Scholars of The Game,
We're playing with the edges of history here.
The Stats Guru was quick to point out that South has never won nine on the trot since they were uprooted and transplanted in Sydney all those years ago, and you have to go back to the 1926 and 1934 seasons to find the previous instances.
So now this is becoming a thing well beyond living memory.
Ominously, though, South failed to make the finals at all in '26, and were beaten by Richmond by a handy margin in the '34 Grand Final.
Ooops.
At least the buffoons in the television commentary got it right for once when pondering how the Swans had got to the top of the table and stayed there for so long, saying "well, they are pretty close to the perfect football unit".
You can attach all the superlatives you like to this team, but that just about sums it up.
Too strong, too smart, too well coached.
While you could have given Best on Ground to anyone in the mid-field...think...Son of Gary, Odd Head, The Hannebery Kiddie, In Like, Smiffy...it should have gone to Teddy Richards, for mine; had a superb game in the backline, bobbed up everywhere all the time and single-handedly closed down any attacking threat the Blues might have posed.
And it was interesting to see The Goodes Train and The Fast Train in the Jetta Kiddie working in concert across the middle of the park.
The coaching staff has at last realised that they have some unspoken telepathy going on, where they instinctively know what the other is about to do.
Very pleasing to see The Great Rhino Keefe - one of the last of the great hard-nuts - play in his 250th.
Asked in a pre-match profile interview what he thought of his career, he just said "I am very lucky and priviledged to have been able to live this lifestyle for the past 13 years".
An ornament to the game, you do get the impression that Rhino knows how to live the life.
The Great Bolts will be out for a few weeks after doing a knee, but it appears he'll come back just in time to play his 300th in the Grand Final.
Timing.
The Bamfords had a routinely poor game, but the bad decisions cancelled each other out in the end.
There was a most unusual indcident, when a Bamford was mysteriously subbed out of the game at quarter-time, as he couldn't go on, and was replaced by the Reserve Umpire.
No explanation as to what happened was forthcoming, so maybe he just did a Johnny Briggs and had a nervous breakdown and was conveyed in a straight jacket to the nearest lunatic asylum.
Spotted a nice banner in the Dockland's mix that just read:
REG IS OUR EDGE
A nice nod to another of those unsung heroes, Reg Grundy.
Mr Ed, pressured by the press to speculate on the future rather than be in the place he prefers - the present - demured and offered "our challenge is to see if we've improved enough to get over a terrific side like Collingwood".
So he is thinking about the prospect of the double purple patch after all.
With J.Bolton out, Collingwood have done the Swans a huge favour by suspending Dane Swan for two matches after the fool turned up for training after a night on the drink.
Wouldn't you know it?
After having trouble attacting a decent sized crowd all year, suddenly everyone is on the bandwagon.
As the Good Lady Wife noted, Sydney's notoriously fickle fair-weather fans strike again.
Decent tickets to this Saturday night's Blockbuster at The Bush are unobtainable.
As of first thing Monday morning, general admission tickets were sold out, and the remaining Silver and Gold seats were way way up in the gods with stratospheric prices to match.
With the way my ageing eyesight is, from up there in the Olympic Stadium, wouldn't be able to see a thing, let alone make out the number plates on the player's backs.
Oh well, that's what you get for loyalty.
Just have to wait for the finals to get tickets, when it's first come first served to pay through the nose.
Let's hope there's a glitch in the catering and the Pies are off.
Will just have to watch it on the telly from a comfortable lounge in front of a warm fire and spend the price of admission on some fine Champagne instead.
Damn.
CARLTON: 3.1, 5.3, 6.6, 10.11 (71). Goals: Waite 3, Armfield 2, Garlett 2, Gibbs, Casboult, Murphy.
SYDNEY: 4.4, 8.6, 11.8, 14.9 (93). Goals: McGlynn 3, Hannebery 2, Roberts-Thomson 2, Goodes, Bird, McVeigh, Jack, Jetta, Malceski, Mumford.
At Docklands Stadium.
Crowd: 39,942.
How bizzare, how bizzare.
Without doubt the most utterly ridiculous game of football played all year, in any code.
On a quiet night at the Olympics, found myself pottering about down in Dad's Shed with the loopy MMM call on the old fashioned radio-set in the corner.
Rather taken aback by the Tigers being down 6-22 after no more than ten minutes, and that was enough to get the healthy Monday night crowd out at Campbelltown pretty antsy, given the home side had been gifted a brace of penalties.
WTF?
If you can't beat the team running stone motherless last, you might as well pack up your boots and balls and go home.
The match then degenerated into a touch football game played by girls in some suburban park somewhere, as both sides took full advantage of the non existant defence.
Razzle dazzle football it may well have been, but that's not what the punters come to see at this time of year -- they want tough and dour.
No surprise to see Balmain go in 18-22 behind at half-time, but it was only a matter of time until the floodgates really opened up wide.
In the end the Tigers came right over the top of them like a tsunami, scoring the last 45 points to 4.
Repeat, WTF???
Supercoach Sheens expressed his frustration at being unable to explain exactly what went on, and who could blame him, sayng little more than the bleedin' obvious..."I was very disappointed with the defence".
The Best Leb in the Game, with his Captain's hat on, put a finer point on it..."We just didn't want to tackle, we were just lucky they didn't want to tackle either".
77 points all up in an 80 minute game, is pretty much a point a minute in anyone's language.
And the new kid on the block who no one's ever heard of, the Fijian kid called Marika Koroibete - in only his second top grade game - scored not one, not two, not three, but four tries in the second half alone.
Pure insanity.
Needless to say the feat equalled the club record.
But Parramatta - who must have forgotten that the ground exists having not played there since 1999 - were always prime targets to be beaten at their own game after the break.
The Bamfords had real trouble keeping up with it all, and blew the whistle too much if only to try to slow the whole thing down, but the unintended consequence was giving both sides even more opportunity's to score.
The radio call could barely keep pace.
While the Great Benji scooped the various Man of the Match awards, it should have gone to The Great Heighington for mine, for his sheer work rate alone.
A shuffle of players through the backline is a SC Sheens trademark move late in the season as he looks to settle on finals combinations.
Very pleasing to see Be My Beau Ryan - another of the last of the great hard nuts - play his 100th game, and he had a very good outing too.
Having seen the first half, SC Sheens gave Beau free reign to do what he liked, so he played variously at wing, right centre, fullback and did everything but score, ironic really for a bloke who's planted plenty in the in-goal area in his time.
And the result was dead set critical in what the MMM call describes as the premiership table "brought to you by Bailey's Ladders".
[They've also got the Red Cross blood bank to sponsor the blood rule when someone goes off to the blood bin - the slogan being "if you're tough enough to watch rugby league, you're tough enough to give blood". Marvellous]
After a weekend of improbable, highly fortuitous results, the Tigers sneak themsleves back into 8th, a game clear of the chasing pack for the last spot in the finals.
Thank the Good Lawd Joisus for that.
Joey Johns acting as sideline eye was asked by the lads in the commentary box what he thought of the game and he replied "kisses and cuddles are not the best preparation for the finals".
Anyone have any idea what he's on about?
How bizzare, how bizzare.
WESTS TIGERS 51. Tries: Koroibete (4), Utai (2), Blair, Heighington, Moltzen. Goals: Marshall (7). Field Goals: Marshall (1).
PARRAMATTA EELS 26. Tries: Mullaney (2), Roberts, Sio, Tautai. Goals: Burt (3).
At Campbelltown Sports Ground.
Crowd: 14,822.
