Spectators,
A strong training run for the Swans on a chilly, breezy Sunday afternoon in Canberra.
Not much more to be learnt from giving the hapless Demons an eight goal football lesson, apart from the fact that they shouldn’t have let in the last couple of Melbourne goals, and boosted their percentage even further.
Thought Buchanan had a blinder; in everything from the off, and did a Goodes Train impression, in that he was capable of bobbing up all over the ground with the ball on string.
Rhino Keefe had another great game, Along Came A Schneider is finding some real late season form, Fosdike played well for the second week in a row, Malceski held the back line together as usual, and even Spida made some useful contributions in the ruck.
SC Roos relaxed the forward structure to the point where there were no less than 12 –count’ em – 12 different goals kickers, but against the defence offered up by the Demons, it was a day when virtually anyone could have a pop and be more or less guaranteed a major.
Richmond followed by Melbourne is not exactly a great yardstick for the pointy end, but next weekend’s encounter against St Kilda in the last home game of the season at the Western Paddock will be a better measure of how the Swans are travelling up to the big ones.
Tickets are in hand.
Surely there must have been some discussion at the Monday morning smoko at the magic waters at the Bronte Sea Pool about how to approach the seemingly impossible in the modern game – how to qualify for the Grand Final without having the benefit of a home final early in September?
It’s a question that will take some pondering.
MELBOURNE: 0.2, 3.4, 5.5,
9.10 (64). Goals: Holland 3, Davey 2, Jamar, Miller, Neitz, Newton
SYDNEY: 5.1, 10.5, 14.9,
17.10 (112). J.Bolton 2, Buchanan 2, Jolly 2, O'Keefe 2, Schneider 2, Ablett, N.Davis, Goodes, Grundy, Hall, Malceski, O'Loughlin
At Manuka Oval, Canberra.
Crowd: 11,266.
This is sounding more and more like a broken record – but the Might Tiges wuz robbed – yet again!
Good thing I only caught the radio call on this one, otherwise I would’ve have been trying to reach into the television to strangle the ref
Absolutely caned in the first half penalties, with the Titan’s scoring on almost every subsequent set of six and cruelling the Tigers chances by half time.
And it didn’t help that the first try of the game saw that rat traitor Scotty Prince put in a bomb, only to see it ricochet off the cross bar, back into the field of play, where it was scooped up and run into the in-goal with ease – never mind that half a dozen Titans players were offside!
Even the ever cautious SC Sheens had a go at the Bamford in a subtle way, reminding him that Balmain is the least penalised team in the entire competition.
SC Sheens also reminded anyone who would listen that of the five games the Tigers have had with Steven Clarke as the match official, they have only won one.
Tells you plenty.
Obviously, this particular Bamford, Steven Clarke, along with Paul Simpkins, and to hell with it – while we are naming names – the Chief Bamford, Robert Finch, are all fools to themselves, and a burden on the community.
Didn’t help either that the Great Hoddo was a late withdrawl due to a corked knee [what other injury can he get this year?].
And Titans coach Cartwright also freely admitted that he employed the very sneaky tactic of using the two former Tigers players in his side, that rat traitor Prince, and that notorious enforcer Warren Lanfranchi, to deliberately slow down the play-the-ball in order to nullify the effectiveness of Farah around the ruck.
Worked pretty well by all accounts.
Nothing the opposing coach can do about it, and remarkably, if done subtly, it’s not even against the rules!
Amazingly, the loss didn’t do too much damage to the Tigers on the ladder, sitting comfortable in eighth, and only one win out of the top four.
In fact, there was even some mid-week talk about a home final, and the fact that it should be played at Leichhardt Oval, as Balmain is “a two-try better team at Leichhardt”.
But you can bet your bottom dollar it won’t be.
Any home final will be at the Olympic Stadium, as there’s not near enough capacity at Leichhardt, even if they charged twice the price on the supply and demand factor, and it costs the club a fortune to gear up the ancient ground for a game day anyway.
But SC Sheens would be aghast as such talk, saying we are getting way ahead of ourselves here.
Even so, given that the last four games are all against teams below the Tigers on the current table, it should be achievable, and then as we’ve seen in the not too distant past, anything’s possible from there.
GOLD COAST TITANS 30. Tries: Cooper, Webster, Delaney, Lewis, Laffranchi. Goals: Delaney (5).
WESTS TIGERS 14. Tries: Tuiaki (2), Lawrence. Goals: Marshall (1).
At Carrara Oval, Gold Coast.
Crowd 17,257.
