Eagles v Tigers- GBU

Mead

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Thread starter #1
Again, apologies for lateness. It appears that opposition supporters are a lot less prompt in writing after they get thrashed :) As it was, I just got frustrated and went ahead on my own.

From the Book of Woosha- Chapter 2, Round 9

The Parable of the Footballer who Lost his Way
And so it came to pass that the disciples stood in the players race, preparing to enter the cauldron of fear and do battle. And Woosha said 'Go forth, my blue and gold disciples, and wreak havoc on the opposition in my name. Teach them the error of their ways, and teach them to fear this place. For is it not named the cauldron of fear? Run hard, hit them hard, and put the fear of Woosha into them.' And the disciples heard this, and saw the wisom of his words, and prepared to do even as Woosha had said. But one disciple, #27, he who is named Jako, was hesitant. 'Woosha, we go forth and do battle in your name every week, and every week we art sodomized by the umpires. What then should we do when the umpires deliverth good fortune unto our enemies?'
'Smite them of course,' Woosha replied.
'Right-o,' Jako said. 'We shall scrag the scrawny maggots until their white clothing is crimson with blood!!' But Woosha restrained his disciple. 'No. Ye shall smite the opposition, on the scoreboard.'
'Oh.' Said Jako. Woosha saw that his disciples did not understand this, so he gathered them round and bid them listen to his words. 'Once, there was a footballer who played in an arena similar to this one. And as he did battle, his opponent smote him with an unfair blow upon his neck. And the umpire saw this, and bid them seperate, and rendered the pill unto the footballer. But being slow of mind and eye, as Maggots are wont to be, he directed the footballer to stand wrongly, facing away from his goals. And the footballer was confused by this, but took the Maggot's word. And so he stood 10 metres closer to his own goal, but looked away from them, saying, 'Verily, I hath lost my way. For all I see are backmen to kick to, yet I seek forwards. Where hath they gone?' Yet after much time had passed, he became aware of the Maggot's mistake, and he turned, and by dint of the extra space he had been given he delivered the ball into his forward line with ease.' Some of the disciples listening were confused by this, and they said to themselves 'What is the meaning of this story? Hath Woosha's head been softened by the blows he suffered? And Woosha heard them, and said to them. 'Oh ye of little faith. The meaning of this story is twofold. Firstly, sometimes, an Umpire's folly may deliver good fortune unto the opposition, sometimes it may deliver good fortune unto thee. Thou should ignore them as much as thou can'st, and just play the game. For no team ever lost solely because of the maggot. Except when that dirty swine Greg Williams was involved. The second meaning is that it is very rare for a player to be stupider than an umpire, and they should trust thine own judgment as much as possible.' Now the disciples heard this, and were comforted, and prepared to go forth in Woosha's name, but at this point, disciple #35 spoke, saying 'I hear your lesson and heed it, Woosha, but surely no player would ever be foolish enough to forget which way they were going? Surely not here at blessed Subi, which is their home? They would have to be very confused indeed.' Woosha looked at disciple #35 for a long time and said, 'You'd be surprised, Greeny.'


The Good
This was exactly the sort of win we needed. We dispatched Richmond with a minimum amount of fuss, we got through without any more serious injury concerns, and the big names didn't have to dominate for four quarters. For a while now, we've been winning games in bursts- basically we'll stay with teams for a while, then turn it on, and wipe the floor with them. As a fan, I'm not complaining because it makes for bloody entertaining footy, but better still, this will serve us very well down the stretch- when it comes to the crunch games, it’s good to know we can go into overdrive if needed.

From quarter time onwards, we pretty much killed the undermanned Tigers all over the ground. This was not an easy game to pick BOG for. In the ruck Gardiner dominated as usual, and got good help from Cox, who probably had his best outing of the season. Perhaps the most positive aspect of this game is that for a change, Gardie did not have to shoulder the burden himself, which will hopefully mean he'll be a bit fresher next week. With such a lopsided ruck battle, its no surprise that the midfielders had an easy day of it. Cousins played his second excellent game in as many weeks, and appears to be close to his best again, whilst Fletch was also solid. We were consistent out of the middle rather than outstanding- basically, for the entire day it seemed as though our midfieder were winning about 3/4 of the stoppages. This meant good delivery for our forwards, who in turn set us up for the easy win.

