Fellow Mad Monday Revellers,
It’s always gratifying when yr team goes out in the second week of the finals with not so much as a whimper.
As a mate of mine reflected, all we have got to look forward to now is the two page pictorial in tomorrow’s Daily Terror of Mad Monday, heavily featuring snaps of BBB “Slugger” Hall in a frock and a funny hat.
They were the boys who were psychologically damaged.
Keenly aware that that would be even more severely taken apart by Geelong if they miraculously managed to progress; meekly surrendered to Foo-ters-craay.
The ageing list and the seriously inexperienced youngsters found out once and for all.
Never heard SC Roos comment further on his suggestion a few weeks back “that you can only go to the well so many times”.
At the end of the match he just shrugged his shoulders and said of the future “midfielders are probably more important in this day and age than forwards, we’ll have to take a look at that”.
Nice to see Spida eschew the last year of his two year contract, and have the decency and sense to just retire – without any farewell or fanfare.
Undoubtedly realised that he would struggle to make anyone’s 22 if he tried to battle on next year.
Shame that he had to give it away just before getting the Life Membership quota of 300 games, only fell a few short, so some luminary should make an executive AFL decision, and grant Spida an ex-officio Life Membership anyway, on account of just being a champion.
The telegram should read …”you’ve done enough, son”.
If John “Datefinger” Hopoate can be the current heavyweight champion of Australia in the boxing caper, then BBB “Slugger” Hall would have to fancy himself with the knock out punch.
The big fella is made for a mid-life crisis career - just go and clock blokes for a living, Barry.
No one will tell a two time Brownlow medalist when his time is up, the Goodes Train will decide for himself when he stops running, but given the state of his knees and loss of a yard, he’d have to be seriously considering resting on his not inconsiderable laurels and at the top of his game, just quietly; and as for Micky O, oh, oh, what an ornament to the game.
How do you tell your best ever goal kicker that he’d make a sad exhibition of himself if and when he could get back up on two legs and go around again?
Everyone knows that it’s hard, but in the end, there is no room for sentimentality
All year the blokes over 30, mainly the white boys, never got much attention in this blog, on account of they did nothing.
Crouch, Barry, The Bolton boys etc, since when did they ever get a mention?
Tadgh was only playing this year as a favour to SC Roos, who talked him out of retirement last year, so he’ll surely repatriate himself as promised, back to Dublin.
Sensibly, Ben Mathews gave the game away a few weeks before the finals, figuring there wasn’t much future at 29, no point going on when youngsters are snapping at your heels.
Nick Davis Come To Save Us, at 28, has been living in la la land for quite some time now.
Even the Ugliest Man in Football, at the ripe old age of 25, might no longer be able to cut it in the top grade.
It might be sad, but it might also be true.
But it doesn’t really matter that their best wasn’t good enough in the final paralysis, you can count yourself lucky as a fan if you get to thoroughly enjoy more than a handful of games where coach can honestly say “all played well”.
Rhino Keefe for club best, closely followed by Marty Mattner, with the Jolly Giant and Cap’n’ Kirk in the mix.
With another half a dozen retirements looming, how does SC Roos go about reshuffling the deckchairs?
Could be years before the Swans get themselves back into the shape needed to seriously challenge for the Championship.
So we might have to cheerily put up with yet another Winter of Discontent for a few more years yet.
Ah yes…but that’s a long way off…
WESTERN BULLDOGS: 2.3, 6.5, 11.9, 16.10 (106). Goals: Murphy 3, Welsh 2, Hill 2, Eagleton 2, Hahn, Higgins, Lake, Griffen, Minson, Johnson, Akermanis.
SYDNEY: 2.4, 5.7, 5.13, 9.15 (69). Goals: Hall 4, Jolly, Roberts-Thomson, Goodes, Crouch, Bevan
At Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Crowd: 42,731.
PS> Well…….
That just about does it for the winter game circuit in 2008.
Won’t bore you further.
Thanks very much for the comments, vitriolic abuse, kind words, argumentative tosh, and suggestions that I might be some kind of misguided fool.
The footy’s been fun.
Of course, the summer game wire might get sparking up again once they start playing some first class cricket.
