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August 01, 2006

We're On The Road To Nowhere

I had never been to an interstate Geelong game before and when I was asked on a virtually all expenses paid trip to Canberra to see us take on the Kangaroos it involved some serious deliberation. Serious deliberation?! I can sense you all thinking to yourself. What is there to think about? As I explained to the boys when I was picked up just after 4am "I'm more likely to be going to sleep right now than waking up" and a 16 hour car trip in a 20 hour period isn't to be taken lightly, but what the hell...

By the boys I mean of course fellow Geelongblog.com contributor The Kolonel, our trip organiser Dazza/El Presidente/Elvis/Baghdatis & Hector the Bear. Hector belongs to a primary school class & it was one of El Presidentes daughters turn to take him home for the weekend so it was decided it was about time he was educated about hardcore pornography & fireworks.

I was the last of the lads to be picked up so once I had sleepily dragged myself into Dazza's Territory it was off to the ACT. We headed down straight into the heart of Geelong's nightlife. It was funny to see it through sober eyes for once. KFC was absolutely packed as usual. No doubt someone was lurking to steal somebody elses Twister when they weren't looking, while we were all on the lookout for Dazza's younger party boy brother, but all we managed to see where various people lying in the streets looking rather sorry for themselves.

The trip up the Princess & Hume highways went rather fast with talk of football & how our beloved local cricket club had faired over the off-season. I was rather cautious about our upcoming fixture we were travelling to. The whole interstate vibe was there, plus the Kangaroos saying goodbye to Canberra. I felt they had something to play for rather than just pride, but still if we were good enough for finals we just simply had to win games like this one.

Our first stop was breakfast in a half construction site McDonalds in Albury. I felt rather stupid walking into a McDonalds at 8am with a Geelong gurnsey on, but it caught the attention of a couple of local pissheads behind us in the queue who provided a few laughs & smells as Dazza found out first hand. One of them was wearing a NSW rugby top, it seemed we had well & truely entered "Rugby Country".

Next stop was Holbrook or H-town as it is known due to it being the 'Home of H'. A feat that apparently isn't worth bragging about due to the lack of any announcement to visitors to this one house town. While Dazza took a photo of Hector on one of the many submarine related signs The Kolonel & I had a morning kick to prevent some DVT. I wanted to track down the home of Big Henrys parents so I could ask them when the dopey bugger would kick 4 goals in AFL match and win me a slab but time was of the essence plus I think I know the answer to that question anyways...

As mentioned in the Kolonels report the previous days VFL was the hot topic. We all seemed to have McCarthy name on the chopping block, with me pushing Blake as a replacement allowing to play Ottens at FF all day. The Kolonel did as only The Kolonel can by plugging Kent non-stop after his 6 goals the day earlier and we pretty much all agreed Prismall shouldn't be missing out at the expense of Kelly.

We had another brief stop at Gundagai as another Hector photo opportunity couldn't be turned down. The sun beamed down on us plesantly while we were there, all this hype about the 'Canberra Chill' would surely not live upto the hype today would it?

As we got closer to Canberra I slipped on my i-Pod for a chance to listen to my Aston Villa podcast. Why not get away from the depressing state of one of my sporting clubs, but listening to the weekly events of another of my depressing football teams?

After 8 hour we finally spotted our destination. Having been to Canberra once before it was good to see again some of the sights briefly as we drove past them in the nations capital. We jokingly saw Johnny Howard running up the hill towards Parliament House but he didn't have his Wallabies jacket on so it musn't have been him. I wanted to grab a screwdriver & get a photo of Hector hugging the PM with it lodged in one of his paws but it wasn't to be.

Instead we nearly got in trouble with the ACTs police force as we were stopped in a suburban street receiving our tickets & parking pass off Dazzas sister. With the law enforcer being kind to us & overlooking our indiscretion we found the Manuka car park after trying to unsuccessfully trying to pass ourselves off as worthy of the disabled car park.

