The Crows Game:
Where are the Chikos?
Adelaide versus GWS
7:20pm, Thursday 7 September,
Adelaide Oval,
Aidan Hammond
Today we are doing footy colours day. I am wearing my crows guernsey with my Walkerville rainjacket over it. I am very excited for tonight. I am wearing them with pride the whole day. Who wouldn’t, when your team is top of the ladder.
I go off to tennis training and my coach is a Carlton supporter. He is convinced that they are going to improve over the next 5 years. We go on and on. He thinks that the Crows are going to lose. I reckon they are going to win. One of the reasons he thinks that is probably because I remind him that Carlton are 16.
After my tennis training I get picked up. We buy snacks for the footy like pringles and fruchocs. Then we go home and I get my cap and scarf and change into warmer clothes. We walk to the bus stop on Payneham Road, which takes us all the way through North Terrace and King William.
Then we get off the bus and we only have to walk up King William a bit. We get on the Adelaide Oval block, we buy an AFL Finals Record. We see the line at the South Gate, and it is very big. We finally get to the front. Then the machines are down, but only for 5 minutes. We are finally in the Adelaide Oval.
We get in the Adelaide Oval, we go up the huge escalators and finally get up to level 5 on the Riverbank stand. We go and get something to eat and drink for dinner. They have no salads wraps and baguettes. Where are the chikos? Ok, a pasty and a chocolate milk it is.
We get to our seats pretty easily, it is slightly to the right of the goals in the top/middle of the riverbank stand. We have a pretty good view. I don’t get much time to read my record. I will read it after the game. The Giants come out, boo. The Crows come out, yay. We are kicking to me, we are ready to win.
In the first quarter the Crows get the clearance and I am not nervous. GWS get it back and get a goal. I just think, meh, first quarter. Brodie Smith scores a goal to get us running after to many behinds. After that I say, if the Crows are in front at quarter time, there are good signs.
Well it looks good, at times GWS are being quite dangerous, especially Tom Scully with his fast running up and down the field. I don’t think that it will rain, I hope it doesn’t, but if it does, there is nothing you can do about it, except a rain dance. Seedsman and Betts provide joy to me and get my flag active, at quarter time we are up by 2 goals.
In the second quarter I have high expectations for the Crows, we have been doing well in this term all year and we need to do well to get into the preliminary final. They do very well. It is starting to rain a bit, I think I might want it to rain after we get the big lead.
E.M.E.T.J. That is the abbreviation I made for the goals that the Crows scored in the second quarter. Eddie, Mitch, Eddie, Tex, and JJ. That is a very good second quarter, and do you know what the best thing about it is? It is that GWS scored no goals. At half time it is 55 to 11. 5 times, lets go.
In the 3rd quarter I want the Crows to really show everyone that we can’t just beat GWS, we can smash them. We really need to win this quarter by a lot and not drop off like some teams do. Well, we lose by 1 point. It luckily isn’t by that much.
In the 3rd quarter the Giants get the first 3 goals of the quarter and the Giants did something good that is hard to do. They got the Adelaide Oval to pipe down. Douglas gets us back for the Crows and the Crows dominate the rest of the quarter, but we lost the 3rd quarter by 1 point.
In the last quarter I hope I don’t get my tip that right, since we are 43 points in front and I tipped 32, hopefully it wont be close. The quarter starts off with GWS and they score a lot of points and it is inside their forward 50 a lot. We need to get it out and keep it out.
So we get it up a bit more but we are actually not kicking well. Mitch McGovern has a really good specky mark, the whole crowd goes up. GWS score 1 goal, Crows score no goals. We still win by 36 points. We are in a prelim, I can’t believe it, we are one of the “hard teams”, bye bye number 11 on the ladder. Yes! We did it!
