True Believers,
It warms the cockles of the heart of an ancient Balmain die-hard to hear the Best Leb in The Game put in an outstanding man-of-the match performance to take the Mighty Tiges top after two rounds. Woot!
The Great Robbie Farah [above, last Sunday, aged 35] is at his best in years, throwing finely-weighted cut-out final passes - both of them pearlers - to nail two tries, and then burrows through from dummy-half to score himself; planting the ball under the black dot for some fruit for the sideboard. How is this possible? What is he on? What did he have for breakfast? Isn't he meant to be an old crock? Nah. The man is a freak. At his age his football brain isn't the size of a watermelon, it's a big as a blimp. All those footy smarts will beat the Yoof of Today every day of the week. And if that wasn't enough, The Great Benji Marshal's kicking game was on song - and it was singin' a happy toon - as the 34-year-old put on a couple of superbly judged kicks that caught the defence napping and were eagerly gobbled up some quick Balmain backs and taken over the try line, thank you very much. The Stats Guru was quick to point out that all this came after a very solid win over the Evil Silvertails, Manly-Warringah, in the pouring rain at the Spiritual Home, in the season pipe-opener. You can't get a more perfect start. Strike me lucky. "The Entertainers" are back.
The commentariat on the wireless [it was again necessary to hook the arial up on Dad's Shed for the winter, in order to tune in the live short-wave call properly all the way from the Campbelltown Sports Ground] were using a very old cliché along the lines of the Warriors being worried out of it. Yeah, right, but Balmain don't have to be asked twice if they want to sail through some pretty weak defence, while the Tiges forwards, as per tradition, took it up relentlessly and bashed the shit out of them all day, allowing their running backs to be the pretty boys that they are. That's hard.
The story of both immortals is insane by any measure anyway. Both players left for other clubs - Robbie being shamefully hounded out by a jerk of a coach and Benj in a terrible misunderstanding over money - for what they thought would be tidy career-end pensions. Then the heart strings began to tug, and all was forgiven, and they were warmly accepted back in the fold, after appearing to be all washed up and struggling to get first grade games elsewhere. And how could they not be, after long ago being installed in the Balmain Pantheon, having played 491 games for the Tiges between them? This year marks the 14th anniversary of the Miracle Year of 2005 - when the Balmain last won the Premiership - and both Robbie and Benji played in that glorious Grand Final, for gawd's sake. There is no point following a football team if you don't believe there's always a chance of a triumphant return to the Glory Days. You have to have faith. Never mind if you are getting way ahead of yourself this early in the season. You already know how to handle years and years of bitter disappointment.
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Surely the new Boss Cocky in Supercoach Michael Maguire - inexplicably known to his mates as "Madge" - has had something to do with it, bringing in some nice set plays with his repertoire. At long last, SC Madge is a Balmain coach who's actually got winning form; eight years ago he coached the Wigan Warriors to the Challenge Cup, if you don't mind. He was bought back from the Dark Satanic Mills by South Sydney for a reason, with the Rabbitoh's winning the 2014 Premiership under his tutelage. A coach who's been around the block a time or two and knows his onions. It's a fairytale; a Promoter's Dream. The Club Secretary would be rubbing his hands in the glee as the Tiges' fair weather fans begin flocking back through the turnstiles.
There's even more rumours that the famous Balmain Leagues Club down on the Victoria Road there in Rozelle will rise Phoenix-like from the ashes, after being so shamefully abandoned to wrack and ruin in 2010, with all the windows now smashed, graffiti everywhere and the interiors long gone. So, you'd hope against hope that you'd live to see the day when there's somewhere to go again for a drink after the game at Leichhardt Oval in Lilyfield. Just like back in the day. That prospect alone is enough to make the most ardent fan mist over.
WESTS TIGERS 34. Tries: Thompson (2), Jennings, Fonua, Farah, Chee-Kam. Goals: Marsters (5).
NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS 6. Tries: Maumalo. Goal: Keighran (1).
At Campbelltown Sports Ground.
Crowd: 9,981.
Seen at Penrith 28 June 2007
On departing the AFL heartland after the F1 GP, picked up a copy of the Sunday Age at Tullamarine, and of course with the football season starting the following weekend, there was the usual double page centre-spread detailing the pro's and con's of your side's chances in 2019, written by the rag's chief Football Guru. Eventually got down to the entry for the Sydney Swans and was shocked and dismayed to find this so-called expert's predicted ladder position at 10th. A random poll of the paper's back-page readers forecast that the Red & the White would finish 11th. WTF? Are these people naturally biased against the Emerald City? No, it seems, they're just pragmatists. If the opening round is any portent of the future, My Spy at The Ground reported the general consensus of opinion is that the Swans superstars look too old and too slow. Being held to a single goal at half time by those damnable Bulldogs gives you some idea.
This year's changes to the rules aren't kind to blokes who are getting on either, and playing catch-up football is more impossible that usual. With the new rules requiring there to be a full-forward and a full-back the goal square at the time of every centre bounce [they are even talking about enlarging the goal square], a half-way decent set play would be a clean tap to a rover with a good boot on him - say, the Papley Pearl - who then jinks, takes two or three steps and punts the pill high wide and handsome 50 yards into the arms of a strong running lead. It would be a crying shame to see Buddy left behind. A few of the veterans who are north of, or nudging, 30 are clearly two or three yards off the pace, and are prone to getting sacked cold. The Bamfords are not afraid of awarding holding the ball frees. The Blakey kiddie looks the goods as a teen, but who else is there? Clarke seems to be a common or garden journeyman and how many tall forwards do you really need if yr being beaten for the ball on the ground? The Ronke can't even get a game at the minute.
By all reports, the Bush Telegraph is alive with the hashtag #longseason. And by the look of him in the box, SC Horse may come to rue the day he decided to hang on a year too long, and go out with his perfect record of making the finals in eight consecutive years, in tatters. Only time will tell. But after this long, Longmire has certainly pulled all the tufts of hair out of his bonce.
So, in the league caper you've got old blokes out-foxing and out-muscling inexperienced youngsters still coming to terms with the complexity of the game, while in the Rules it's fading hard bastards having rings run around them by some finely tuned atheltes who are essentially still children. Go figure.
WESTERN BULLDOGS 4.5, 6.8, 9.14, 11.16 (82). Goals: Naughton 3, Gowers 2, Lloyd 2, Richards, Duryea, Schache, Bontempelli.
SYDNEY 1.2, 1.5, 5.6, 9.11 (65). Goals: Reid 2, Heeney 2, Blakey, Hayward, Mills, Papley, Franklin.
At Docklands Stadium.
Crowd: 32,303.
