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August 04, 2005
In More Shit Than A Werribee Duck...
For some strange reason I was quite excited in the lead up to this game. After spending some 5 or so days being very angry at the football club I was excited of the prospect of us being able to make a statement, I was excited at the chance for us to come out and scream "We are the GFC. We're still alive in '05".
Early pre-match comments of that I was worried about some of our not fully fit inclusions were quickly forgotten with a few schooners and replaced with "If we lose, I will cry. We should own this mob". Ahhh...beer.
The first half past rather quickly. The scoreboard remained tight with momentum switching back & forth quickly. Although some more accurate kicking for goal would have had us quite rightly a few more points ahead at the break than the eight we were. The game came to life at the end of the half. The siren sounded and play ended with Steve Johnson giving a tackle/bump to an Essendon player (Stanton), there was nothing in it until McVeigh came in punched Johnson in the face and started a mini-melee. Typical Sheedy, typical Essendon. I instantly turned to my mate and said "How we walk off the ground is cruical!"
***FLASHBACK***
Round 3 2001
Melbourne Vs. Geelong MCG
After starting well thanks to Ronnie Burns who had 3 in the first quarter before doing his hamstring the game was evenly poised approaching half time, or was it? During the second quarter Jeffrey "The Whiz (not the magical kind)" Farmer started to lose control, which got tempers heated, which eventually led to a boiling over right on the half time siren. So what I hear you think? Melbourne huddled up, pumped and surged off the field to a standing ovation from the MFC members, we trotted off the ground like a pack of cows. No enthusiam, no energy. Needless to say we got rolled.
***END FLASHBACK***
As it happened both sides went off the ground with energy without being overly motivated it seemed. So what was point to all that? Not much, but I got to do a flashback...pretty cool huh?
What did matter was that two players in the Red 'n Black come out to play in the second half. Scott Lucas destroyed us in the third quarter and ended up with 6.0 for the game, a handfull of Geelong scalps & ensuring that another five 'Get Scott Lucas' threads will be started on the Geelong Big Footy messageboard at seasons end.
The other of course was that man James Hird. As much as I'd like to take a crowbar to that pretty little face of his sometimes you just have to sit back, admire & wish he was running around in your clubs colours. Don't get me wrong, by no way was this anywhere near James Hird at his best, but three moments showcased it all. Firstly after being tackled in the centre (possible holding the ball btw) he managed to soccer the ball off the ground under a lot of pressure about 30-40m into the path of a streaming forward Essendon player. Goal. Secondly he slotted through a great goal on the run from a position Geelong players in similar situations had missed earlier in the night & lastly that goal from the goalsquare & the celebration. These are the type of things he does not one once over his career, not once a season but numerous times a year. Inspirational, incredible, match turning & most importantly match winning football by a match winning football player, something we desperately lack.
Having drooled over Essendon for a few paragraphs it may surprise you to hear we went inside fifty sixty-six times! A whole twenty-two times more than Essendon. Top quality football sides don't lose in those situations & they don't just win either, they shit in. We had no answer to Essendons run through the middle as our pressure at times was nowhere to be seen as was our brain power as we constantly in the second half bombed it in to Kingsley Vs. Fletcher in the square. HELLO? ANYBODY HOME? Bomb it long to Ottens, bomb it long to H, but for Gary Abletts sake don't bomb it to Kingsley.
I hate to say I told you so but, Ottens played just over half a game with not much result (stick him in the square Bomber!), Enright ditto. Dog Johnson ran around looking slow, unfit & like the pack a day smoker he apparently is while Mooney injured his groin & back and is in doubt for this week, meanwhile King broke his finger and is gone until finals....IF we are in them.
The drive home was a long & sorry one. Having to put up with talk back callers defending the club from the media vultures already circling, the question is why? Why defend performances like the past two weeks? Bomber said it was an improvement in his press conference. Good-o boy-o, everything is back on track then. Wrong! If we didn't didn't improve on the performance the week before I'd suggest you aren't "The Man" Mr. Thompson. He also said that he is going to stick with unfit & out of form players such as Ottens, H, Dog Johnson & Corey Enright for the rest of the season expecting them to improve every week. It's going to be a long four weeks for us, 'the faithful'.
As my mates Dad dropped me off outside my house only a Benny Grah...err Josh Hunt kick out away from KP he was heard to remark "Sorry we couldn't win" Inside I laughed. If only we could blame all this on one person...
geelongblog.com Player of the Year
Vs. Western Bulldogs
5. Darren Milburn
4. Gary Ablett
3. Kent Kingsley
2. Cameron Mooney
1. Nobody worthy....I was struggling for four
Vs. Essendon
5. Joel Corey
4. Paul Chapman
3. Cameron Ling
2. Kane Tenace
1. Steven King
Top 10:
Chapman - 32
Corey - 28
Ling - 24
Enright - 22
Kelly - 20
Milburn - 20
Hunt - 17
Ablett - 16
Bartel - 15
Scarlett - 12
Posted by Sammy D at August 4, 2005 04:14 PM