Weathermen,
After the best part of five inches of rain had fallen across the Emerald City in the week previous, weekend football was always going to be an interesting prospect on uncovered grounds.
On the first of only two trips this season to the Western Paddock where the turf is traditionally cut long, the Tigers tried the traditional wet weather techniques on a mud pile but found there was no forward momentum on the toe-poke and the grubber through the tall grass, then tried the bomb, but the Bulldogs' backs proved surprisingly solid in the air under the high ball.
Oh well, nothing for it then but some good ol' fashioned grunt in the forwards to establish field position, and then take your rare chances to score when they come.
With a narrow second half lead a 71st minute field goal was a dead set certainty to put on the one point break, but it came from a highly unlikely source via the young Lui kiddie, who has never kicked a football in his life, with the Best Leb in The Game again laying the decoy, just as he did the week previous in similar conditions.
Brilliant.
It was just the cleverer wet weather football of the two on show
Heard the ABC Radio sideline eye saying that when he was asking some Balmain official what the coach did at half time, Bryce Gibbs ran past him in the race on his way back onto the ground and called out "Sheens said - anyone who makes a run, take his head off".
Little wonder then that Gareth "That Pom" Ellis was named as a unanimous man-of the-match in made-to-measure conditions.
The bloke has no shortage of experience playing on the various quagmires scattered among the dark satanic mills of northern England.
SC Sheens again effusive in his praise on interview: ''In my time here, dollar-for-dollar, he's been the best buy this club has had.''
Ellis flew back to the UK on Monday so he can play for the Poms in a 'test' match against France this weekend at the brand new bleak stadium in Leigh.
Asked how he thought the French forwards would go up against "That Pom", SC Sheens simply replied "he'll kill them".
Did note mid-week that the NSW selectors named an unprecedented 21 man squad for State of Origin II, due to looming suspensions and niggling injury, while QLD named a regulation 13 man team, a four man bench, plus one standby, and yet, no where among them is there a Tigers player.
Admittedly, Balmain does field a few South Sea Islanders, some Poms, and a Kiwi, but if both sets of selectors are to be believed, the Mighty Tiges do not boast a player in Australia's top 39.
How does that work?
This for a team that after this weekend's bye, no matter what happens, will still be just two wins out of top place on the Premiership table.
The faceless men in charge of these state selection matters are obviously drunken court jesters who would not know a good player if one fell on them from a great height.
Doesn't matter.
Winners are grinners, and losers can just go please themselves.
CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS 12. Tries: Ryan, Morris. Goals: Goodwin (2).
WESTS TIGERS 19. Tries: Farah, Marshall, Dwyer. Goals: Marshall (3). Field Goals: Lui (1).
At Olympic Stadium, Homebush.
Crowd: 11,837.
Had to reach for the bottle of heart pills and a large snifter with the scores all tied up at half time and three quarter time and there being 17 lead changes throughout with the nine point margin at the finish being the biggest, after getting a feeling in my water that the Swans were about to be on the recieving end of another small-margin loss.
Very fortunate they eventually claimed the Marn Grook Trophy by the skin of their teeth.
The boggy track wasn't helped as it began to bucket down mid-way through the Championship Quarter.
Good thing they kicked more behinds than Essendon early in the game.
Symptomatic of Sydney's problems at the moment was Haneberry, brilliant one week, then completely missing in action the next.
Obviously likes the going to be on top of the ground.
Consistent week in week out performances by the best players is simply not there.
Back in football's olden days stretching well in the late 60's, they used to scratch certain footballers on dead tracks on badly maintained suburban grounds, going with the horses for courses principal, and playing well-known mud larks in their stead.
But that was back in the day when the drop kick for goal was still king.
The Swans should have opened up a match-winning lead when some buffoon playing for the Bombers going by the name of Courtenay Dempsey [what was his mother thinking and why didn't his father put a stop to it?] was slugged with a 100m penalty [the ground is only 152m long!], the first fifty for being a fool, then the second fifty for back-chatting the Bamford, but Marty Mattner wound up kicking himself when he blindly missed the gift from straight in front.
The Goodes Train, after struggling all day having lost [you would hope, only temporarily] his trade mark ball-on-a-string, and [more worryingly] a yard or two of pace, managed to somehow conjour up the match winning goal.
Who would have thought?
6-5 at the mid way point in the season after two close run things against similarly credentialed sides probably says the Swans are not good enough to do any better than the bottom half of the top eight, if that, unless they can pull the finger out of the dyke in the run home.
Not to worry, luck's a fortune, and they continue to do sensationally well at fudging the gate receipts.
A seasoned observer at the ground has told me off the record that he was astonished when the official crowd figure was announced at three-quarter time.
He got out the handy theodolite he had in his picnic hamper and did a rudimentary survey of the ground and concluded that if there were almost 30,000 in on the day, then the capacity of the SCG must be close to 65,000.
Last time I looked, even after they built the New Doug Walters Stand, the officially listed capacity of the SCG is now 46,000.
Mind you, it had begun to rain and some punters had left the ground by the last break, but it was by no means a steady stream, as the closeness of the match had kept most in, you would think.
In any case, you do the maths.
They must have all been in the bars...
Speaking of rorts...
Did note mid week, as an aside, that this week's state budget papers make a provision for the hapless put-upon NSW taxpayer to fork out no less than $35 million on the redevelopment of the old Olympic baseball venue at the Sydney Showground at Homebush to expand its capacity from 12,000 to 25,000 to serve as the home ground for Team GWS.
Exactly how many more white elephants do we need at Homebush?
When Uncle Kev Sheeds floated the idea with the former Premier, Nathan Rees, a year ago, Greasy Reesy publicly said on the record that the whole concept was quite ridiculous would be a "monumental waste of time and money".
My, oh my; the more things change, the more they stay the same.
SYDNEY: 3.3, 7.5, 10.12, 12.17 (89). Goals: White 3, Rohan 3, Bevan 2, Goodes 2, Smith, J. McVeigh.
ESSENDON: 2.2, 7.5, 11.6, 12.8 (80). Goals: Leroy Jetta 3, Gumbleton 2, Davey 2, Lonergan, Welsh, Howlett, M.McVeigh, Zaharakis.
At Sydney Cricket Ground.
Crowd: 29,321.
