Match report .Coll v Ess . Lest we forget,,you bet we won

[ed healey]

The roar of battle is over and gone
And the east is red with the rising sun
Shedding its glamour of soft pale light
On the stricken field and the broken gun.

And out of the holes in the shell torn earth
Are ghostlike figures that creep away
With dirt grimed features and tortured limbs
Seeking a haven to curse or pray.

But some there are that nevermore
Will see love shine in a dear ones eyes
Or smell the scent of the dew kissed flowers
Or watch the glory of sun swept skies.

The sun in the west has set for them
To rise no more for a long long day
When the earth has been swept of all its wars
And the hate of man shall have passed away.

The scene is set
The march is over the speeches spoke the stories told.
Now its time for footy.
As i sat among friends in the backyard,sun streaming down and esky overflowing on came the tv,bugger me its pissing down at the G.

Not confident before,even less so now after the carlton shemozzle.
Umpire tosses ball in the air and an 8 minute test of strength transpires before,and then the pies play hanball relay until lockyer finds room for a kick and snaps a goal.
First blood to the pies.
But then wakes is unlucky to get his foot on a ball that goes out and his man(lloyd dashes into squre and is presented with an easy goal.)Wakes made him earn every other kick he got for the day.
Its obvious that the most committed team will get the points
1%ers are going to be the deciding factor.
Cant help thinking that when i was young,footy played in this weather would result in mud, ankle deep.
8-7 at qtr time.
not many highlights just hard tough footy.
that man Tom Hafey is not at the ground but i can still hear him saying its gunna be the chasin and tacklin that wins this game.
And so it was.
2nd qtr and Mckee gets his first kick,it breaks peverills arm.
But from the run on LLoyd gets his 2nd and last goal for the day.
Ant then didnt want to be outdone by McKee so he kicked Misiti in the shins.good wet weather tactics.
McGough is coming in as the 3rd man in ruck taps and is hitting it hard.
Turnovers still happening but not so costly as Essendon just turn it straight back.
The pies are playing 100% pressure footy and the prettyboy bombers are not happy.
Then McGough takes a strong grab,kicks to Clement who finds steinfort who handballs to Lonie and Goal!!!!
We are not headed for the rest of the day.
LLoyd is proving that he is a real piece of nasty shite as he elbows poor old stunner in the head and the claret flows and off he goes.
leon then kicks goal of the year,all players embrace and Goalumpimgunnaspoilthe party says 1 finger.
is he the same one we had last week?
half time 23-16Coming off only a 5 day break,i was worried we may run out of steam but no need to worry.
Leon gets a charity in front of goals and we go further in front.
Rocca then lets loose a long bomb,amazing with the wet footy but it misses.
Carrotseller is winning the rucktaps(3 in a row)how come?
doesnt matter,as Leon after his customary magic finds Nick davis in the square and he goals.
Then Lloyd had another shot at proving hes not a nice boy when he belts young tyro Cloke,the 50mtr penalty is handy and Cummings second effort after a spilt mark got the ball out to Burns who snapped truly for another major.
lika goes for a run and handballs to Steinfort who snaps truly
and its all too easy 50-19 at 3qtr time.
Cummings hasnt had a kick and doesnt look likely to either but his value is in his contesting and second efforts.
priceless stuff in the wet.
Now 30 minutes to go.So many times I have seen sides beat us from here.
Sheedy throws Fletcher down forward and he goals immediately.
Bugger the beer,wife hands me a can of cougar for strength.
before i take a nervous swig the ump has awarded Nick davis a free in the square and we get the goal back.
What am i worried about,oops spoke too soon,Steiner marks and the large woman is about to come on stage for her song,but he fluffs the kick,bombers rebound and Jacobs goals.
As last week Bucks wanted to hear her sing so he kicks a long goal.players hug and kiss and G ump spoil the party gives 1 finger again.
Josh then takes a grab Goals and its over.........
off a 5 day break we have outgunned and i must say outcoached the Bombers to keep the season alive for us.
Very hard to single out best as they all gave 100% which is why we won.
2 votes McGough
2 votes Leon davis
2 votes Scott Burns
2 votes carl Steinfort
2 votes Scott Freeborn
special mentions
Nick davis
Jimmy Clement
Bucks
Licka
Cloke
Ant
Wakes

just a good gutsy team effort
well worth watching under the clear blue sunny skies in WA.
hats off to those that attended.
Im sure you never felt a thing.

So still they lie they seem to sleep
On their faces never a trace of pain
See one has turned to the far far south
perhaps he dreams of his home again.

