LEICHHARDT OVAL IS MY CHURCH

Denizens of The Hill,

What a cracking afternoon at the spiritual home of Balmain rugby league!
A sparkling picture postcard perfect late autumn day in the Emerald City.
A full house in.
As SC Warren Ryan puts it, “the joint dripping with atmosphere”.
And arguably the best football match seen on the ground since the Triumphant Premiership Year.
All the skills, all the talent on show, a titanic tussle in the forwards, smart kicking games from both sides, and some vintage running rugby league.
After my recent lamentation about the non-inclusion of the Great Kerry Hemsley in the Team of the Century, it was ironic, and very pleasing, to see the great man himself paraded around the ground on the back of a Harley-Davidson as part of the pre-game entertainment!
Don’t know quite why he was honoured in such a way; he was introduced to the crowd and said a few words, but I didn’t hear them as I was on my way to the bar.
He looks like he is on the brink of becoming an old man, and appears to have long lost the Chewbacca mullet, in favour of some kind of tie-died platinum coffuire.
We perched ourselves pretty much on the north western corner flag as it would have been hard work squinting into the brilliant sunshine all afternoon from The Hill.
The good lady wife remarked how the Titans side looked like a “mob of pretty boys” in the warm up in the in goal at our end.
“Joisus”, she said. “You don’t need to be pretty to play rugby league. Just ask Hoddo.”
Benny Te’o crashed over for the first try of the game after gathering in a clever chip kick from Benji on the full, while Robbie Farah just used all his brute strength to barrel over from dummy half and suddenly the Tigers were 12-nil up against the competition leaders.
The crowd went apeshit.
There is no more spine-tingling sound in world sport than the roar from a Leichhardt Oval full house hanging on every play – when the home side scores it’s literally deafening.
They went deathly silent as the Titans scored a very very soft try from one of their first attacking forays.
But went banana’s when there was a 26 man stink right in front of us!
Don’t know what sparked it, but as soon as the referee blew his whistle, it was on.
In truth, couldn’t see that a punch was landed on anyone by anyone, but the Bamford saw enough in it sin-bin a player from either side.
In retrospect it was a very lucky thing indeed that the Great Hoddo decided to take a penalty goal kick in the shadows of half time for the 14-6 lead at the break.
And then it was half time, which saw the funniest half time entertainment ever; as about a hundred under sevens in their junior footy jerseys were lined up, and at the crack of a starter’s gun, were sent on their way on a dash across the field, and then of course all piled up on top of each other once they crossed the touch line!
Someone won it, and everyone cacked themselves heartily.
The bar arrangements were of course sensible as always, with ice cold tins going for a fiver.
With none of this plastic cup nonsense or coins in the change, there was never any long wait, but due to lopsided stocking, was forced to sample the full range as the more popular brands sold out -- so it was pre-game drinks Carlton Draught, first half drinks VB, second half drinks Pure Blonde!
There is probably no other crowd as quite as eclectic as the Leichhardt Oval crowd, even with a distinct (as you’d expect) lack of away fans.
From the baby who couldn’t have been more than a few months old perched on his dad’s knee in front of us, to the little octogenarian ladies in the full Tigers kit who have probably seen every game at the ground since The War, to the wizened blokes in ancient Western Suburbs Magpies jersey’s who were struggling under the weight of beer on board, to the ordinary folk who support neither side who just come in to watch a good game of football, to the utterly insane woman near us, who was clutching a fistful of Tigers memorabilia, including small photographs in frames, a blow up plastic tiger and a scarf close to her chest who crossed herself constantly and continually screamed gibberish throughout as she wiped tears from eyes.
All class.
The best t-shirt of the day was undoubtedly
BALMAIN TIGERS ARE MY GODS
LEICHHARDT OVAL IS MY CHURCH
Closely followed by
IT’S NOT ILLEGAL
(UNLESS YOU GET CAUGHT)
The first half of the second half was the willingest, toughest, tightest rugby league you’d ever want to see, before the Great Hoddo pulled off a beautiful set play involving at least half a dozen quick sets of hands before bursting through the advantage line from about 20 yards out, then scooting into the in-goal underneath the posts without a hand being laid on him.
They must have practiced that move at training dozens of times.
The crowd went completely crazy.
Had to reach for the heart pills when the Titans went over for two quick tries in front of us, to make it 20-18 with eight minutes left in the caper.
Sterling defensive efforts saw some serious Gold Coast attacking raids count for nothing, and the whole crowd bit their collective lip waiting for the final hooter.
When it came, the players all fell to the ground as they had played themselves to a stand still, before handshakes all round, and a lap of honour for the Tigers.
A minute or two after a halt had been called to proceedings, a bloke wandered by with an ice chest strapped to his neck and shoulders calling out in a low melodious voice…
“Icecreams?! Icecreams?!”
Farah was a deserved man of the match – after all, he just ran the show -- Hoddo a close second, Head and Morris did some useful work in the halves, Gibbs, Galloway, Heighington, and Te’o were very strong in the forwards, but the try scoring freak Lawrence was missing in action, and Benji, apart from having a crack at directing the kicking traffic, spent most of the day trying to hide himself on the wing and did nothing.
Little matter.
No-one was worried about the back page headlines in the fishwraps the next day quoting SC Sheens.
“WE WE’RE LUCKY”: SHEENS.
That’s what the punters pay to come to see.

WESTS TIGERS 20. Tries: Farah, Hodgson, T’eo. Goals: Hodgson (4),
GOLD COAST TITANS 18. Tries: Bowen, Campbell, Cannings. Goals: Prince (3).
At Leichhardt Oval.
Crowd: 17,493.

Finally, at long last, after all these years, the Swans have learned how to play the get out of jail card in close away games.
It looked for all the world there for a while like it was going to be the same old story…after never being headed all day, lose the lead deep into the last quarter and lose the match by a narrow margin.
Thank gawd for Timmy Schmiffy and Mr McVeigh with the match winning goals at the bitter end
Captain Kirk was probably best on ground, and The Goodes Train and Magic did some good things, but it was most pleasing to see young fella’s like Jack, Moore, Playfair etc put in consistently good games and keep the pressure on the old blokes.
SC Roos must be thinking with Richmond, West Coast, St Kilda and Melbourne coming up in the next month, there’s no reason why the Swans can’t run into a purple patch here, and you generally only need one of those to be nicely in at the weights for a top four finish.

PORT ADELAIDE: 6.1, 9.5, 11.7, 14.10 (94). Goals: Ebert 6, Tredrea 3, Motlop 2, Lade, Gray, P.Burgoyne
SYDNEY: 8.1, 11.4, 13.9, 16.9 (105). Goals: Moore 3, O'Keefe 2, Buchanan 2, O'Loughlin 2, McVeigh 2, Bevan, Kirk, J.Bolton, Jolly, Schmidt
At Football Park, Adelaide.
Crowd: 25,013.