Coll v Footascray

[ed healey]

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL THAT DESCRIPTION FITS.

After going out to lunch with wife,i put the car radio on classic fm because they are the only channel that dont broadcast footy scores,for the long drive home.
Bored shitless by the violin concerto,my wife was glad to get home.
We arrived home just before 3pm,the advertised time for the delayed telecast.
It wasnt on 9 until 4 so we watched WIN.
Bugger me they show 5 minutes highlights of the first half and go into an hour long adathon.
All i can tell you is that Lockyer,Rocca and Lonie kicked goals in first qtr.
Lonies was his usual long goal on the run.
19-15 at qtr time
the liitle snippets i saw of the 2nd qtr showed Rocca Goal.
Mckee gave away a free that was very dubious and Darcy goaled from it.
taz got a free dead in front but the wind caused by the roof closing made him miss.
WHY would they shut the roof during the game?
Why not nail the bloody thing shut and forget its there.
Diimma from doggyland whacked Lonie and got reported and the umpire was instructing lonie not to let him down on tribunal night as he escorted him 50mtrs upfield.
33-37 at the half.
another 4 million ads,i drank 2 stubbies before the 2nd half recommenced.
3rd qtr
Dogs goal in first minute.
The dogs are tackling strongly and really bottling us up at the stoppages.
Grant marks dead in front,hits post.
Commentary team blame brian taylor as his coach.
Here is a tip for Mr Grant.and other goalkicking miscreants.
Many years ago my golf coach told me how to avoid bunkers.
AIM AT IT !!!!!!!!!
He said nobody on my handicap is capable of hitting a direct shot so the best way to miss a bunker is to try to hit in it.
SO CHRIS IN FUTURE AIM AT THE POST.
thats the only tip i will give all year so savour it.
Bucks then hanballed thru heavy traffic to Boofa who sunk a long goal.
Grant then gets another free dead in front and didnt listen to my tip and kicked another shocker.
tarrant is running up to the wing to get a kick but that leaves us no target up front,time and time again we go forward and dogs repel and they go forward.
Cloke is solid in defence,but the ball is going from end to end at will,both defences on top.
Brad Johnson runs the length of the ground and his shot at goal is chopped off by our Johnson who gets it to Bucks who kicks to
ROCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mark of the year so far,he just sort of hovered while standing on a dogs shoulder and GOAL!!!!!!!
46-47
final qtr
No sign of large woman tonight,its going down to the wire.
bonce and we go straight down to Rocca,but scump says he was wrestling more than his opponent so gave the dogs a free,then Brad johnson gets a free on the wing who gets it to Saunders who gets a free in the pocket and its a doggone goal.
Wakes then kicks in from the boundary to a dog for a turnover but he kicks a point.
We go forward this time Rocca is being held,no free for us and its a scrambled point
From the kick in dogs go straight down field and saunders marks and misses again.
From the kick in pies go straight down field and Didak goals.
Fraser gets his weekly party trick out of the way now with a one handed gather and a snap goal.Regular as clockwork,he does it every game in the 4th qtr.when we need it he does it.We hit front!
Then Bucks clears out of the middle to a leading Taz,,,GOAL!!!
we are 10pts up.
Umpires get confused,darcy a free,no not a free,yes a free,no bounce,darcy does his block gets the ball from the bounce,but cloke gets it off the pack and as he tries to hanball thru for a pt,nathan brown steals a goal.
Its the only mistake i saw cloke make.
he was terrific.
Rocca marks but misses,Bucks snaps a point why not kick a goal,?
hes listening and After rocca takes yet another mark he kicks it to Bucks who outmarks 2 opponents and kicks a captains goal if ive ever seen one.
Rocca takes another mark but his kick is astray and the dogs fly forward but Cloke takes a match saving mark and then takes another match saving mark as it comes back again.
But Darcy takes a mark in the goalsquare with 44 sec to go.
He hits the post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok bring out the large woman and lets all singalong.
Pies sitting happily in top 4,but with some tough games to come the next month may well,show us exactly where we stand.
votes
3 cloke
2 Rocca
1 Johnson
but that might change after i see the whole game on fox on tuesday.
good tough game,doggies didnt let up and thankfully they still cant kick straight or the result may have been different.