After meeting up with a couple of Dazza's local Kangaroo supporting friends we headed off to find out seats. I took an instant liking to the ground. Very suburban & pretty close to the action. I loved the fact that the outer had a hill where it was first in best dressed, but we had reserved seats on the 50m flank, opposite side of the ground which was lucky because it sheltered us from the very cool breeze. Yes, the 'Canberra Chill' was living upto its name.

Here's a selection of photos of Manuka Oval:

The crowd was pretty much split up 40/40/20%. There was a sizeable & loud Geelong contingent, a lot more than I thought but it was like an exhibition game in a sense as there are so many neutrals around. I guess if I only got 3 local games of AFL football a season I'd go and watch them too no matter who was playing.

During the warm up we noticed Rooke was out and as predicted in came 'Speedster' Peter Riccardi. Brent Prismall & Charlie Gardiner were sitting two rows in front of us for the game. Made me wonder what would have happened if 3 players went down with gastro the morning of the match. Prismall & Gardiner did as we expected, sat there all game emotionless, rarely speaking to the few fans they knew and barely speaking to each other from the few times I looked.

I'll say as little about the match as possible as we were pathetic. The Kangaroos had kicked 4 goals with the minimum of effort before the players looked like they realised they were in a game. To top things off Ablett & Ling went off early in the first quarter with injuries that didn't see them get back on the ground for the rest of the day.

We looked to be mounting a comeback in the second quarter before Stokes & Ottens respectively missed easy chances 15m, to which the Roos replied with two goals themselves to send the margin back out to comfortable proportions.

At half time The Kolonel & I went for a walk around the ground. I found out the Manuka have the smallest toilets for a sporting ground I have ever seen. Even our local cricket club toilets are bigger. That was the only problem with the ground, that & the fact that there were Foxtel people everywhere for no apparent reason. If you're going to sign up for Foxtel, are you going to do it at an AFL game?

During the main break The Kolonel & I found we could see into the Geelong rooms through these big glass panels at the back of the main grandstand. I felt like banging on the glass and pointing the the club logo on my guernsey and yelling "where is the passion?" but didn't have the guts. We took some photos of them 'warming down' but due to the sun reflecting off the glass they didn't come out too well. Here's one for an example:

Then we headed around to the cheersquad to take a photo of the infamous chant guy:

He'd be the one with the hairy shoulders that take Sav Rocca's to task and the guernsey covered in signatures. The next bit I will just blatantly steal from The Kolonel:

When we returned from our papparazing, Elvis informed us we had spent the entire first half sitting next to Brad Ottens mum. It was just a good thing I hadn’t been drinking!! Mind you, Mrs Ottens had been doing more than enough for all of us, saying the only way she could get through a game was to get drunk! Every time Brad kicked a goal, she would reach for her hipflask and top up her bottle of coke. Lucky for her Brad had an off day with his kicking.

Although Brad had a much improved 2nd half to be one of our few contributors on the day. Dazza (or Elvis) joked with her about allowing her into the rooms to speak to Brad, which she took too seriously or was too drunk to notice the smirk on his face as she replied

"They don't let the mothers in the rooms!"

You don't say Mrs. Ottens...

We continued to let the Kangaroos run all over us using their pace and excellent delivery by foot to hurt us, while our plan revolved around bombing it to Ottens (who often had 3 to beat), Mooney (who went missing after he was reported in the first quarter) & McCarthy (who couldn't take a mark to save himself in the forward line) and when the ball was brought to ground we had no-one there and the Roos ran it out with ease. Late into the last quarter we spotted a Geelong banner in the crowd, it simply said "Thanks for the porn". Says it all really, meanwhile the Manuka screen was running "The Kangaroos would like to thank..." screens all day & I'm surprised the GFC didn't make that list considering our performance.

