It’s a special time of year. The NRL finals are edging towards the Big Dance and the Roosters are set to win the comp, despite everything the NRL throws at them by suspending Our Latrell.

However, enough of footy, at least until after the grand final when we can celebrate a Roosters’ premiership. Unless the NRL finds cause to suspend another half dozen of our players beforehand.

As is always the case at this time of year, things are particularly busy up on Struggle Street. We’re currently organising the annual spring clean.

This, let us assure, is a monumental task. It would be comparable we would imagine to the planning that went into the D Day landing.

For we’re the first to admit that things can get a little messy at Struggle Street. And the fact that we aren’t particularly enthusiastic about cleaning up the aforementioned mess certainly doesn’t help the situation. True, we do employ a cleaner, who does a mighty job in difficult circumstances. However, within a week of our cleaner finishing our hovel is again in a state of disarray.

But cometh the hour cometh the man. In the course of the next few weeks this correspondent will be working hard to ensure Struggle Street is again in pristine condition.

It’ll be a frenzy of cleaning, the like that hasn’t been seen since last spring.

However, we may have to admit defeat with our microwave. In fact, it may be time to send our microwave to the place they go when their use by date has expired. At the moment it is not a pretty sight. A mere glance at our microwave would make hardened front line soldiers queasy.

It carries the remnants of hundreds of meals we’ve warned up over the years. For whatever reason we’ve never bothered too much about cleaning the thing. There is no explanation for this, other than the fact that this correspondent is by nature, extremely lazy.

We think we’ll have to establish a base camp before we attempt to clean the microwave. We may even need a bottle of two of hospital brandy for fortification. A tetanus booster probably wouldn’t go astray either.

This will be a difficult task but we’re confident we will prevail. But even after we emerged battered but victorious, there will be no time for celebration. 

For then we’ll have to tackle the bathroom. For that we’re going to need one of those anti-radiation suits. We suppose we’ll eventually have to get around to washing up the dishes as well, given we've just about run out of clean dishes. We have two options here, do the washing up or get a new dog.

So there’s no time to waste. It’s time to start cleaning. Make Struggle Street Clean Again will be the call. We’re heading for a busy few weeks.