You know when i see Mckee with the footy.i get the same feeling i get when i see glenn mcgrath walk to the wicket with a bat in his hand.
But after 4 good games in a row,hes starting to grow on me.

[London Dave]

nice one Ed, keep em coming......

[Dr Alf Andrews]

"Footascray"?

Isn't that somewhere near Spottiswood?

[Dr Alf Andrews]

Yeah, Ed. I think the Fat Lady must have been celebrating Mother's Day with the kids because she was kind of late to arrive. But at least she got there in the end.

floreat pica
**************
My Ph.D. thesis, "Football: the People's Game?" is now available for viewing and/or downloading at http://alf.magpies.net

[MargOZ]

Well, it wasn't the best game we've played but we kept working hard and with a little luck (i.e. doggies bad kicking!) we managed to grab the 4 points.

We fumbled the ball too much, over-ran it at times, kicked either over players heads or a metre in front of them and too many handballs missed their targets. We didn't seem to run the ball out of the backline as well as we've done in previous weeks and our forward line (other than King Pebbles) certainly weren't at their best.

After saying that, our boys never gave up and kept battling hard all day. I thought one big difference in the match was that we made the doggies pay for their mistakes whereas they didn't do the same with ours. It's a good football side that can seize opportunities when they arise and win a hard match when they are not playing their best football. Seeing our boys when they HAVE reached their best (which we haven't done yet but I don't think is far off) will be an exciting prospect!

I can't say enough about Jason Cloke. He shows so much strength, footy smarts and skills for a young guy, that it makes you wonder what he'll do when he has 3 and 4 years experience under his belt.

And Anthony Rocca has started his season on fire and must be building up votes in both the Copeland, and what's that other less important one? Oh, the Brownlow!

Steve McKee continues to cement his place in the side getting plenty of tap-outs (particularly yesterday against a ruckman touted as one of the best in the league) and does some fantastic work around the ground and as an extra tall dropping into the back line.

Other guys who battled hard were Burns (what a tough footballer), Buckley (didn't star but always works hard), Clement (a cool head on the backline), Fraser (what a goal!), Freeborn, Johnson, Lockyer, Tarrant, Wakelin, Licuria (got plenty of the ball but disposals yesterday weren't great).

Other players who put in when they were on the ground included McGough, Presti (started in fantastic form before he went off), Betheras, Lonie and Didak.

A few guys didn't appear to play as well as we know they can. It would be great to see N.Davis and Holland back to their best and maybe bagging a few goals next week. And it was obvious that O'Bree and Molloy need more match fitness.

Definitely like to see Leon and Cummings back next week (if both are fit) but the dilemma is who do we drop???

Not our best match but then very few teams can play their best football EVERY week. We did what we had to do to win and in fact, this may have been one of those close games we would have dropped in previous seasons. It will be a big test on Saturday against the ladder leaders but if we can play our best we will win - but mistakes like those yesterday will see the Lions capatalise on them every time.

But seeing the Pies second on the ladder - I'LL BE WALKING ON AIR ALL WEEK!

3 - Cloke
2 - Rocca
1 - McKee

GO PIES!
Marg

[Mike]

The signs are all good.

We've all seen how chance favours the top team. The way a ball bounces for the team on a roll and doesn't for the team that's struggling, the way that strange umpiring decisions generally favour the team on top etc. We're all used to it we've been seeing it for years.

We're also used to seeing the Pies just miss out on the close games. We would have been much better placed in many of the previous seasons if we hadn't lost the ones that we should have won.

I think we're starting to see what success looks like. The ball bounces for you, the close games come to you. That game by the doggies would have been us in previous seasons.