The final siren finally went to put us out of our misery. Season 2006 is over for us and by my accounts was over along time ago. Mark Thompson would still have you believe otherwise, but I suppose that's in his best interests isn't it? The siren sounding allowed us to have a kick on sacred Manuka turf with its outrageously hard centre square. Too bad the crowd stormed the ground before the Kangaroos had a chance to thank them all and get off the ground safely.

The Kolonel was having pot shots at goal while I was trying to outmark the drunks in goal who where flying for everything only to boot the ball away in the wrong direction when they got their hands on it. The Kolonel did manage to hit a kid in the head which was quite a nice effort. Another thing that pissed me off was when you'd call for someone to return your footy and they'd pass it back to you 'rugby style'. It was then reality hit you and you realised you were back in dodgy Canberra. Oh another thing was the security guards who forced us off the oval after 25 minutes, oh that's right you have to keep the ground in good condition for your next AFL game in 2025...

And just like that, it was over & we were back on the road again forced into listening to the Melbourne Storm before we finally found the footy. Unlike the trip up, the trip back was a long & sorry one with all of us depressed & unimpressed with the afternoons events. I floated the idea of Blake, Prismall, Batchelor, Varcoe & Co. getting runs before the year was out as we now had nothing to play for.

I spent the trip back trying to sleep with my i-Pod blaring but I was too uncomfortable, plus we wanted to keep Dazza company for the huge efforts behind the wheel he was putting in despite us offering for him to have some respite.

We stopped in Albury again where I was served in a KFC by a 12yr old, 30kg male by the name of 'Maurice'. For some reasons the KFCs up there have TVs with Foxtel on them. The only other stop on the way back was to have a kick of the footy in a service station near Seymore to keep Dazzas mind active for the final stretch until we finally hit G-Town just after midnight.

As I sat in the backseat reflecting on the past day I realised this could be a defining moment for the GFC for years to come. Unlike previous off seasons, this one for the club should be active & dramatic.

Huge thanks go out to Dazza for the mammoth effort he put in behind the wheel and for giving the opportunity to The Kolonel & I to 'break our interstate cherries'. It involved a lot of disappointment, pain, sleepless kilometres & litres of coke but given the chance I'd do it all again in an instant.

KANGAROOS: 6.1, 9.3, 11.9, 13.12 (90)
GEELONG: 2.2, 3.6, 5.7, 8.12 (60)
GOALS – Kangaroos: Thompson 4, Rawlings 2, Grant 2, Swallow, McIntosh, Watt, Harvey, Urch
Geelong: Ottens 3, Mooney 2, Enright, Hunt, Mackie
INJURIES – Geelong: Ablett (right shoulder - AC joint), Ling (concussion)
CHANGES – Kangaroos: Brown and Makepeace replaced in selected side by Rocca and Urch
Geelong: Rooke (shoulder) replaced in selected side by Riccardi
REPORT - Mooney (Geelong) by umpire Woodcock for charging Pratt (Kangaroos) in the first quarter
UMPIRES - Nicholls, Woodcock, Goldspink
CROWD - 9561 at Manuka Oval

Geelongblog.com Player of the Year

5. Brad Ottens
4. Jimmy Bartel
3. Corey Enright
2. Paul Chapman
1. David Wojcinski

...well that was a stretch. Probably could chuck Hunt or Mackie in there despite Mackies softness & shit disposal.

Leaderboard

32 - Gary Ablett
32 - Paul Chapman
24 - Darren Milburn
24 - Jimmy Bartel
24 - Joel Corey
19 - Brad Ottens
18 - Cameron Mooney
15 - Jarad Rooke
13 - Cameron Ling
13 - Corey Enright
5 - Kent Kingsley
5 - Matthew Scarlett
4 - Josh Hunt
4 - Matthew Stokes
4 - Steven King
2 - David Wojcinski
1 - Shannon Byrnes
1 - Tom Harley

Posted by Sammy D at August 1, 2006 09:20 PM

Comments

Posted by: SBCC Pres at August 2, 2006 11:05 PM

Posted by: Pete at February 17, 2007 08:30 PM

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