Barrackers,
Gawd almighty, what a damned missed opportunity on wheels is was last Saturday night here in the Emerald City.
It should have been a draw, by rights, given North and South had run in each other into the ground and were so completely buggered by the stalemate they couldn't kick a match winning goal to save themselves.
The Stats Guru had had enough and gave up counting the numbers in that vital statistic, 'fluffed goals', in what turned out to be a dirty, untidy affair - not pretty to watch - as each side couldn't take clear chances to run away with the game.
In the denouement, it was Sydney who were strangled by two points.
Two farkin' points, but the Kanga's got away with the four Premiership points on offer.
Go figure.
If last year's 1-6 start wasn't enough, what's with the Swans now at 4-3 after losing all bar one home game they've had, and winning everything on the road with 29% of the season completed?
Not so long ago the coaching mantra was "never lose at home", a tactic usefully employed by teams like Geelong and Adelaide down the years, as they, like Sydney, have a real home ground advantage, so whatever happened to that time-honoured theory?
Talk about being the models on inconsistency when winning games on the trot, a purple patch here or there, preferably two, will get you into the top four.
Never mind this ugly "sandwich press" move in defence, can't that bloody whistle echo around the SCG?
What a shocking umpiring display from the Bamfords, with no less than 39 free kicks awarded.
WTF?
Just can't understand the Umps current antsy-pantsy fascination with pinging any arms that are anywhere near the back, shoulders, arms, head of the would-be winner of a marking contest.
If you try and take the aerial contest out of it, yr left with a rabble of players who've flooded their backline, and with skill and agility smothered, it's really no better to watch than the U9's.
They way it's going, watching "the big men fly" will become a thing of the past.
After the Swans were caned 16-23 in the frees, My Spy at The Ground telegraphed through the mssg "Robbed Blind. It's Official", writing the headline for the back page of the fishwraps for them, after a crucial North Melbourne sausage roll was clearly touched across the line, but the Victory Assistant Referee [VAR] wasn't even consulted, never mind that some deranged Kangaroo official would have probably switched it off at the critical moment anyway.
At 8th, it's a typical slow start to the season - you could go on and on and on about the Swans strengths and obvious weaknesses [that's SC Roos' job anyway] - but any more major injuries and they're toast - look at their list of emergencies that's published every week.
The roster seems very shallow; down to one ruckman and there are too many blokes in Sick Bay as it is.
The miracle win over Geelong - five goals down at the end of The Champo at Kardinia Park and gorn for all money - storming home with a seven goal final quarter to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, proved the Swans can win, Buddy, or no Buddy.
Before that match, everybody down Mexico way was saying "no Buddy, no cigar", but heck, up here in ol' Sydney Town we want the cigars we've paid for - all the time.
Big fat Cubans, if you don't mind.
So, Lance Franklin better make a triumphant comeback from his sore footsy this Friday night.
Buddy? At The G? The Hawks [who he kicked 580 goals for]? The hype & The hatred? And they're playing for the BeyondBlue Cup to boot.
It's all a promoter's wet dream.
Bring it on.
NORTH MELBOURNE 3.3, 5.5, 7.10, 9.14 (68). Goals: Wood 4, Hartung, Higgins, Brown, Simpkin, Cunnington.
SYDNEY 2.1, 4.4, 6.8, 9.12 (66). Goals: Hayward 3, Sinclair, Towers, Fox, Parker, Jones, Lloyd.
At Sydney Cricket Ground.
Crowd: 29,124.
Don't you just hate it when you come home after a day out harbourside on a picture postcard perfect autumn day and crank up the steam-powered wireless to catch the score in the footy being beamed in live from across the Tasman, only to hear that Balmain are well behind just after half time?
Then, in short order, your hackles are up after hearing Balmain's Elijah Taylor being sent off for ten minutes in the sin-bin for the most marginal of professional fouls [ok,ok. "he'd been doing it all day", right, ok], only to then find out that David Nofoaluma had been also been sin-binned in the first half.
Lord Crikey! It's not as if they play that dirty, they're just trying to bend and warp the advantage line to their own good, some creative shape-shifting that's beyond the comprehension of the average Bamford.
So, the Tiges were down to 12 men for a full 20 minures - that's half a half - in which the Worriers proceeded to scores tries willy-nilly, it seemed.
The New Zealand radio commentator then said in his thuck Kiwi accent "it would have been a competitive game of football if only the referee had put his whistle away."
With an unheard of 20 penalties in the game - 10 each - predictably, the Tiges heart's just weren't in it after Elijah was sent off.
They knew they were cactus.
Not only did Balmain have to play the opposition, and the crowd, but the Bamfords were agin 'em too, so they were fried to a crisp in the cone of a dormant Auckland volcano in which sits Mt Smart Stadium, a hell-hole to end all hell-holes.
Tough shit.
Still, after being widely tipped as dead set certainties for the wooden spoon at the start of the season, the Tiges continue to surprise everyone to go 5-4 up against some very good sides with a third of the season already done.
There's nothing at all wrong with the backs, Marsters and Brooks are the real deal, and Noafaluma & Naiqama have always made an odd but sometimes very effective couple, while the Prodigal Son Benji Marshall is just like the Great Barrier Reef - beyond belief.
The front row will do nicely but they could use a little more grunt up front, Russell "The Meanest Man in Football" Packer is sorely missed, while the marquee buy Josh Reynolds appears to be a clapped out crock, having played half a game on one leg in nine rounds before doing himself a long term mischief.
But how about never being beaten by more than two points [until last weekend]...what were the odds on that mate, from the off?
Coach Clearly It's Cleary has got the team clicking; the one he more or less handpicked after the Squeak Taylor Debacle Era finally finished, and it looks like he does have a flexible game plan, although it's still deeply rooted in defence, and why not?
Just like the game plans designed to suffocate the Swans, it also might not look that pretty, but after being written orf, they'll take seventh on the ladder any day this week, any way they can.
For the diehard, anything better than last year will do, just for a start off.
But, it did have a tendency to rather spoil a lovely day...when yr robbed blind!, for the second time this rugby league season, alone.
Fleeced.
NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS 26. Tries: Lawton (2) , Fusitua, Johnson, Maumalo. Goals: Johnson (3).
WESTS TIGERS 4. Tries: Fonua.
At Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland.
Crowd: 16,727.
