Where to now, Adelaide?

[JohnK]

ROUND SIXTEEN
Fantasy footy

It’s been one of those weekends when most of
my high performers agreed to abandon the cause:
Matt Suckling – five kicks, four handballs and
two tackles; Matthew Kreuzer – two kicks,

four handballs and no marks; Jack Darling –
five kicks, no handballs or tackles and no marks;
Patrick Dangerfield – two miserable points;
David Mackay – one solitary tackle.

I want more, please. I spend too much time
juggling my selections, trawling through
the stats, weighing the last three- and five-week
averages to present a decent team on the field

each week to cop this rubbish. If you don’t
want to play this week, put your hand up.
Tell your coach that you need a week off.
We won’t hate you. We’ll give you a break.

Two weeks later, we’ll expect you
to blast our stats out of the water.

 

[JohnK]

ROUND THREE, 2013
Tonight, Port was the better team

Football is full of surges. The awkward ball slips
at the right moment into a lazy player's arms
or dips, at the last bounce, from the only one
who is chasing it. Football is not about

a fair contest. It's about the correct contest.
Football is its own truth. Each game replaces
our wishes with its facts. And, in our game,
with our oval ball, we deny symmetry.

We need more than fifty-fifty responses
to the fall of every ball. We need to cover
every angle – every slip or gain or bounce
or loss. We need to hear steps that we don't

think are there. We need to know that
we are about to be tackled. We need eyes
in the back of our collective heads. We need
loud voices, strong arms, long kicks and

we need to make the ball our object,
not our opponent. We want them to chase us,
not themselves. It's one win from three games.
We take a big breath and we stop bragging.

It's Round Three in a new season. 2012
was all about Brenton Sanderson. Was he
any good for us? Were we any good for him?
2013 is no longer about the coach.

2013 is now only about the players.
Are we any good for ourselves?