« Two Words.....Frozen Pies | Main | Oh The Pain... »
June 05, 2005
McCarthy Slaps Willy Which Excites Cats Fans.
The Kolonel being the glutton for punishment he is ventured out to the VFL again, here's what he saw...
There will be a few Cats looking over their shoulders at training this week, after the Kolonel saw his first VFL win of the season, a 3 point cliffhanger at Burbank Oval. The Kolonel awoke at the stroke of midday to scoff a quick meal of Chinese left-overs before making the trek to the industrial cesspool that is Williamstown.
No, Willy isn’t that bad, in fact I could see me and Mrs Kolonel settling down with a nice beachfront cottage and a couple of poodles one day, as long as we didn’t have to mingle with the people. But that is expected when you attend anything that involves Collingwood.
There was a gentle offshore breeze and the weather was beautiful, making the inclusions of Haynes and McCarthy very important. It really was the perfect day for tall forwards. Cameron Thurley was also a handy player to have back and started like he really wanted his spot back in the seniors, running rampant in the first 15 minutes. Unfortunately, it looked ominous in the first with the Cats undisciplined and very scrappy moving forward managing just the one goal in the first quarter, but were kept in the game by an inaccurate Willy, who missed a plethora of chances to have a hefty margin at the first break.
Things looked promising in the second, without being spectacular. The Cats were playing as well as they had all season, without being able to break through with a couple of majors. Eventually Paul Kolourorororororitosisis mongrelled one through and they again were able to stay close: 21 points adrift at the long break.
The backline was playing quite superbly, and did so the whole game. Brenton Sanderson looked a different player this week and marshaled the troops well, including a couple of hefty sprays in the direction of a certain N Ablett, who played at CHB and was quite good. His intensity was certainly a lot higher this week and wasn’t chasing shadows, rather competing hard in contests which were quite encouraging to see. James Rahilly and Timmy Callan gave good run off the backline and could both lay claims on David Johnson’s spot, although an injury to Timmy might see his bad selection luck continue.
A quick conference with the chant guy in the middle at half time had us confident we could conjure up our second win. We felt it pivotal that young Rowan Bonson be brought into the play and unleash some of the black magic we had all heard about. Basically, we wanted him to dodge everyone on the field and kick a few goals. He didn’t quite to live up to our expectations, but the boy does have a bit of magic about him. Classy on either side and has a sublime vertical leap, kicked a very classy left foot snap in the 3rd and showed enough to hang around for a few more weeks.
We assembled at our usual end for the start of the 3rd quarter, hoping quite optimistically we could turn it around. What we got knocked our socks off! It was the Matty McCarthy show in the third, marking everything and kicking true to finish with 5 goals for the quarter. The whole side began to lift, tackling hard
putting on great pressure and playing with a real desire to win. One player who stood out for the Kolonel was Brent Prismall, whose tackles stick and has classy foot skills.
The much maligned 'Mule Boot' of David Haynes also stepped up at centre half forward, taking strong grabs bullocking hard and as usual playing on at all costs. His bizzaro twin Jarrod Garth also does some nice things, although he missed a few crucial shots in the latter part of the game. It is really quite hard to sit here and name one player who the credit should go to, because they really all did step up, even Nathan was crashing packs and running hard. So I'll just give all the credit to the chant guy.
His cheering, despite being met with 'sucks'(mostly by kiddies, but one guy who was about 40 and hopefully for him mostly 6's and 7's found it amusing also..) every time did not waver the whole game. After our dominant 3rd term we were coming home with the breeze and looking good.
The final quarter was tense, and made even tenser by the fact I really had to go to the toilet after consuming too much liquid. I just wanted that bloody siren to go! The Cats looked good early tackling hard and moving it well, without being able to get reward on the scoreboard. Matty McCarthy kicked the Cats only two goals of the last, the second from a 50m penalty which made it a Shaw thing (hehehe) and also a couple of brain melts(if he actually does have one) from Jason Cloke ensured the Cats would get up in a thrilling 3 point win. Mark Blake’s indecision almost single handedly won us the game, holding the ball for an eternity before nailing a long kick up the wing and being punched over the line. When it happens early you hate it, when he does it late you want to hug him!
At the end of the game, I didn’t really know what to do, so I used my instinct. I ran onto the ground screaming and gave Matty McCarthy a well deserved pat on the back for his heroics. Despite wearing a jumper about 3 sizes too small for him, he deserved it!
Scoreboard
Williamstown 3.7 7.8 9.10 13.13 (91)
Geelong 1.2 4.5 12.5 14.10 (94)
GOALS:
Williamstown: O'Brien 2 Davidson 2 Barling 2 Fanning Hall Cloke Dukes Lonie Walker Coates
Geelong: McCarthy 7 Torney Bonson Buckland Spencer Garth Byrne Koulouriotis
Kolonels best for Cats - Rahilly McCarthy Egan Haynes Thurley Cloke
Kolonels best for Willy - Cook
A few players...
Sando - Could come back, he was pretty valiant in defence and ran out most of the game. Given DJ's injury and Joshs' report he is every chance to play.
Sarge - Sarge > King.
Koula - Not as good as I was perhaps hoping, although he is a chance to play this week if the axe is to fall.
McCarthy - Hard to keep out after today, if H doesnt come up, he’d be a certain inclusion in my Book.
Rahilly - Kicked accurately, could get a gig.
Nathe - Improved out of sight. Good to see.
Well that wraps things up for this week, let’s hope I can report back with a few more wins like these!
It’ll certainly be a much better way to get things done, and you can pay out all the little kids also! But I'd do that anyway.
Kolonel.
Posted by Sammy D at June 5, 2005 08:50 PM
Comments
Is Sarge Paul Chambers? Excuse my ignorance..
Posted by: Dave at June 5, 2005 09:23 PM
He sure is Dave
Posted by: Sammy D at June 5, 2005 10:17 PM
Good to hear Sando giving Nathan a spray. Sounds like he responded well to it. Perhaps too many people are being too easy on him? I really don't know.
BTW, I love the title! Keep up the good work fellahs. I really like your writing style and humour.
Regards,
Chris LoAFoR
Posted by: Chris LoA at June 6, 2005 11:15 AM