Mourners,
In all my time going there, there's never been a minute's silence at Leichhardt Oval quite like it.
When some old codger who once played football for Balmain who no one can remember anymore dies and they call for quiet, there's always children screaming and scuttling about between the legs of the grown ups and loud voices can still be heard from the bars.
Not this time.
Just before kick off it was announced that The Best Leb In The Game's mother had died that morning and so he wouldn't be playing.
It appears The Captain had only told his coach and players the news 90 minutes before the game by text.
[The family didn't tell Farah that his mum had been admitted to hospital on Wednesday before he went out and played perhaps his greatest game ever, putting on an heroic and record 63 tackles for NSW in the win over QLD in State of Origin II. Looks like everyone knew that if Mrs Farah was taken to the hospital - she'd long been suffering from pancreatic cancer - that would be for the last time].
The ground was stunned, and in the proper full 60" minute's silence that followed the announcement, all twenty thousand punters stopped in their tracks, and you could literally hear a pin drop.
Very eerie, given that a packed Leichardt is without doubt the loudest rugby league ground in the world.
And packed it was [only a few of thousand short of the never to be repeated ground record - now that's full].
Anticipating a healthy attendance, we arrived at the ground 40 minutes before kick off, and even then all the good standing room was well gone.
So the Good Lady Wife started animatedly pointing at people and jabbing them with her Swiss hiking pole [a formidable weapon] until they squeezed up to create a sliver of space just big enough for two old cripples to sit on the low stone wall in the north-west corner.
Bless.
The view isn't very good from there, but it's better than none at all.
Then unfolded a game of 'too many easy yards' from both sides.
Balmain lost the match in the first half, but came back strongly in the second stanza - as Easts had their turn to lose the plot - to give themselves half a chance, before you know who got in the way.
Not one to dis on any Tigers player, but Adam Blair, really?
Said it before, say it again; whatever they paid him to come across from Melbourne as the marquee forward is obviously way, way too much.
Blair has done nothing all season, and has been little more than a passenger in every single game.
In this match, two of his just plain dumb attempts at an off-load pass while going down in the tackle resulted in lost possession and directly led to Roosters' tries, he dropped the ball cold late in the match just when the Tigers could smell a faint whiff of a highly unlikely victory, and he couldn't lay a tackle on even slow moving targets, let alone get anywhere near fast moving ones.
No football brain at all, he's got a split pea rattling around in that weird head of his.
Just about at useful as awnings on a submarine.
Not alone in my poor opinion of the joker.
Other punters in the crowd offered free and frank assessments such as "Go home, Blair, you're rubbish!" and "Hey Blair! You are useless. You don't belong at Leichhardt".
The sooner they trade him back to where he came from, or into oblivion, the better.
No one will mind where.
The Bamfords tried their best to impose themselves on the game, but in the end found themselves struggling to keep up with the pace of what was happening in a very high scoring match..
The forwards were uncharacteristically missing in action, so it was very difficult for the backs to find any go forward from mainly poor field positions, while battling to cope with an opposition that had the heavy artillery trained on them.
Lote "Wot'd I do, Guv?" Tuqiri put in his strongest game of the year, for mine; guarded the all important left edge very well, ran straight and strong, and decided to throw his weight around for a change, something the big black bastard should do more often.
Matty Utai battled on gamely all day, The Great Benji tried hard, but there was little structure in the play with no one deciding if they really wanted to play hooker or not, and even less of a game plan, and with no Farah and no Sirro Jnr, both out at short notice, no cigar.
So that's the end of a very valuable purple patch.
No magic carpet ride from here.
SC Sheens summed it up nicely on interview after the game: "To talk about the game today seems a waste of time. It's something I'm not particularly interested in. We feel more for Robbie than anything else at the moment. When things like that happen it makes stuff like rugby league insignificant."
Witnessing Balmain boys crying on the field, as we did, during the minute's silence only goes to remind you that it's only a game.
Good to see Robbie named at 9 for this Monday's walk in the park against the hapless Knights in Newcastle.
It'll do the world of good for everyone.
At least on a lighter note, the wags in the scoreboard love a laugh and always like to alter reality, and post the home side's best ever win at Leichhardt, against that particular opposition, at the end of the match
They the changed the nameplate on the scoreboard from WESTS TIGERS to BALMAIN TIGERS, and even managed to find an old EASTERN SUBURBS plate to replace SYDNEY CITY ROOSTERS, and posted the score Balmain 59 Eastern Suburbs 4...and then loaded in the numbers "1952" in the top right-hand corner of the scoreboard.
Always a jolly jape; win, lose, or draw.
Did like the sight of the day.
An elderly couple who looked well into their 70's shuffling arm-in-arm around the outer at half-time.
The woman was wearing a hand knitted Tigers beanie that looked like some kind of strange hedgehog and was sporting the full current Tigers kit, while the old man wore well worn boots and jeans and had on an ancient, faded Eastern Suburbs jersey.
They were gesticulating wildly and poking each other with their free hands.
You can only imagine what their conversation would have been like over the dinner table after the game.
WESTS TIGERS 28: Tries: Ryan (2), Utai, Galloway, Moltzen. Goals: Marshall (4).
SYDNEY CITY ROOSTERS 42: Tries: Guerra, Waerea-Hargreaves, Cordner, Anasta, Lasi, Pearce, Kennedy. Goals: Anasta (7).
At Leichhardt Oval.
Crowd: 20,327.
Before going to the Tigers game we had the good fortune to drop in at a Leichhardt institution - Bar Italia.
It's been there for more than 30 years knocking out great steaming bowls of piping hot pasta and cups of outstanding coffee for the masses.
It's better than a pie at the ground and they don't muck around with the menu.
The Chinese cooks who now man the kitchen have been well versed in the Italian traditions, so nothing has changed at all over the years.
There's always a convivial crowd of like minded punters in there before any Balmain game.
Think back slapping complete strangers.
Which, for some reason, got me to thinking what the Swans were up to on the bye weekend.
Back in the day of the split round, the Swans would gather at SC Roos' place on their weekend off for a compulsory full-on BBQ and a bit of team bonding over a keg before the traditional Collingwood game at Homebush the next weekend..
It's all changed and different now, of course.
Wonder if Mr Ed maintains the tradition?
Probably not, as Coach Horse strikes as a more prosaic type, who wouldn't have the time nor inclination for that sort of thing.
Doubt that he'd find much room for any fun in a very serious business.
SYDNEY: Bye.
