For a long time – even longer than I’ve been of beer-drinking age – I’ve loved those old painted posters that would feature both in and outside pubs between the 1950s through to the 1970s.

They often focused on men playing sport and suggested that a beer would be the ideal refresher after the game. And the beer in question included a number of now defunct labels; KB, Resch’s Dinner Ale and Tooth’s Sydney Bitter.

Clearly there’s an element of nostalgia working here – I can remember seeing them on suburban pubs as we drove by them in the family car through the 1970s. But for ages I’ve hankered a urge to own one of these as a print, though I’d not seen any for years and years.

Until yesterday at Coledale markets. There in a stall selling framed pictures, amid an extraordinary number of pictures featuring drawings and paintings of ladies wearing not very much, were a few of these posters.

I was quite excited. Until I realised that, like most married men, I was going to have to run this by the wife first. And I figured there was no way she’d have that in the house. I was right. So I gave up my small dream – but only for a little while.

I came back to her with a proposal – how about I hang it in the garage? It made sense, not because I’m a handy guy who spends ages tinkering in the garage (that is so not me) but because the garage is where all my homebrewing stuff is kept. And she relented.

So I picked the picture above, because it has extra resonance for me. Firstly, it’s for a beer that no longer exists, so it’s “historical”. Secondly, the team wearing the Red V, is the now St George Illawarra Dragons (then they were just the St George Dragons) – my favourite team since 1976. Thirdly, the team they’re playing is North Sydney who were known as the Bears. And Bear is my nickname.

I really love this picture, so much so that I hung it as soon as we got home and went into the garage several times yesterday to look at it. And again this morning while I was eating breakfast.

Wonder how long I have to wait before I push my luck and try and buy a second one?