.
These boys and this team are playing for each other and they are playing for us. Super Rugby and rugby more broadly has its challenges. No question.
But Super Rugby is the leading provincial Rugby union competition in a sport with over 800 million followers.
Winning it will bring more attention to Canberra than a 1000 Floriades.
The Brumbies are a precious Canberra sporting icon with a global reputation for excellence, which has been built on more than 28 years against proving doubters wrong and being true to the club's core values.
We take them for granted at our peril. So how about it, Canberra? How about we let bygones be bygones. Let's agree that 20 years of penance is enough and, if you can, dust off your old jerseys and beanies and get to the stadium on Saturday night.
I met Darcy Swain for the first time at Garry Quinlivan's wake. It was a day when the Brumbies family - new, old and forgotten - gathered to remember the great man who was and remains our heart and soul.
Darcy said to me "it must have been great to be involved with the team when the stadium was packed''. It was, Darcy. It was. So how about it, Canberra?
How about we send Darcy Swain off to Perth with a memory he and his teammates deserve. They've certainly earnt it.
- David Pembroke was a founding member of the Brumbies and an adviser to the team from 1996-2004.