Of a bark thatched hut by forest or hill
Or camp fires gleaming across the plain
And he sees in their flickering tongues of light
The great wild dreams of his youth again.

Peace though the thundering wheels of war
Profane your shot torn resting place
For the fire and strength of the life you gave
Shall live in the souls of your future race.

LEST WE FORGET!

[junkboy75]

that's an unbelievable post ed. I'm speechless.

"..we flew at them as a hawk to his prey, passed through them in the disordered state in which they were, separated them into two distinct parts and then tacked upon their largest division.." -- Captain Cuthbert Collingwood, 1797

[junkboy75]

agreed with everything in your post ed. the whole c'wood back 6 were simply awesome. it was a risky move to drop two extra players in defence and let the bumbers have a lose man in midfield (caracella) but it was a move that paid off. in fact, malthouse totally outcoached sheeds on the day.

steinfort has most definitely played his best game in the black and white. freeborn, after conceding a few soft frees in the first half, was totally dominant across half back in the third. clement reduced prettyboy hird's effectiveness. burns handled the ball as if it was dry. the underrated mckee was fantastic in the first half until he had to come off with blood streaming from his head.

3 standouts: mcgough - what a performance. described as daicos-like. knows how to run to space and find the pill. leon - cool under crisis. left johnson in his wake. cloke - this guy is from the gavin brown school of footy. stands in front of packs without fear, and loves getting hurt.

really, it was a team contribution. essendon played silly football for the conditions and c'wood made them pay dearly.

GO PIES!!!!



"..we flew at them as a hawk to his prey, passed through them in the disordered state in which they were, separated them into two distinct parts and then tacked upon their largest division.." -- Captain Cuthbert Collingwood, 1797

[London Dave]

Nice one Ed, your recall of muddy days in junior football rang a bell...and that stuff smelt too!

Bloody great win, gotta keep it up though, season is 22 weeks, then the real season starts. I make it another 21 match reports to go Ed!

[MargOZ]

Fantastic post Ed. It really was a complete team effort. It was great to see us learn so much from the carlton match and change our style of play to suit the conditions. We don't seem to get the constant miserable weather these days that we used to in the past - I remember standing in the outer at away games literally covered in mud and with the rain absolutely bucketing down week after week. So I don't think teams get the opportunity to polish up on their wet weather skills as much as they used to - but after the first quarter our boys handled it beautifully.

I'm still convinced both points from Bucks and Leon were goals! I'm trying not to be biased but I'm sure they both scraped in and would have been that little extra icing on the cake!

McGough really has shown how big his future is - and it's amazing to see his strength and footy smarts at such a young age. Will definitely get more attention from the opposition now so will be interesting to see how he handles it. Clokey is an example where stats can be deceiving as he worked damn hard during the match and was always willing to put his body on the line - excellent effort. And Scott Burns is SO underrated! He is such a rock on the backline and his goals are always team-lifting efforts - he'll be racking up the Copeland votes this year.

Great games from Clement, Davis, Davis, Licuria, Lockyer, Buckley, Freeborn and Steinfort. Great to see the two latter really step up and show what they can do.

Other guys who worked all day were Betheras, Fraser (has definitely improved so hopefully getting close to 100%, always tries his heart out), Lonie, McKee (he really is one of the keys to our team balance), Rocca (conditions didn't suit him but his second efforts were fantastic), Wakelin (again didn't get heaps of stats but was great on the backline and gave Lloyd a hard time).

Presti, Didak and Scotland didn't get much ground time. Although I thought Presti was great up forward the little time he was on the ground! And Holland hasn't really starred since his 8 goal haul but still out there working hard, would be good to see him lift and have a great game next weekend.

Votes (very difficult!)
3 - McGough
2 - Burns
1 - Cloke

Even with good players still on the side-lines, the boys were inspirational yesterday. If the boys keep playing good consistent football, it will be hard to know who to leave out to make way for the incoming players!

Loved the atmosphere, loved the amazing turn out by all fans on a miserably wet day, loved the completely silent minute's silence, loved seeing the Mighty Pies humiliating the Bumbers and loved singing OUR song over and over and over and over!

Time to enjoy a fantastic victory this weekend but during the week we have to remember that we must come out firing next Friday night. The Saints may be struggling but we need to make sure we capatalise and put a good score on the board. It should be an opportunity for our guys to really shine.

LEST WE FORGET

Marg



[This message has been edited by MargOZ (edited 26 April 2002).]