Enthusiasts,
No question is was the strongest win of the season, and even better still to see the most hated team in the competition get whip-sawed.
The girl who gave the Great Goodes Train the ape spray and was promptly marched out of the ground only goes to prove, not as if any further proof is required, what a contemptible rabble of uncouth in-breds Collingwood supporters are.
Don't they know they are the ones just down from the trees?
Little wonder they are rightly detested the world over.
Never mind that Adam is a dual Brownlow Medalist, kicked his 400th goal in the seniors during the course of the match, and was clearly Best on Ground.
What more could be asked of a fella?
Goodes always plays well and looks years younger when he's got the mojo working with his protégé, the Jet Train, who might just keep the old man chugging along for a while yet.
Again the mid-field was the engine room, and it'd be no surprise if the chief fireman, the Hannabery Kiddie hasn't been in the Brownlow points pretty much every game this season.
Tom Waterhouse has him on the third line of betting at 9/1 to pick up the Chas at the end of the season.
It's not very often that Collingwood get held to a goal-less quarter, and then restricted to a single six-pointer in the Champo, and they would have been absolutely nowhere if it wasn't for Cloke throwing his weight around in the goal mouth.
Sterling work in the backs from the unsung Mr Malceski, Teddy Richards and company.
Ten Sysndey goal kickers in a low scoring affair, and the champing at the bit Tipsy Tippett becomes available in a few weeks; that must scare the shit out of everyone, not the least poor ol' Sam Reid.
Swans have clearly learnt a lesson or two from the recent past, taking a leaf out of the Hawthorn defence hand book, and the Geelong attack mainfesto.
Loose men everywhere, up front and down back, as required.
SC Longmire is a clever man - you don't win Premierships if you aren't - and is as happy as Larry to steal other people's ideas if he thinks they might work, as well as throw in a few loopy ones of his own.
The gin-soaked plans are discarded as quickly as they are adopted if they don't deliver - SC Horse is forever working on Plan B - not that it was required in this match.
And he's well aware of season strategy and the priceless value of comprehensive wins away, especially at the ground where they play the last game of the year.
The Stats Guru was happy to report that another MCG hoodoo has been done and dusted; Sydney's first win over the Pies at the G in 13 years.
So now, at long last, there's no fear of Headquarters.
Tickets in hand to the cheap seats for the solidly sold-out Marn Grook this Saturday.
Cheer, cheer.
No doubt the Goodes Train will get a rousing reception at home after his magnanimous handling of the tawdry Collingwood primate business, but he won't care, and will just carry on regardless.
But there will be no resting on their laurels on the training track this week, that much is true.
The thing is shaping up as a blockbuster in the true sense of the word, with the top six threatening to get away from the rest and Sydney just outside the top four on a tiny percentage difference after nine rounds - the dynamite will go in the rock, and which way it explodes will go a long way in determining how the Swan's season swings.
If there were any trees left at the SCG, folk would be climbing up them to get a look at the game.
COLLINGWOOD: 3.2, 3.4, 4.5, 8.7 (55). Goals: Cloke 3, Elliott 2, Witts, Seedsman, Dwyer.
SYDNEY: 4.5, 7.9, 11.11, 15.12 (102). Goals: Goodes 3, McGlynn 2, Hannebery 2, Pyke 2, Bird, Bolton, Jack, Jetta, Morton, Reid.
At Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Crowd: 65,306.
It's long been a saying in the folklore that the Leichhardt Oval home ground advantage is always worth a ten point start for the Tigers, and they needed every one of them.
A lucky win in anyone's language, with the Bamford in the TV Box having a great night, not.
The endless video replays called for by the ref had the television commentators at the end of their tether's; "we'll be lucky to finish this game by midnight at this rate".
It was a classic case of "television lies", as both sides had legitimate tries disallowed, and dodgy ones awarded.
In most cases the on-field Bamford was right on the spot, so why not leave it up to him to decide if it's a try in real time with the naked eye?
Will probably get more decisions right than wrong, with super slow motion reducing the caper to a millimetre perfect game.
The young winger Nofoalum's match winning try at the death was a perfect case in point - he planted the ball over the line right in the corner before taking out the corner flag all arms and legs with the tackler hanging on in his wake - a fair try for sure, and yet they looked at every available angle to try to find a reason not to award it, even though the man with the whistle who was right there on top of it said it was ridgy-didge.
Lord help us.
The miserable attendance was perfectly understandable, even though the Balmain Marketing Dept, in an act of deperation, were offering a free beer and free sausage sanger with every $25 general admission ticket.
Wouldn't have cost them much, but it was clearly not enough to get the punters through the turnstiles after three days of rain in the Emerald City, with heavy showers still sweeping across the ground that has precious little shelter from the elements, at game time.
The match was played on a bog track, and everyone who was standing on the hill was in ankle deep mud - no one likes to get a wet, let alone brown, arse.
Not to mention the near impossibility of getting to the ground after work of a Friday night, with no parking and woeful public transport.
And often after persistant wet weather the back gate is declared impassable and closed, meaning the only way to get there on foot is on broken footpaths and then up Heartbreak Hill to Mary Street.
Who could be blamed for not going?
Still, any crowd under ten thousand puts another nail in the coffin of the venerable tumbling down old ground, and Campbelltown Sports Ground must be on the chopping block also, with it pulling less than ten grand a few weeks ago and what with the internecine warfare going on in The Board.
The Club Secretary has had a long-held publicly-stated position that he'd dearly love to play every home game at the Sydney Football Stadium [now showing it's age, but still perfectly serviceable], if he thought he could get away with it.
He's got his excuse now, with a horror season looming with no-one to speak of through the gates at the suburban home grounds apart from The Man and His Dog, and therefore no cash in the coffers; economic imperatives will most likely sound the death knell and mark the end of an era at Leichhardt by next year.
The Spiritual Home will inevitably become a mere memory, and then a distant one, with the corporatisation of the game complete, where the only thing that counts is money.
The Best Leb in The Game was Man of The Match by the length of the street, having made no less than an astonishing 56 tackles.
He appeared the worse for wear for it, covered as he was at the post match press conference in bandages and band-aids, and he looked to have a broken nose [but he's broken his nose that many times it's hard to know what's "normal"].
Never mind the outstanding work he did at dummy half.
As Coach Harry, when asked about it, commented "Robbie is without doubt the best hooker in the game. Have I said that before? If he doesn't get picked for New South Wales I'll eat my hat".
[He was duly selected].
Farah on interview after the game said all the usual trite things about being relieved to "get away with the two points", but ended with "and now I'll have to see if I can remember the team song".
After snapping a seven game losing streak by the skin of their teeth, all concerned must be looking forward to having the State-of-Origin bye this weekend, and picking up the two points by doing absolutely nothing.
Being an incredible 162 points in arrears on the for and against tally, the win wasn't nearly enough to lift them off the bottom of the table.
With plenty of time on their hands, Coach Harry, if he had any sense, would send them all home for a few days, after ringing up their mothers to tell them to give their boy a good talking to.
WESTS TIGERS 22. Tries: Buchanan, Koroibete, Marshall, Nofoaluma. Goals: Marshall (3).
NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 20. Tries: Sims (2), Linnett, Winterstein. Goals: Thurston (2).
At Leichhardt Oval.
Crowd: 7,125.