ADELAIDE 3.4 8.7 12.8 12.12 (84)
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY 1.4 1.5 5.7 6.12 (48)
GOALS
Adelaide: Betts 3, Douglas 2, Smith, Seedsman, McGovern, Walker, Jenkins, Lynch, B. Crouch
Greater Western Sydney: Coniglio 2, Himmelberg, Ward, Greene, de Boer
BEST
Adelaide: Betts, M.Crouch, Lynch, B.Crouch, Jacobs, Brown, Greenwood,
Greater Western Sydney: Kelly, Coniglio, Scully, de Boer, Ward
INJURIES
Adelaide: Smith (knee)
Greater Western Sydney: Cameron (hamstring), Coniglio (knee)
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Dalgleish, Rosebury, Ryan
Official crowd: 52,805
The Port Game:
The Best
Port Adelaide versus West Coast
7.20pm, Saturday September 9,
Adelaide Oval,
Aidan Hammond
Port Adelaide have played pretty well the whole season, but they can hardly beat a top 8 team, West Coast play well at the Adelaide Oval. There are a lot of things being weighed up. I think that Port Adelaide will win, and if they don’t, they are out.
In the first quarter, I just came back from my Mega Courts Walkerville cricket trials. I am a bit tired and I don’t care who wins. West Coast come out with a bang and kick the first goals. Port Adelaide get one easy one over the top, West Coast lead by 20.
In the next quarter it is a bit of a twist. Port Adelaide get a bit back, but they still lose the quarter by a goal. It is starting to become a more even game, it is going to have an exciting end to it, it may not seem close but it is quite close.
In the 3rd quarter now the score sheets look really close, especially because West Coast scored 1 point, but Port scored 1.3, so it isn’t that much of a blow out as it sometimes is. It is West Coast by about 3 points.
In the last quarter, the Port Adelaide Power had the momentum and I thought that they would probably just break West Coast. They go back and forth and then then the scores are level.
Port Adelaide are kicking inaccurately. It might hurt them. In the first extra time Port Adelaide are winning by 7. The Port Adelaide fans are rising, who wouldn’t your team is probably going to make a semi-final?
The extra time quarter is amazing, West Coast score. Port Adelaide miss, then West Coast get it in the 50 and Luke Shuey gets a correct free kick and kicks it after the siren to win the game, Port Adelaide fans are crying, I have to go to bed, I have my own grand final tomorrow.
PORT ADELAIDE 1.0 5.5 6.8 8.12 10.16 (76)
WEST COAST 4.2 7.4 7.5 9.6 12.6 (78) (extra time)
GOALS
Port Adelaide: Dixon 3, S.Gray 2, Wines 2, Ebert, Powell-Pepper, Wines
West Coast: Darling 3, Kennedy 3, Shuey 2, Petrie 2, Cripps, Priddis
BEST
Port Adelaide: Dixon, Wines, Ebert, Powell-Pepper, Howard, R.Gray
West Coast: McGovern, Priddis, Petrie, Jetta, Shuey, Vardy
INJURIES
Port Adelaide: Nil
West Coast: Nil
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Donlon, Deboy, Schmitt
Official crowd: 41,172 at Adelaide Oval
The Walkerville Game:
Future Technology
Walkerville versus Payneham
10.30pm, Sunday September 10,
Norwood Oval,
Aidan Hammond
In the morning I am really nervous, I am just doing some Footy Almanac stuff. So then I get ready and when I am brushing my teeth, I am literally shivering. We go to the game and get a park near the oval, at the Parade, this has been my dream for a very long time.
We get to the game and me and my team mates have a nerve settling watch of the division 3 match. Salisbury North versus Ingle Farm. We get inside change room E. We see these pictures saying play like Hodgey. We get our game plan, we come out and run through the banner. I’m the one on the left of pressure
We start to warm up and then do everything. Then we get the final address by our coach. He is just running over the last things, everyone should listen, we need a fast start. We line up and shake hands, then we get in our positions, it is real.
In the first bit of the quarter, Payneham get a quick goal from their forward pocket. About 2 minutes later they do a big bomb that carries on into their 50. Then they get a touched behind, wow, 5 minutes 13 to 0, I am scared. The next bit of the quarter is pretty even until we get a goal from our x factor, right before the siren.
At quarter time our coach just runs through what we need to do again and gets us motivated, we score a goal and a point in this quarter and pretty much dominate it, the on the flank I get pushed into the ball and the umpire calls soccer, they get a goal.