Keeping in mind how much I love the occasional slice of humble pie, David Haynes' game is worth mentioning. Haynes has obviously been reading some of the recent criticism about his game, because he was absolutely outstanding. Not only did he lead up the ground, take strong marks, and use the ball well, for a change he actually kicked some goals, slotting four in a career best performance. There was one breathtaking passage of play where Haynes took the ball on the half volley about 70m out, spun, used his pace to burn off two Richmond defenders, and bombed the goal from 50 on the run. The only appropriate response to that is 'wow'. Clearly, David has a big future ahead of him- there aren't too many FFs in the league who can do that sort of thing. I still want to see Wilson back, but Haynes has probably bought himself several more weeks on the strength of this performance- now it'd be nice to see some consistency.
As a matter of fact, our forward line had a bit of a day out. Jakovich dominated at CHF, Phil Matera booted his way back to the top of the goal kicking list, and Sampi kicked his (now) standard two majors. Rowan Jones had perhaps his best game for the season, alternating between the midfield and forward line. As a player with just the right combination of speed and marking power, Jones causes all sorts of matchup problems, and is adept at drifting forward and taking a grab just when we need it. With our current array of midfield grunt, Jones has seen the writing on the wall and turned himself into an excellent forward option.

In defence, the Glass/Richardson matchup proved entertaining. Despite Richos' four goal haul (two of which were kicked whilst Glass was on the bench), I think I'm with the majority here in beginning to seriously rate Darren Glass. He's done two competent jobs in as many weeks, and is playing some pretty good football. Glass spent most of the day wrapped around Richo like a nymphomaniac gymnast, and by and large he did a good job in the one-on-ones. The other noteworthy elements of Glass's game were a couple of brain implosions which saw him run about 100m off Richardson. The first time he did this Glass kicked a goal, the second time, Richardson was left in the clear for an easy mark and goal. After this, Glass settled down.
Green and Morrison were again solid, whilst Wirrpunda had another typically Wirra-ish game, with his flawless rebounding setting up several promising attacking movements.

Overall, this was certainly a very entertaining game to watch, and a pretty good night out at Subiaco. The ground seemed absolutely packed, everyone was getting stuck into Richo which is always good, and there was some exciting footy on offer, particularly Fiora’s screamer. Incidentally, props to the Tigers for the number of Richmond fans who showed up at the ground- seemed to be a lot of them about.

The Bad
Not a lot of negatives to take out of a very even performance. Carroll had a day he’d probably rather forget, getting toweled for the short time he spent on Richardson, and making a couple of crucial blunders. Trying to barge your way through two players inside your defensive 50 and getting pinged for holding the ball is probably not something you want to make a habit of. Trent Carroll is an honest toiler (unlike a certain other Trent I could name) but I do wonder how he fits into our future. With Jako’s current good form, when Gaspar returns, I like the idea of playing Trav at CHB.

Early on, we still looked a bit vulnerable to a team which was trying to shark Gardiner’s knocks. This has happened several times this season, and usually the game eventually progresses to the point where his hit outs are so good that our midfield get it handed to them on a plate. There’s still a bit of a question mark as to how well we’d go if Gardiner isn’t totally dominating, and if any element of our midfields’ game is suspect, its their defensive running. Gardie has a range of ruck opponents teed up over the next few weeks, including hacks (Essendon), a star (Darcy), and honest toilers (Keating and Co.), so it’ll be interesting to see how he goes.

The Ugly
The umpiring was bizarre. There weren’t a huge number of shocking decisions, but there sure as hell were some bloody weird ones. The Kasey Green Incident was quite unbelievable, really. You had an umpire point the wrong way, completely fail to realize his mistake, and then let play go on and give us a huge advantage because he wasn’t game to fess up to his error. It did make for a pretty hilarious passage of play. You had Irish standing there, (NB: First trial of nickname, felt good) looking up the field with a dopey expression on his face, no doubt wondering why on earth Darren Glass was playing full forward. The farce was accentuated by a very confused looking Richmond player who dutifully stood the mark.

Secondly, about the Rowan Jones non-goal, there is certainly no question the umpire was wrong, and by a fair margin at that. It’s hard to really know what to say about it, though. Its easy to be philosophical about that sort of mistake when you win by 9 goals or thereabouts, so I suppose there’s nothing more to say, except if Rowan Jones is one goal short of the Coleman, or we miss the top 4 by less than a goals’ worth of percentage.

The Ch 10 coverage was serviceable but there is definitely a clear gap in quality between 10 and 9 at this point, both in terms of camera angles and replays, but most obviously commentators. Tim Gossage and co. aren’t really that bad (if you’re a West Australian anyway), but they tend to be a bit self indulgent- they’re dead certain everything they say is a pearl of wisdom, every wisecrack they make is so hilarious that they can’t stop laughing long enough to call the game. Looking ahead, our next three games are all on Sunday, which means we might get some Cometti. The Brisbane/West Coast game deserves Denis, having the Channel Ten meatheads call that game would be like sipping 1978 Bordeaux from a plastic mug.
 

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noodle

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#3
probably the most impressive thing for me was that on saturday night we had haynes and jones stand up to take BOG honours. it was also good to see hummer play another solid game but he might get dropped for phil read next weekend.
 

