Cardiac patients,
How good is it to be robbed blind? C'mon! Just how good is it, people? With nothing in it in the darkening shadows of full time, with the the heart rate going into fibrillation and the blood pressure about to explode, a dodgy free kick is given against the Reds well outside the 50m mark which is pretty much at the edge of the centre square at the SCG, and then for some highly technical infraction of some obtuse rule nobody understands, the whistle blows again for an outrageous 50m penalty, and the Maggies boot the winning goal from right in front and the Fat Lady starts singing just as the final siren blows. Oh, the pedantry! Oh, the sheer bastardry of the Umpires. Away with you, thieving officialdom! The bloody Bamfords strike again to leave a very sour taste in the mouth after what was a pretty good game of football. Sydney was not expected to be all that competitive given Collingwood's purple patch of form, and The Wood's were due for a loss after all, but the authorities were having none of it, so, they robbed us blind. To make matters worse the commentariat on the telly were jerking themselves in glee and talking about a "miracle win". You know what to think about that. More like defeat, snatched from the jaws of victory. Never believed in miracles until they are seen with my own eyes, never will. To lose the unloseable game in the dying minutes. Desperately unlucky to be charitable at the very best. With the Umps ag'in 'em, the SCG is rapidly becoming a hoodoo ground for the Swans; who'd be a member when almost every time you go there in the past couple of seasons, they get beat? It's a cardinal sin in football - you must win at home, and then try your best to jag a few away to have any hope. So cruelly denied. Gawd almighty. Could go on, but won't.
It would be most remiss of me not to mention last week's news of the retirement of The Great Heath "Reg" Grundy. After an illustrious career, his chronic dose of Shagger's Back finally gave out on him. You know; the mind is willing but the flesh is weak. He'll be 33 next week. And with his carcass now rooted beyond repair, the poor old bugger never did get to play a farewell game and be chaired off the ground. There was always a whisper in the stands that he was Reg Grundy's love child, although that requires some suspension of disbelief as he has an apparently legit bro called Brodie going around for the Pies and Reg Grundy Snr died a happy man in Bermuda at the ripe old age of 92. Still, the name stuck. Reg came from the Redlegs up the Norwood Parade way there, and played in the SANFL as a kiddie, and then did ten hard years in the Swans Senior's. In the "Sydney System" he took four years to find a regular place in the side by re-inventing himself as a backman in the days when midfielders were King. Then he became an integral part of the famous 'brick wall' that kept all kinds of opposing high quality hard bastards quiet in their forward line. Reg's ariel work was unparalleled and he drew gasps from the crowd tackling the biggest and best forwards of the era head-on and slamming them into the turf right through to and including the 2012 Grand Final, when it all payed off. Remarkably, there are still five survivors of that team; NS Smith, JPK, L Parker, S Reid and Grundy's partner in crime, J "Odd Head" McVeigh, still on the Sydney roster. Also of note is an alumni of that great Granny - and another great backman to boot - in Rhyce "Rick" Shaw, is now the interim coach at North, after One Of The Scott Bros. was shamelessly punted out the back door after a decade of loyal service with out so much as a sausage. And they're doing better than the Swans on the ladder. Joisus. No one is safe. Be that as it may, even after Grundy's glittering career that would have made him a household name anywhere else, his retirement would have been lucky to have rated three or four paragraphs on the inside back pages of the Melbourne Papers. Please tell me that's wrong.
Grundy just played on and on and on. No-one, least of all himself, expected him to get this far. That's because he was remarkably bullet proof - never got injured - missing only six games from 2009-2017. And a superlative club man having played his entire career amounting to 256 games in the No.39 for The Red & The White. Nobody else. So Heefy, a club Life Member, is now admitted to the Swans' Pantheon, which is already chockablock with all time greats.
Vale Heath Reginald "Never Played a Bad Game" Grundy. Go you good thing.
SYDNEY 3.1, 5.1, 10.2, 11.7 (73). Goals: Reid 6, Franklin 2, Fox, Papley, Blakey.
COLLINGWOOD 1.4, 5.10, 7.12, 11.14 (80). Goals: Wells 3, Brown 2, Mayne 2, Pendlebury, Stephenson, Mihocek, Reid.
At Sydney Cricket Ground.
Crowd: 34,649.
The Mighty Tiges were never given much chance of beating the top-of-the-table rampaging Rabbitoh's - despite Souths extensive injury list - but they gave a very good account of themselves, and surprised everyone by actually leading at half time and looking much the better side, until they got all too predictably steamrolled in the final stanza. A few dumb passes and some set plays that went awry was all that was in it at the denouement. As they say in the school boy classics "gallant in defeat".
It's just one those seasons again, just as it has been for the last decade - jeez they're a hard team to follow. The ever hopeful Stats Guru has pointed out that at 5-6 with 44% of the season gone, Balmain are still in with a chance, however remote, but their hopelessly consistent inconsistency [WWLLWLWLWLL] needs to be dealt with by Super Coach Mr Magoo quick smart if they are to make the pointy end of the season.They're desperately in need a Rabbitoh's-style purple patch to be any hope, so why not start with this weekend's bye that automatically attracts two Premiership points? You cannot and do not lose.
Every time Souths beat Wests, can't help but be reminded of the day many moons ago now when the Rabbitoh's flogged Balmain by 50+ points to bugger all at Leichhardt Oval, and a bloke who was a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic dressed in full Tiges paraphernalia on leaving the hallowed ground, kept saying loudly to himself over and over and over again..."South Sydney will rue the day, South Sydney will rue the day...". The two clubs have history, some of which will never be repeated, forgotten or forgiven. And by some quirk of mystery scheduling, they meet again in four weeks.
SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS 32. Tries: Murray (2), Reynolds, Cook, Knight. Goals: Reynolds (3), Gagai (3).
WESTS TIGERS 16. Tries: Thompson, Marsters, Marshall. Goals: Marsters (2).
At Olympic Stadium, Homebush.
Crowd: 18,195.
