Bleacherites,
The only good thing about the Swans playing the Cats at Kardinia Park was my conspicuous absence.
After last years ill-fated sojourn to the ground, only to find myself watching my team get beat by a narrow margin in the freezing rain on the standing room only Gary Ablett Terrace as home supporters knocked beers out of my hand; the cry went up “never again”!
Still suffering post traumatic stress disorder from that one a year later.
It was always going to be a struggle after the week that was, without BBB “Slugger” Hall at spearhead, and the late scratching of the Great Irishman [who somehow managed to contrive to do his groin in on the plane down to Avalon!], so, that would have knocked their confidence from the off.
And yet they held their own very well for the first three quarters, and actually blew the Cats off the park in the second stanza, but it was always going to be a case of getting rings run around them by the young Geelong kiddies when everyone else had run out of legs.
It just seemed inevitable from early on that the flood gates would open near the death.
SC Roos was quizzed on interview after the game about The Goodes Train struggling to find any form, and St Paul was forthright on the subject, describing it as a ”massive concern”.
How they bang their heads together and what the two of them can do about it could hold one of the keys to the season.
Magic sadly exposed as being at least two yards too slow for blokes with talent who are ten years younger than him.
The creaking bones, joints and muscles that won’t move as you want them to will always find you out in the end, regardless of your prodigious talent and huge football brain.
Thought Rhino Keefe had an outstanding game and yet he was largely overlooked in the fish wraps’ list of best players.
Football scribes are just as blind as Bamford’s when it comes to Brownlow medal voting.
The difference between the two sides was undoubtedly one Gary Ablett Jnr.
The callow yoof is a genius, a freak, and the finest argument yet for the merits of genetic engineering.
The rough and ready folk on the GATSRO with the banner which reads “The Pontiff’s Seed is Strong” would have had a marvelous day out at the football.
GEELONG 6.2 7.8 8.13 16.18 (114) Goals: Johnson 4, Stokes 4, G.Ablett 3, Bartel 2, Hunt, Mooney, Wojcinski.
SYDNEY 1.2 6.7 7.9 10.12 (72) Goals: Barlow 2, Moore 2, L.Ablett, Bevan , J.Bolton, Davis, Jolly, O'Keefe.
At Kardinia Park, Geelong.
Crowd: 24,368.
Stuck in the office again on Sunday so found myself many miles away from the 100th anniversary match at the SCG; played 100 years to the day since the first time the two teams met […Balmain v Souths, at least] in the very first round of first grade rugby league ever played in Sydney.
Perhaps they should have played the match at the original ground, Birchgrove Oval, being the natural amphitheatre that it is, and just let the punters mill about willy nilly as they surely would have done back on an autumn afternoon with a magnificent view of the harbor in 1908.
Still, the G was a nice touch for the “heritage round”, and they knew the crowd would not have all got in if they had played it at Leichhardt Oval.
After the traditional softening up period it was alarming to see the Rabbits crash over for a couple of first half tries and lead 10-zip.
It was starting to look like SC Sheen’s prediction of “a hard month ahead for the club” was about to come true.
But he must have told them in the sheds at half time that if you can’t beat Souths, then you might as well not be in the comp.
The boys appeared to harden up in the second half and Russell’s Softcocks had no answer after the break for the Balmain backs, and especially the finishing work of natural born big rangy wingers like the Lawrence and Te’o kiddies
Trust the physio has warned Farah off the wok bench as the side desperately needs him to recover from Shaggers Back and add a bit of stiffness to the forwards.
What extra dimension the Great Benji can bring to the side, if and when he returns from sick bay, remains to be seen.
After boycotting the Team of the Century Dinner at which he was named in the front row, ahead of many others, it was heartening to see the great Artie Beetson take time out from his busy schedule to attend the Cricket Ground for the game.
Spies report he was last seen going backwards up the stairs in the Members Bar….
WESTS TIGERS 30. Tries: Collis, Flanagan, Heighington, Lawrence, Te'o. Goals: Hodgson (5).
SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS 10. Tries: Champion, Rogers. Goals: Merritt (1).
At Sydney Cricket Ground.
Crowd: 19,122.
