Heart Patients,
Given his appalling record as a goal kicker, The Great Benji's field goal attempt from just inside his own half somewhere near the middle of the 50 metre line seemed preposterous at best.
And yet the ball sailed sweetly off the boot, flew high wide and handsome; had plenty of height and no trouble with the distance, but managed to shave a coat of paint off the left upright before gently rolling across the dead ball line just as the half-time hooter sounded for no result,
Never mind that it was roundly applauded as a red hot go.
Noticed SC Sheens has a very clever ploy going on, based on the paradox that no one can fault Marshall with his kicking in general play.
Benji never kicked on the last tackle at any point in the match; always got the clearing kick away on the 3rd or 4th tackle.
That way the valve on the pressure cooker is released, you make the opposition do a lot more work in attack for very little territorial advantage, while your forwards take up the invitation to bash the visitors from pillar to post.
That will take the puff and the stuffing out of any side, especially if they don't have fresh legs to put on the in the last 20 minutes.
Coach doesn't mind being behind, knowing the likelihood of coming home under a wet sail is always likely.
If there were any kiddies at the ground their mentors would do doubt have been instrructing them to take a close look at proceedings as "an excellent text book example of well-coached team-work, against the odds"
Inglis for Souths was the only fly in the ointment early, with seasoned observers at the ground questioning whether his shoulder charge is actually legal.
He lines his intended victim up with a tank gun, and then boom!
However, the resultant bone-rattling bell-ringer is late more often than not, moments after the tacklee has disposed of the ball.
The thug obviously thinks its not illegal unless you get caught, so continues to go on with it, and is only encouraged as the Bamfords by and large see nothing wrong with it.
Go figure.
Speaking of Bamfords, after a minor stink in the second half it was rather humourous to see the ref, officiating in just his 8th first grade game, dress down the players saying "now listen up, you blokes can't take the law into your own hands".
Yeah. Right.
And then Marshall gets sin-binned for ten minutes with four minutes left in the match for holding a player down in the tackle, and strides off to the rooms to a standing ovation.
The Best Leb In the Game and The Great Benji superbly orchestrated the set plays, and the continuation of the Farah/Marshall show, week in, week out, will be the difference between winning and losing all season.
Lord help us if either of them gets run over by a George Street bus.
The return of That Pom Ellis adds starch to the pack, but there's still nine first graders in Sick Bay, with none of them back any time soon.
Even with an injury list that long, SC Sheens sees no need to throw the new wunderkid Jacob Miller in at the deep end, bringing him on only in the 65th minute.
There's always delicious satisfaction beating Souths, especially after being at the SCG last year to see Balmain absolutely flogged by the Rabbitohs 50-10 [the game the players were forced to apologise to the fans for, and the tipping point that sent them on the road to finishing 3rd].
Did like the shot on the crystal bucket of Rusty Crowe sitting all by himself in the Souths Owner's Box, with all the other people squeezed as tightly as they could into the opposite corner.
The bloke must stink.
Either that, or he's a sore loser.
WESTS TIGERS 30. Tries: Dwyer (2), Brown, Marshall, McKinnon. Goals: Marshall (5).
SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS 6. Tries: Sandow. Goals: Sandow (1).
At Sydney Football Stadium.
Crowd: 22,677.
Watching the Cardiac Kids is not easy.
Never ming reaching for the heart pills, it seemed a sure thing during the final stanza that the ambo's would turn up at my place, lay me out on a gurney and wheel me up the street and around the corner to Canterbury Hospital for an emergency triple by-pass.
Why is it that in recent seasons the Swans rarely get thrashed, and rarely thrash any opposition?
With the Swans down by 6 points at three quarter time, there was a live chance that the Red and the White could have gone down by that exact margin, right to the very death.
That wouldn't have sat very well.
Given that early in the first quarter a perfectly good goal from Goodes was ruled by the vision-impaired [read legally blind] goal Bamford as a behind.
Wot the?
Human frailty you can understand and forgive, but it's very hard to tolerate plain incompetance on the part of officialdom.
The Great Train Robbery narrowly averted.
It's a bit of a worry when at first glance the Swans seem to be being coached by Mr Ed to constantly chop and change between Plan A and Plan B, whatever Plan A and Plan B might be.
Going from the the 'traditional' flood into the backline and endless stacks on the mill, then suddenly its the long bomb and hope with few if any players in the forward 50.
Doesn't smack much of structure, for mine.
Lets see how it pans out over the next few weeks.
You'd be prepared to cut the new coach a bit of slack at this stage; as he keeps telling the Club Secretary "still feeling my way boss", and who can argue with his charges yet to taste defeat after three rounds rounds?.
Not a lot of consistency either; Rick Shaw might have been best on ground up to half-time and then went missing in action, while In Like McGlynn did nothing in the first half, only to play a blinder for most of the second, with Smiffy and Spida Jnr left with the task of tidying up the win at the denoument.
Then there's the young bloke in the team who hasn't been told about or can't remember any game plan and just goes about doing his own thing; in the process producing the goal of the year.
The young Jetta kiddie -- found himself hovering about on the half-back line when the pill came his way, got possession, lost it, and then neatly tapped the ball on three times on the run, regathered, one bounce, and a kick from 60 metres out that bounced a few times in the goal square before dribbling through the big sticks.
Magnificent.
One more win and they'd be building into a very handy early season purple patch.
But the game at HQ this Saturday night against the Cats will provide a rather good yardstick with which to measure themselves by.
And please, no more of this cardiac stuff, OK, Horse?
WEST COAST EAGLES: 3.3, 6.8, 10.10, 13.10 (88). Goals: Lynch 4, Cox 2, Embley, Ebert, Kennedy, Gaff, Shuey, Selwood, Naitanui.
SYDNEY SWANS: 3.3, 7.5, 9.10, 15.11 (101). Goals: Goodes 3, Everitt, McGlynn 2, Jetta, Shaw, Bolton, Rohan, Smith, White.
At Subiaco Oval.
Crowd: 37,288.
