"take pleasure in suffering"

Self-flagellators,

Nurse! Brandy!
After a frightful first-class floggling at the hands of the Pygmies the week prior, the truly magnificent win by Sydney on Saturday night to be one game out of the Grand Final begs the question -- for how long can we hold our breath?
Was it better to be a Hawthorn fan and go out in straight sets and resume a "normal" life until next year?
Why do we put ourselves through the fear, the anxiety, the tremors, the agony and the ecstacy?
For what?
Because football is much more important than the very minor issue of life and death itself, that's why.
To quote the introduction to John Arlott's How To Watch Cricket:

"Many different people, though, derive different pleasures from the game. Some, indeed, seem to take pleasure in suffering; the partisan, overjoyed by his team winning, is likely to agonize over their defeat. Everyone who even remotely understands the game will respond to its drama."

Applies to all sports and all crazed fanatical fans.
In retrospect, it was one of the best decisions of my life to spend the entirety of September 2014 - when the Swans also brought the The Curse of Minor Premiership upon on themselves - in north-western France, where they don't care for football and there are no scoreboxes in the back pages of Le Monde.
Best not to make any predictions or give away money to bookmakers, you have to see a Gypsy for that, because they are the only ones who know what the future holds.

SYDNEY 7.3, 10.5, 12.9, 18.10 (118). Goals: Franklin 4, Papley 4, McGlynn 3, X. Richards 2, Rohan, Parker, Hannebery, Mitchell, Heeney.
ADELAIDE 3.2, 4.4, 8.9, 12.10 (82). Goals: Betts 3, Cameron 2, Lynch 2, Walker 2, McGovern 2, Thompson.
At Sydney Cricket Gound.
Crowd: 38,136.