Exhaultants,
The Stats Guru was off his tits.
The finest Sydney performance in Adelaide in 25 years.
Any number of records broken.
The Hannebery Kiddie's 40+ million posessions the best by anyone from any club, anywhere, all year.
Three votes for you, son.
For the less statistically minded, who just enjoy the game for what it is, a 14 goal football lesson will do very nicely indeed, thank you very much.
The scoreboard never lies.
And 11 individual goal kickers means they've got firepower all around the park.
Surely no one has ever been beaten keeping the opposition to without a goal in The Champo?
Having been born and bed in Adelbrain before fleeing across the continent as soon as possible, the win is all the sweeter.
My spies at the ground were of course all mad crazy flip out Crows fans who were having a glum night of it.
Telegraphing a message back saying "hey, what's not to like?" didn't seem to cheer them up.
Everyone knows what it's like to lose at home, no more than the Crows skipper Van Berlo who came out mid week and said the "Adelaide brand", whatever that is, had been damaged, yep you read right, "damaged" by the "horrendous" 77 point loss.
Just hope he checked that with the Crows Marketing Dept before he put that one out there.
Crikey!
Ordinary football team plays Swans in a regulation game of rules football and comes out at the other end of the worm hole damaged goods?
Who would have thought?
But all agreed The Jack Brothers story is one for the ages.
Found myself on innumerable occasions on the hill at Leichhardt Oval in the late 80's and early 90's watching Garry Jack go round for Balmain.
A dead set Living Legend, firmly enscounced in the Balmain Pantheon and the NSWRL Hall of Fame, mind you.
Without doubt the finest full back of his era, and some say ever, although some quibble that Keith "Keefy" barnes was better, but he played in the 60's, well before my time.
Garry had star quality written all over him, but never showed any leadership potential on account of he was perhaps the filthiest player in the game at the time, and that's saying something.
He was a very fine exponent of the Clothesline Tackle, a master at the Squirrel Grip, and no one did a better Christmas Hold.
But all was forgiven when you walked in through the Mary St gate ten minutes late just in time to see Jack carve up a defensive line, jink & step, brush off would-be tackles left right and centre, and sprint like a scared hare over 40-50m to score under the posts, without a hand being laid on him.
No finer sight in world sport, for mine.
Jack never had a nickname, he was just plain old Garry Jack, and boy could he play.
And then, much to his own surprise, in retirement, spawns not one, but two very handy Rules footballers.
The Living Legend's seed is strong.
Never in doubt.
And he apparently goes to every Swans game, home and away, and is now rarely seen in the crowd at the league.
Couldn't be a prouder father.
Speaking of fathers & sons, the Childe Mitchell had a fine game.
Jess White...where's he been lurking? In dark shadows by the looks, but had a blinder on return.
Good thing the Swans refused to trade White for Tippett, [on the principle of you never, ever, let a Premiership player go] and that's when the whole scandal was blown wide open, then only to get Tipsy for next to nothing at the end of the shooting match!
Magnificent.
Wonder if SC Horse continues the time-honoured tradition set by SC Roos of having the players around to his place for a keg and a BBQ on the Saturday afternoon of the bye weekend, just to chew the fat and not worry about a thing?
You know it makes sense.
ADELAIDE: 1.4, 3.4, 3.9, 6.14 (50). Goals: McKernan 2; Vince, Callinan, Dangerfield, Lynch.
SYDNEY: 4.4, 10.9, 17.12, 19.13 (127). Goals: Morton 3, Bolton 2, McGlynn, White, Bird, Everitt, Goodes, Hannebery, Jack, Parker, Mitchell.
At Football Park, Adelaide.
Crowd: 38,374.
A very good win at the foot of the mountains against the Chocolate Soldiers.
Tigers took the get of jail free card with both hands and ran with it.
Never easy to win there, in front of a uniquely partisan home crowd.
To come back from looking like rubbish at 4-18 at the break, to win 20-18 was a mighty effort.
No lack of second half commitment there.
And this from a team of complete unknowns, who know they are playing for unexpected careers.
Read the team list when it came out on the Tuesday afternoon before the game and thought to myself "who are all these people?"
Then a telegraph message came in with an injury report that suggested that across all three grades, 1st Grade, Reserve Grade, and the Under 23's, Balmain Tigers had no less than 27 players incapacitated, not all of them in Sick Bay, but all of them buggered to various degrees and unable to play.
That's two full teams of rugby league players sidelined!
Little wonder no one has ever heard of some of the blokes who turned out this week in the firsts.
Like, has anyoine ever heard of, and who on earth is Seumanufagai -and that's just his last name; a commentator's nightmare - let alone the little-heralded Simona Kiddie, who scored a run away 80 metre try with all the cleverness in the world as he beat three tackles, to a point where the Panthers full back never laid a hand on him in the finish as he sailed into the in-goal underneath the black dot to win the game with seven minutes left on the clock.
And, strike a light, did Sean Meaney actually, really, truly play full-back for Balmain?
He's now an old man at 27 who hasn't been picked in first grade for years, and never ever in the starting line up.
Last time anyone ever heard of him was when there was a rumour going around that he was either dead or in jail.
That's how dire the injury toll is.
Did like the sight of the Best Leb in the Game in a suit and tie in the dug-out with his face all smashed up [two black eyes, broken nose, and a hairline cheekbone fracture - not that he's not had those before] after getting bashed up by QLD [because there was no other way of stopping him] playing for NSW in the first State-of-Origin game.
Farah was interviewed mid-game and asked how he was feeling "it's not a good look, I know, but seriously, it's fine. I'll be back next week."
With 13 rounds down that's the half way point in the season, and remarkably, after the way they've been going, they've actually lifted themselves off the bottom of the ladder.
Fark my brown dog, Harold.
PENRITH PANTHERS 18. Tries: Masoe, Simmons, Whare. Goals: Walsh (3).
WESTS TIGERS 20. Tries: Nofoaluma (2), Seumanufagai, Simona. Goals: Marshall (2).
At Penrith Stadium.
Crowd: 16,827.
