Floreat Pica Round 16

As it is “Youth Round” of the Floreat Pica Society and this is my first match report, I decided that I would take my job seriously. I immersed myself in the Collingwood spirit all week (which isn’t that hard if you live in our household). I wore my Collingwood jumper nearly every day this week, I re-watched the finals from last year, my friend Claire and I hand wrote letters to the majority of the players and handed the letters out at the 10 o’clock Saturday training session (which was a good effort considering I’m 15 and I like to sleep).

Claire and I decided to write the letters to the players because over recent weeks, we have become OBSESSED with Collingwood. And I mean, completely and utterly obsessed. So when we were outside the ground, we were extremely excited to see Shae McNamara, Josh Thomas and John Ceglar entering the ground. At the same gate as us. A metre from us. As you can probably imagine, we were star struck to see these three young hopefuls from Collingwood enter the ground. We thought it was the best thing to ever happen to us.

The clash against North Melbourne was a big game for young Steele Sidebottom. He’s been under performing all season and his 50^th match was the perfect time to prove himself. Claire and I had also met him and given him a letter, so we were determined to think that if he had met us, he would perform well. He’s in contention for the happiest footballer award; he always seems to be smiling, on and off the field.

The first 10 minutes of the game were lacklustre. It was obviously slippery, mistakes were made by both teams and it was just a generally scrappy game of football. Our first goal was kicked by Blairy and his little slip during his run up made for a small laugh, by both the players and the supporters. Luckily, he kicked a goal as it wouldn’t have been so amusing if he had missed. Daisy’s mark was the highlight of the first quarter, and the resultant goal gave us a handy lead at the first break. He is a fan favourite and he knows how and when to produce pieces of play that will rev up the crowd, which was certainly needed today. Pendles was outstanding in the first quarter, he seems to be untouchable. He creates space and makes time for himself and his teammates.

By half time we had increased our lead from 4 goals to 8 goals. We managed this by having superb forward pressure, having good pressure and numbers around stoppages and the back six teaming together to be nearly unbeatable. The game was nearly certainly in the bag by the main break. Pendles, Daisy, Blairy, Sidey and Swanny all had made a big contribution to Collingwood’s demolition.

At half time, Claire and I left to huddle under cover. It was a real winter’s day. Cold and wet. Actually, it was a real Melbourne day. We stood there huddled with the other 20 people hiding from the cold, discussing the wonderful place called the Collingwood Superstore. It’s a magical place, full of Collingwood supporters, Collingwood memorabilia, Collingwood pictures, Collingwood books and pretty much all things Collingwood. It is very nearly my heaven.

We got back to our seats just in time to see the stats on the scoreboard: we had just one more inside 50 than North but managed to convert more than North did, obviously. I felt the scoreboard wasn’t a very good indication of what the actual contest was like on the ground until after half time.

Dale was down in the rooms before half time but mysteriously was put back on the field in the third quarter, only to be subbed off late in that quarter. It was a risky move by Malthouse because if darling Dale was injured, you wouldn’t want him to miss playing against our arch-rival Carlton.

After half time, it was truly a cakewalk. We kicked 12 goals to North’s 1.

When Fasolo came on, he certainly made his mark, kicking a lovely goal, although he missed one as well.  Toovey’s hard work running onto the ball after beating off a couple of Roos was capitalized on by the last quarter specialist Big Bad Leroy Brown, who kicked three last quarter goals.  One of my favourite things about Alan Toovey is the chant of TOOOOOOVS that follows him (my cousins like to think they started that chant).

Our new boys performed relatively well. I have a soft spot for Lukey Rounds ever since I saw photos of him jumping into a pool in Arizona. I think for a first gamer (coming on in the last quarter last week doesn’t count as a game!) he was good, keeping “Boomer” quiet.  Lachie Keeffe also looks like he has a big future ahead of him. Although he made some blunders and was pretty quiet, when he did get the ball he used it well. He has big shoes to fill, wearing Pebs’ number !

The votes for the Saverio Rocca medal go to:

3- Dale “Daisy” Thomas: Besides from looking amazing in the long sleeved jumper, Dale was fantastic for the period of time he was on the ground. He had possessions, he tackled, he kicked goals, and he took marks. He basically did it all.

2- Steele Sidebottom: Sidey performed well in his 50^th game, booting 4 goals.  As Harry O’Brizzle tweeted a few hours after the game: #sidebysidebottom.

1- Scott Pendlebury: Scotty was great in the first half; he was creative and made space and time when others didn’t have any.

Those unlucky to miss out on votes were: Swanny, Harry O, Blairy, Heater and T Cloke.

Claire and I firmly believe that it was our letters that inspired our boys to the 117 point win. We are now holding ourselves accountable if we lose to Carlton because we aren’t writing any more letters this week. So if we lose to Carlton (which would be dreadful), feel free to blame Claire and I!