AFL – Round 4: The 2013 ‘Mopsy’ Fraser Cup

Greetings Tipsters

Breaking news – Fast Eddie is accusing the Kebabs (or the Falafels, as he prefers to dub them) of trying to undermine his credibility.

Say what?!  No-one doubts the quality of  Ed’s work at whatever the Centre is named this week, but, gee, he does have some Chernobyl moments.  It’s worth quoting him:

“They know that I am watching them, their salary cap is there and also that I am questioning that they have got their strategy right and we are not just wasting money up at GWS because they are being selfish, trying to hold all the (young) players back.  That showed itself on Sunday afternoon when the GWS had a chance to have a good win, it would have been nice, but they got flogged by a team that is dysfunctional at the moment, kicking their biggest score in a quarter in a 152 years.”

Regardless of the merits of the Fuschia’s win, what’s with this “I am watching them” malarkey?  It reads like Ed’s been dipping into the fruit punch a bit too heavily.

Anyway…  Perky Girl and I had excellent seats in the SCG Members’ Stand on Frnite and a great spot it was from which to view the Pivotonians Premiership Quarter dismantling of the Sparkies.  ‘Twas also a a chance to witness Hooray Henrys doing what they do, which was deeply unattractive.

If, like us, you have some sense of decorum, you watch the game and slip out to the picnic tables on the lawn for halftime cider.  If you’re a Hooray Henry, you leap about the upstairs bar balancing a tray of four plastic schooners yelling “Woo, look out, woooo!”

However, I have established serious contact with an SCG member, who loves cricket, rarely uses his ticket in winter and has graciously offered me the use of it in the colder months.

Now this columnist gig starts to get tricky, because I hardly caught any football for the rest of the weekend.  Saturday, I was on the couch and slept through most of the televised matches.  I woke up every now and then – “Yep, the Mayblooms are winning, expected that” – “Bloody hell, Wiggles couldn’t hit a garage door from ten yards, last time I’ll tip them.”

Seven goals, TWENTY THREE behinds!  Bad kicking is bad football.  Who the hell figured the Wiggles for a flag?  They’re one from four with a percentage of 98 and when I wrote last week that they’d make the finals, I was only joking, really.  I didn’t believe it and neither did you.

We were awake Sunday and up and at it.  Noshed a lovely brunch at home and up the road for ‘Dig It Up’, the Big Day Out for old farts.  Buzzcocks were good, Peter Case Band was great, the best band of the day was Bloods – and the coincidence of the name has nothing to do with my enjoyment of their musical performance.  Three exuberant teenagers running a fantastic combo of garage rock and girl group.

Between bands, we popped into the Queens for a schooner or three and I was greeted by a cornucopia of football codes.  The Rugby League City v Country match, f’rinstnance (Bloods drew a bigger crowd).  The A-League Grand Final – soccer goals should have uprights, six points for hitting the net, one point for over the crossbar.  The Australian Football League – and it seemed that the Western Sydney Wanderers might outscore the Western Bulldogs.

The Shinboners hammered the Gorillas and by Monday morning they were the latest suspects in the Drug Furore.  Everyone’s backtracking and making excuses, everyone but Simon Goodwin who sent Dank Steven a text message: “Don’t forget the good gear mate.”

Cheers, Tipsters

P&C, a Stop Privatisation Of Footy Production

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