blame the Winter Solstice

Nervous Types,

Well, what's there to say about this forgettable lack-lustre affair?
Not much really.
By now, SC Horse would have scratched it into the side of Coach's Ledger in the Football Office marked "we'll take our wins", and promptly banished it from his mind - no lessons to be learnt here.
What should've been for the Swans a leisurely Friday evening stroll, walking the dog in the park, turned out to be anything but.
Most likely the worst first half Sydney have played all year; through no want of trying, they just couldn't hold onto the ball, constantly just out of reach, going this way and that, the pill dancing elusively off the fingertips, repeatedly coughing up possession.
Couldn't get a goal to save themselves, and it was only brutal, ugly defence that kept the hapless Tigers to a single goal in the second half that delivered salvation.
They would have been slaughtered by a better team.
And then for the second week running, with things finely in the balance, and the cannister of heart pills at hand, Lance Franklin kicked the two match winning goals and took the get out of jail free card.
He's earning his keep, whatever his keep might be.
Seems like Buddy is now getting set-shot coaching from none other than Nick "Come to Save Us" Davis, who knows a thing or two about booting big ones under pressure - goes out to lunch on the stories.
Longmire was clearly unimpressed with the hand-to-hand combat in a low-scoring affair, and if his quarter time spray at the on-field huddle was anything to go by he would have been absolutely spewing at the long break, while steam would have been coming out of his ears at the final hooter.
Still, it's not at all that surprising that after sweeping all before them, Sydney now find themselves with the double purple patch clearly in view, in an on-field struggle even against lowly teams they should beat in a canter.
Blame it on the Winter Solstice.
Richmond unlucky in the denoument, for mine.
The Stats Guru was quick to point out that the "violent murderous revenge" to be inflicted on GWS this weekend will be the the first time in 79 years that South Melbourne/Sydney have won ten on the trot.
That's a very long time.
But they better watch out, with the Pygmies having just won back to back matches for the first time in their short history.
Sydney should be fully aware that after the debacle of round one - which will in the fullness of time no doubt come back to bite them on the ladder before season's end - the Pygs aint no easy beats no more.
After all those wins in a row the Swans are, on the balance of probabilities, "due for a loss", and as even the most ardent supporter knows with the diff a bit iffy, the wheels can fall off at any moment without warning.
From now on, it mostly has to do with messing with people's heads, and the "psych war" will only get more intense as the season edges closer to the pointy end.

RICHMOND: 4.2, 6.4, 7.6, 7.9 (51). Goals: Riewoldt 2, Miles 2, Edwards, Hampson, Deledio.
SYDNEY: 1.2, 4.2, 7.5, 9.8 (62). Goals: Franklin 4, K. Jack 2, Reid 2, McVeigh.
At Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Crowd: 34,633.

Pleasing to see the two Balmain boys acquit themselves well for NSW in State-of-Origin II.
An old fashioned game of football that took us way back.
As the GLW commented after the Traditional Softening Up Period [aka the first 20 mins], "these blokes aren't just playing the game, they are fully fighting".
That's it - state on state, mate on mate, date on date - in effect, a state-sanctioned bashing.
If it happened anywhere but on the field, they'd all be up on serious assault charges.
That's what the people come to see.
Laughed me head off as A.Woods went absolutely apeshit at the final siren, running around like a chook with its head cut off trying to mount anything that moved, with that utterly delightful idiot grin he has on his face going right off as NSW won a three-game series against QLD for the first time in a million years.
The eyes were spinning.
Haven't seen unbridled joy like that in a while.
The bye didn't fall the right way for Balmain - again - but hey that's life, and it's still two points in the dilly bag and you don't even have to turn up to play.

WESTS TIGERS: 2nd mid-season bye.