Denizens of the cheap seats,
Gave the solitary Saints fan on the way back home from the ground on the event bus a bit of lip.
But he refused to take the bait, a rotund melancholy looking bloke he was, the only thing he would say to me was:
“ah well, any win’s a good win, innit?”
Win ugly, win often, win well.
The bottom line was the Saints made the fatal mistake of trying to play the Swans at their own game, producing the ugliest game of the season by far.
The plan was always going to fail.
And that’s why no-one wants to play Sydney in the finals.
After the 13,000 people flooded the paying arena for the Field of Women show, they had to re-mark up the centre and goal squares and the fifty’s with new white paint before it was game on.
The angel flew over the ground early and managed to get my one and only big hooter call away mid-way through the first quarter as the ground fell almost silent, “WAKE UP SWANS!”
Turned a few hundred heads, but doubt that it was heard on the field of play from the cheap seats.
McVeigh’s late goals in the opening stanza saved us early, and it soon became apparent that less than 15 goals would be enough to win the thing.
Stole a Vili’s pie as you do, but came to regret it, as the good lady wife and the children accused me of letting go a “sew-er-age” fart at full time.
Hiding up in one corner of the pastry was surely a bit of ox kidney.
The unmistakable taste, the unique flavour of offal in your footy pie.
Fantastic.
Goes well with a Tooheys New at the self serve bar.
Pity you can’t just slip a plastic schooner of beer past the checkout in the pocket of your jacket.
Along Came A Schneider’s miracle second quarter goal right in front of us certainly got the punters going and managed to get the Swans into the five-all position at the main break.
At half time, as is my wont, found myself having a very quiet number at the service gate adjacent to Gate P in the prevailing breeze so as not to draw attention to myself, next to the tremendous cloud of tobacco smoke that is the designated smoking area out the back of Bay 146 at half time.
Suddenly, saw a surge of security guards running towards me, but before I had time to think “what have I done wrong, this time?”, casually stepped out of the way, and they rushed past me and roughly threw a couple of drunks out of the ground.
The smokers hardly blinked.
A very solid Championship Quarter for a one goal jump at three quarter time was good enough for me, and it was just about time to call ‘game over’.
It’s was a pity the Ugliest Man in Football was ruled out before the match began, along with Leaping Leo Barry, but the Swans backline was never going to be a problem with C.Bolton putting in an outstanding game, almost single handedly locking down Gehrig and Riewoldt, making sure they didn’t go completely out of control.
Forward line lacked structure with BBB Hall having an average, goalless, night, while hardly a mark was taken inside 50 in the first half [admittedly it’s not easy when its completely flooded every time the ball goes anywhere near the Swans goal].
Magic’s miracle final quarter goal to put the issue beyond doubt could not disguise the fact that the bloke is a sad shadow of his former self; not only has he lost a yard in pace, he’s lost plenty of yards, marking is no longer as safe as houses as it used to be, and he can’t rely on his ageing body to outmuscle opponents when the ball goes to ground.
Sincerely hope someone he trusts and listens to is whispering the “R” word in his ear.
For mine, Buchanan was best on ground for the second week running; in everything from start to finish.
The last three games of the season are all tricky ones, but the match against Collingwood at the home of the Grand Final is absolutely critical.
Given that, SC Roos is a very happy man with what appeared to be a forlorn hope just a matter of a few weeks ago – a top four finish – now materialising as a distinct possibility.
SYDNEY: 2.2, 5.5, 9.7,
12.10 (82). Goals: McVeigh 3, Schneider, Fosdike, Everitt, Ablett, O'Loughlin, Mathews, Davis, Schmidt, Malceske.
ST KILDA: 3.4, 5.5, 8.9,
9.11 (65). Goals: Gehrig 2, Riewoldt 2, Milne, Attard, Dal Santo, Clarke, Hayes.
At Stadium Australia, Homebush.
Crowd: 63,369.
When you’ve kicked a penalty goal with Benji on song with the boot to get yourself into extra time you know you are always going to be behind the eight ball.
It was very clever of the Roosters to see the Tigers were looking at the heavens and playing for the field goal, and then make the set play for the match winning try - easy as pie.
None of the Balmain boys played badly, or did anything particularly wrong.
Benji was in everything, and his kicks in play were classic five eighth stuff.
The kiddie desperately wants to be a classic five eighth, but it is particularly sad to see SC Sheens now forced to openly admit that he has to re-train Marshall as a winger, as there is nowhere else he can play him.
The coaching staff has had to come face-to-face with the reality that if the bloke gets another “episode” of the shoulder injury, it would almost certainly be career over at age 22.
That obviously limits the attractiveness of such a hugely talented player, and they would have to pay him less money next season to keep him under the salary cap, given that they have let Whatuira go to Huddersfield in the English Premier League, to be with a few old Balmain boys including John Skandalis, for precisely that reason.
Excellent to see The Great Hoddo play after he had made himself unavailable due to the impending birth of his second child.
But he’s obviously married to a good football wife, as Skye Hoddo duly delivered Christian Blair Hoddo in the early hours of Friday morning, to go with daughter Annaliese Hoddo.
Hoddo played in jersey number 21, and had a blinder to boot.
And oh the injuries!
Some Roosters players appeared to spend more time on the back of Medi-Cab than off it, and Robbie Farah looked gone for all money with a hip injury, but came back in the best Gallipoli style, and soldiered on.
It’s not often that you see steam coming out of SC Sheens’ ears, but that was exactly what was observed after the “pretty ordinary penalty” in the 72nd minute, when the Lawrence toddler was done for obstruction during a Roosters bomb, when he was for all intents and purposes running backwards, and never for a moment took his eye off the ball.
Go figure.
The Roosters scored and took the two point lead on next set of six tackles
SC Sheens on interview after the game gave the Bamford both barrels:
“My chat to [referee’s boss] Robert Finch was a waste of time…we lost the game, I’m not disputing that, but you don’t like stupid decisions and that was a stupid decision. It was a poor decision. You don’t mind mistakes…but a poor decision is
not acceptable”.
We can now add Tony Archer to the Ship of Fools.
Beaten in extra time can cruel any team’s chances, and we shall see where it falls into the laps of the stats guru’s come Tuesday.
The Tigers are just the heartbreak team of the year, aren’t they? – impossible to follow.
4 losses to start the season, followed by the purple patch of seven consecutive wins, then this:
L-W-L-L-W-W-L-L-W-L-L.
Perhaps it is time for the first serious visit to the Room Full of Mirrors on Balmain road.
When the season is on the line, it’s always a good look if you take a good look at yourself.
WESTS TIGERS 22 Tries: Farah, Te'o, Fulton. Goals: Marshall (5)
SYDNEY ROOSTERS 26 Tries: Roberts (2), Monaghan (2), Aubusson. Goals: Roberts (3).
At Stadium Australia, Homebush.
Crowd: 25, 166
