Screaming Believers,
As the two Wimbledon men's finalists were enjoying a breakfast of kippers on heavily buttered toast and a pot of tea, the competitors in Le Tour were sleeping off the cocktails of drugs and alcohol from the night before ahead of tackling the pavé to Roubaix, and all of France and Croatia were a quivering mass of nerve endings anticipating the World Cup final in Moscova, a pretty good game of football was being played at Docklands in Melbourne.
The Swans were fully fighting North right down to the last 100 seconds of the match and supporters of the Red and the White were going apeshit.
A perfect storm of world sport's hysteria.
It was undoubtedly the best game of footy Sydney has played this season.
My Spy At The Ground [who needed a very stiff whisky afterwards to get over the nervous excitement] had at least seven other operatives working the stands for this one, but they were all in such a state of tension, stress, freak-out, then elation, that they were rendered useless and left speechless, and only the sounds of wild a hootin' and a hollerin' could be heard coming down the line on the Bush Telegraph.
By the looks of the faces of the disappointed, nay, shattered 'Roos fans in the stands on the telly, they most likely would not have appreciated a rousing rendition of "What's It Like to Lose at Home?"
The Stats Guru was quick to point out that North hasn't beaten South at Docklands in more than a decade, suggesting the Tin Shed should be made Sydney's home ground forthwith, forget the SCG.
The Swans have a deserved reputation as the Heart Attack Kids, so my cardiologist should really warn me off this game for life, after yet another nail-biting topsy-turvy cliff-hanger - Swans two goals up at half time, two goals down at the end of The Champo, but they had more legs to boot a quite extraordinary six goals in the denouement and win by a single straight kick.
Joy on a stick.
Of course, Sydney came into the thing after having rings run around them by Richmond and Geelong and being soundly beaten in the previous two games - ruining their perfect away record - and leaving the Swans battle-wounded as the number of patients in Sick Bay continues to mount alarmingly, and now the team's field marshal, JPK, seems to have aggravated his Shagger's Back, and could be out for a game or two.
Don't usually name names in a side where the "best" below the scorebox should read "All Played Well", but for the first time in weeks the mid-field played up, with Heeney The Cardiff Zucchini leading the way; the most thuggish-looking man in the team, Gentleman Jones, thrusting forward; The Goal Kicker From North Adelaide in the Childe Hayward running rampant; and The Pearl Papley looking pretty in the crumbs.
Even without wise old heads in Odd Head McVeigh and Reg Grundy's love child, the replacement backs still built Sydney's trade mark brick wall, while up front the 20-year-old kid Ben "The Ronk" Ronke has the makings of one of the toughest, smartest goalsneaks in the game, and was Best on Ground for mine.
Speaking of young things, 18-year-old Tom McCartin, who comes from Tasmanian Football Royalty, is turning out to be Draft Pick of the Year and has a long and distinguished career ahead of him.
The best ding-dong-go of the day had to be to the pairing of the strikingly jet black Sudanese refugees in Aliir "Chands" Aliir ranging across the Swans half-back line, going head-to-head against Majak Daw coming off the bench into North's forwards.
Who would have thought of such a thing, just a few short years ago?
They took turns beating each other, trying to out-lead, out-mark and out-fox on the run for the ball and all arms and legs in the scrimmages - both played great - but you can't go past Daw kicking four to win that stoush, on a losing side.
We've all doubts about them, but when their athleticism clicks, they are well in it.
And all the while through the first half, Buddy was trying very hard not to score his 900th goal, busy feeding the forwards for others to have a ping at the big ones, as if he didn't particularity want the adulation.
He's No.1, and he knows it, but there's a job to do.
The kick that finally made the milestone was a textbook Lance Franklin set shot from 50m; the long run-up, a few steps to the left, then bang! The ball comes off the left boot aimed high, wide and handsome as the pill gracefully arcs back in, to go straight through the high diddle-diddle.
What a corker!
900 x 6 = fifty four hundred and fifty points on the scoreboard, and that had the Stats Guru in paroxysms - giving Buddy a flying chance at making it beyond 1100 career goals, and retiring a very wealthy man indeed, touch wood.
The result appears to be the hinge on which the season swings - injury toll or no injury toll - they're in the top four with 69% of the season gone, so September action seems all but assured.
And that's saying something, coming from the eternal pessimist.
Keep that banjo tuned.
NORTH MELBOURNE: 5.1, 6.2, 12.5, 15.8 (98). Goals: Ziebell 5, Brown 4, Daw 4, Macmillan, Hrovat.
SYDNEY: 3.1, 8.3, 10.6, 16.8 (104). Goals: Ronke 5, Franklin 3, Hayward 2, Heeney 2, Papley, Cunningham, Fox, Aliir.
At Docklands Stadium.
Crowd: 25,633.
And...when too much sport is barely enough...it's not often you get the satisfaction of both yr football teams winning on the same day and it was the first time this season that the Swans and Balmain played simultaneously, so only caught fleeting glimpses of the rugby league telecast from one of the few grand old heritage suburban grounds left in the game, Kogarah Jubilee Oval, in the ad breaks during the Rules.
But by all accounts it was the day that Robbie 'The Best Leb In The Game' Farah achieved sweet revenge against the former coach, [Jason "Squeak" Taylor where are you now?] who outrageously and cruelly hounded him out of the club through no fault of his own [they just hated each others guts] - by playing an absolute blinder for Man-of-the-Match, with his deft dummy-half work and trade-mark short kicking game.
It was the Old Band back together again on a Mission from God, with the Great Farah in déjà vu mode, and his magnificent old partnership with The Great Benji Marshall now back and rolling again.
They hadn't played together for Balmain in 1,772 days.
It is still impossible to believe that two blokes who featured in Balmain's glorious Grand Final Victory of 2005 are still playing, both thinking they would never return to Leichhardt after taking off to earn their pensions in the wilderness of other clubs before retirement, and then being coaxed back to their Spiritual Home in a masterstroke by coach Clearly It's Cleary.
The maths don't work here - you've got a 33-year-old and 34-year-old playing with a new lease of life that no one thought even remotely possible.
Mr Cleary is well aware of the club's history and tradition, and it must have something to do with them now having a very significant place in it - both stars being Life Members - however, he's no sentimentalist, and neither should a coach be.
If they can both hold a place in the first grade side, then they richly deserve a last hurrah, if not, they can rest easy on their laurels.
It warms the cockles of a die-hard Balmain fan of 30 years standing to see things put right.
And to make things sweeter than a nut, the Mighty Tiges haven't beaten the Saints at Kogarah since 2005, also, and the Dragons was where Benji washed up before his Lazarus act [after a really silly really stupid totally avoidable gim-crack argument with the dysfunctional Balmain Board over money].
It's just such a pity it's probably come too late for everyone - on 8-9 and a bye with seven games to go, it's going to be a toughie to make the finals from here, but the draw is reasonably favourable, so see what happens, eh, bru?
Farah played so well that other jokers are now trash-talking him, with Sam Burgess of the South Sydney Rabbitoh's [who released Farah back to Balmain] reported as threating to "go him" in this week's time-honoured blood match.
While Burgess is a big, ugly, nasty bruising Pom; good luck, Sam.
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS 16. Tries: Hunt, Widdop, Dufty. Goals: Widdop (2).
WESTS TIGERS 20. Tries: Brooks, Thompson, Nofoaluma. Goals: Marsters (4).
At Jubilee Oval, Kogarah.
Crowd: 15,992.