Kenny_01

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#4
Originally posted by Mead

The Ch 10 coverage was serviceable but there is definitely a clear gap in quality between 10 and 9 at this point, both in terms of camera angles and replays, but most obviously commentators. Tim Gossage and co. aren’t really that bad (if you’re a West Australian anyway), but they tend to be a bit self indulgent- they’re dead certain everything they say is a pearl of wisdom, every wisecrack they make is so hilarious that they can’t stop laughing long enough to call the game. Looking ahead, our next three games are all on Sunday, which means we might get some Cometti. The Brisbane/West Coast game deserves Denis, having the Channel Ten meatheads call that game would be like sipping 1978 Bordeaux from a plastic mug.
The game was a fox footy production though so channel 10 can't be blamed. Channel 10 were doing the Saints/Collingwood game on Saturday night.
 

The Passenger

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#7
Does anyone else think it was quite bizaare that the Richmond player stood the mark as well and faced the other way and didn't point out to the umpire that Green was about to run off in his direction.

I reckon Irish knew what he was doing all along ;) sly bustart!!
 

Mead

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Thread starter #8
Originally posted by Black Thunder
Does anyone else think it was quite bizaare that the Richmond player stood the mark as well and faced the other way and didn't point out to the umpire that Green was about to run off in his direction.

I reckon Irish knew what he was doing all along ;) sly bustart!!
T'be shure, t'be shure :)

That was what made it so good- the tableau of the umpire pointing the wrong way, Green looking for someone to kick to, and Bowden standing the mark. Classic moment.
 

eagleskickass

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#9
The Book of Woosha should be compiled and sent to the great man himself, im sure hed find it a laugh:D Heck maybe you can retail it mead:p;) As usual a very VERY good read overall:)
 

Voice of Reason

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#10
Excellent stuff Mead - particularly liked the (Gadarene) swine Williams reference.

One point of difference though: "a star (Darcy)". I know people say this a lot about this bloke, but every time I see him play, he gets thrashed in the ruck, both in reality and on the hitout stat sheet. Sure, he does ok going around the ground, but I can't help feeling it's largely because he's one of the few Bulldogs who is both mobile and tall, so gets a lot of the ball.

So hopefully the Gardy/Cox duo will give our midfield the service as usual, although at this stage of course I'm just taking it one week at a time.....
 

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Mead

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Thread starter #12
Originally posted by Voice of Reason
Excellent stuff Mead - particularly liked the (Gadarene) swine Williams reference.

One point of difference though: "a star (Darcy)". I know people say this a lot about this bloke, but every time I see him play, he gets thrashed in the ruck, both in reality and on the hitout stat sheet. Sure, he does ok going around the ground, but I can't help feeling it's largely because he's one of the few Bulldogs who is both mobile and tall, so gets a lot of the ball.

So hopefully the Gardy/Cox duo will give our midfield the service as usual, although at this stage of course I'm just taking it one week at a time.....
I can see where you're coming from, and I'm not sure I disagree totally. I think Darcy almost falls victim to how good he is around the ground- there were periods last year where he was so dominant up forward that the Bulldogs refused to play him as a ruckman- instead pushing Bandy into the ruck so they could use him forward.

I suppose in a way I think he might be the best answer to how to play Gardiner atm- do his best to break even at the hitouts, try and beat Gardie around the ground. The fact is, if you look ahead at our schedule, there simply aren't that many ruckman who Gardiner is going to be tested by between now and the end of the season- about the only tough ones he hasn't gone up against thus far would be the possibility of a fit and in form Everitt or White.
 

Mead

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Thread starter #16
Originally posted by bunsen burner
Ugly: Shaun Mcmanus. Well he didn't play in the game, but that doesn't hide the fact that he's damn ugly.
:D

You can take that as so blindingly obvious that i don't even bother to include it anymore. Maybe in future, they'll be entitled Good/Bad/McManus
 

jod23

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#17
Again a top notch GBU Mead, especially the Book of Whoosha :D

On the Irish incident. I would have paid good money to know what was going on in his head. You wonder if he actually noticed or was told? Why is Glass at FF? Where is Haynes and Fido? Then he perhaps thinks their might be a loose man in defence he can pass to.....looks behind him and their is the entire forward line screaming for the ball :D
 

eagleskickass

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#18
Originally posted by jod23
Again a top notch GBU Mead, especially the Book of Whoosha :D

On the Irish incident. I would have paid good money to know what was going on in his head. You wonder if he actually noticed or was told? Why is Glass at FF? Where is Haynes and Fido? Then he perhaps thinks their might be a loose man in defence he can pass to.....looks behind him and their is the entire forward line screaming for the ball :D
apparently on the radio he spoke about it. He had just come on from the interchange bench so when the ump set the mark the other way he just assumed it was correct!!! haha, he could hear the crowd saying something but didnt know what then when he realised thats when he played on:D
 
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