a certain whiff

Boosterists,

The precise statistical details of the Triumphant Premiership Year escape me for the moment, in fact they are long gone, receded to the dark recesses of the brain.
But do seem to recall that the Swans handed out quite a few ten goal lessons at the Sydney Cricket Ground and the Olympic Stadium and contrived to win the close away games.
Is there a certain whiff on here viz a viz the flag?
A few of the Swans veterans would have the “sweet smell of victory” just about wafting into their nostrils…as they contemplate their swansongs.
Melbourne as a town doesn’t look north of the Murray very often.
Ten individual goal kickers up to half time - some kind of record surely?
The curiously laid back Channel Ten commentary tried to get excited with this call “and there we go – the Swans have just kicked the first 11 goals of the game”
Richmond Tigers must’ve picked up the fishwraps the morning after for a read ‘em and weep, as they described the debacle of 23 minutes into the second quarter before they could somehow find their first goal.
The way the forward line was working it looked for all the world like Magic, in his 300th game, was being carried around on a sedan chair.
That’s what you want in yr old age.
The Goodes Train was back to his Brownlow best for the first time this year.
His goal from 65m out while on a full tilt run after busting through a few tackles and bouncing the thing a couple of times, was an ‘absolute pearler’
You’d imagine everyone at the ground would have been wide eyed after that.
Didn’t get enough game time for mine, but made good use of what he got.
Kennelly is obviously on fairy-drugs, the way he floats around the back line And of course there’s The Kiddies – Playfair, Moore, Jack, Bird, Richards et al - who aren’t going to lose their places in the team in a hurry - and its always good seeing boys become men.
It’s been suggested to me that BBB “Slugger” Hall should make his way back into the team by playing a couple of games in reserves when he gets back from his holidays, so he can go around kicking goals and clocking blokes with complete impunity.



SYDNEY: 6.4, 13.7, 16.11, 21.13 (139). Goals: Buchanan 3, McVeigh 3, Goodes 2, O'Loughlin 2, Ablett 2, Playfair 2, Bird 2, Malceski, C.Bolton, Moore, O'Keefe, Bevan.
RICHMOND: 0.2, 1.6, 4.7, 8.9 (57). Goals: Deledio 2, Cotchin, Bowden, Brown, Moore, Foley, Schulz
At Sydney Cricket Ground.
Crowd 26,852.



Found myself in Dad’s Shed on a Monday evening for the second half of the Tigers game at the SFS v Easts, and the MMM radio call, with G.Gould going off.
Appeared that Wests were done in by some poor execution, most notably the Tuiaki kiddie running “80-90 metres” at a critical moment in second half and then choosing the wrong option as his finisher knocks-on in the in-goal, and the torrential rain at the Western Paddock for the last 20 minutes of the match.
But there was no lack of commitment or will to win.
Seasoned observers are saying the Tigers pack should probably be rated as the best going around in the comp at the moment, and as SC Sheens would be happy to tell anyone who’s prepared to listen, rugby league matches are won in the forwards.
That sort of loss doesn’t hurt too much on the ladder when you are beaten by the competition leaders, after beating the former competition leaders last week.
SC Sheens will just pull out the old coach’s ledger and scratch that one down into the column marked “we’ll learn from our losses”.


SYDNEY ROOSTERS 19. Tries: Aubusson (2), Pearce. Goals: Fitzgibbon (3). Field Goal: Pearce.
WESTS TIGERS 10. Tries: Farah, Tuiaki. Goals: Hogdson (1).
At Sydney Football Stadium.
Crowd 15,204.

on the retirement of TSC MacGill

Enthusiasts,

Cannot let the retirement of Stuart Charles Glyndwr “That Strange Cunt” MacGill from the test match arena, at the age of 36 [or is it 37?], pass without comment.
[A reminder on how he got his moniker. Found myself standing in a beer queue one day at a Sydney test match some years ago now, when Warne and MacGill were bowling in tandem. Struck up a conversation with a total stranger, who out of the blue said, “and that Stuart MacGill, now he’s a strange cunt, don’t you reckon?” He was forever afterwards known as TSC MacGill.]

He certainly set himself apart from the average first class cricketer in being a book reading wine drinker [having nothing much better to do, he allegedly read 24 novels on a tour of Pakistan, while arranging with the Australian Ambassador to bring a couple of cases of his favourite reds in through the diplomatic bag, from time to time].
Seems like we have been watching TSC play at the SCG since the dawn of time, he’s been such a part of the furniture at the old ground.
He was the classic strike bowler, for mine, on that track in particular
Could always be relied on to take a key wicket in a sticky situation, and while he was well known - like the boxer who let down his guard - for being hit, for plenty on a regular basis, he did in fact have a better strike rate than SR Warne in test cricket, and his average is only a couple of runs worse.
When on song, he had a bigger, and a better leg break than Warne’s, and his cleverly disguised arm ball, that fizzed off a huge SCG turner and went straight on, fooled many a good quality bat, to their cost.
For a bloke who should have appeared in more test matches than he did, undoubtedly his crowning achievement was joining the two hundred club.
As he himself put it “there are not that many children whose father’s have taken 200 test wickets”.
Also widely respected for having principles and some moral fibre when he refused to make himself available for the 2004 tour of Zimbabwe.
It was always a joy to watch “the comedy bat”, as he was known in the Ladies Stand, and his antics at No.11
Although there was the day when he featured in a tenth wicket century partnership for NSW [forget who with now, damn] and contributed a grand total of three runs.
He rated that as one of his finest achievements in the first class caper.
And of course he was possibly the most hapless, hopeless fielder in the modern era and his various skippers had to work hard to find places to hide him.
Met the bloke socially a couple of times, and he struck me as a jovial sociable normal sort of human being; so you have to admire the paradox that while off the field he behaved like a perfect gentleman, the stories of his on field indiscretions are legion.
There are far too many to mention.
But did like the time he clocked and laid out flat a team mate while playing in the Lancashire league [?], and called his own captain a “useless sh!t”
Or in the more recent past…the time at the start of last season when he got away with just a three match suspension for calling an umpire a “blind cunnt” and then some, in a Sydney grade match.
Or the time when a young Pakistan batsman during the Australia A tour there last year got so completely on his goat, that he utterly humiliated the poor kiddie with such an invective of abuse, that the boy became a jibbering nervous wreck, and never played a good game again.
TSC was sentenced to counselling for that one.
He was once asked why he never showed much emotion on the field [apart from thinly veiled volcanic fury when dealing with underperforming team mates, impudent batsmen or idiot umpires] or celebrated or even smiled when he was taking wickets, to which he replied “it’s too hard to smile, test cricket is just too hard for that”

Remember one day watching NSW play at the Newcastle No.1 Sports Ground.
TSC had just been dropped from the test side, and hadn’t had a very good day in the field turning out for his beloved Blues in the Milk Cup game.
At the end of the day’s play, the team were doing a warm down on the field, when a spectator walking by yelled out “Hey MacGill ! What’s it like when you’re about to join the ranks of the long term unemployed?”
Quick as a flash TSC retorted “Good. And I’ll be the one right behind you in the dole queue, mate.”

It’s always sad to see one of the last eccentrics and genuine characters give the game away.
But he’s done it gracefully, handing his tour mantle to the Casson kiddie to be the 401st.
No one like that will be allowed to play the game for Australia at the top level again.
He will be missed and fondly remembered.


Vale The Great TSC MacGill.