At half time it is Payneham by 6 and Phil tells us that we did really well and that we were a bit unlucky to concede the last goal. In this quarter t is even the whole way through, I’m not sure that anyone scores a goal, we are down by 7 now.
At 3 quarter time things are not looking good and Phil is talking to us and to tell us to steer home and leave nothing in the tank. My instruction is to get to every single contest. In the first bit of the quarter we get a point and it is 6 points, with 5 minutes left there is a Payneham fumble in the goal square and we score a goal, scores are level. The last bit is just stoppage after stoppage, and then the siren blows.
We get a quick address, it is extra time like it was in the Port Adelaide game the night before. So we get the clearance, and we get the ball inside our forward 50, we score. The rest of the game is just not letting Payneham score, we didn’t we won, we need future technology to show how happy I am.
We get in a big group hug, the crowd cheer. We sing the song the loudest. We get presentations, we get presented with the flag, a shield and a medal each. Harrison is best on ground. Payneham cry. We get photos. We enjoy this. We go to the Bath pub. We eat. We get fruchocs. We go home. We did it!
Walkerville 4.3 (27)
Payneham 3.3 (21)
My Tipping Results:
Adelaide 105 GWS 73/Adelaide 84 GWS 48 W
Geelong 98 Richmond 89/Geelong 40 Richmond 91 L
Sydney 90 Essendon 95/Sydney 121 Essendon 56 L
Port Adelaide 90 West Coast 75/Port Adelaide 76 West Coast 78
My Tipping:
Geelong 78 Sydney 91
GWS 100 West Coast 83
My Brownlow Medal:
Brownlow medal end of year extended tally with All Australian and Best and Fairest.
Since the footy almanac upload size is 2MB I have to break it into 6 parts.
Pause the slides because they go for 3 seconds.
My Premiership Favourites:
The Crows and Geelong are premiership favourites, this might change if Geelong lose to Sydney.
Congratulations on the win, Aidan
Thankyou Earl!
Great stuff Aidan. What you lost on the tennis; you won on the footy.
You had me at “correct free kick” and “Port Adelaide fans are crying”. You lost me at “future technology”.
I am more a Menz Fruhocs sort of guy. The Adelaide Oval lolly sellers used to call out “Choc Ices and assorted sweets”. They had big trays with steaming dry ice to keep the Choc Ices cold.
That was before motor cars were invented, and we used not go to park the horse and dray on Pinky Flat (not really, but ask your Uncle Dave where Pinky Flat is). It’s just behind the Creswell Stand; which used to be where the Bradman Stand was; until they built the……………
It’s hard to believe we’re one of the ‘hard teams’ isn’t it?
Every finals I tend to look at the draw and worry about us being on the ‘hard’ side of the drawl. This year we are the hard side of the draw.
Congrats re the flag Aidan !
Great stuff Aidan. Enjoy the flag. They do not come around too often.
I won one in U/15s – and that was it for my career!
Congratulations Aidan, and to win it on the Parade in such circumstances, all the better! Think you are being a bit modest in your description of the match winning goal, too. Allow me:
Early in the first period of extra time, Walkerville muscles the ball down the Parade’s western wing. Throwing himself with reckless abandon onto the footy, Hammond is rewarded for being first to the ball with a free kick for high contact. Lining up 50 out on the south western flank, looking towards the looming Edwin T Smith Grandstand, young Aidan knows that his best kick may not put the Cats into a scoring position. He also notices the player on the mark edging towards the boundary to cover the anticipated right foot kick.
Hammond seizes the opportunity and plays on, running to the left of the man on the mark into some open space. Having gained 10 metres he sends a drop punt gently tumbling through the air towards the teeth of goal. The Payneham defence are unable to clear the ball. In the ensuing scramble Walkerville pick up the crumbs and put the ball through the goals. Still another period of extra time to play but Walkerville have hit the lead for the first time today. With goals at such a premium this is the biggest play of the day.
Finally I made it into a post! Go Walky, Hardball and Boss!
Onya Aido!
Have played in a losing granny in footy and in eight seasons of cricket, have never played a final.
Enjoy it mate. How was your Mad Monday? ;)
Congrats Aidey, a great tour de force. Looks like the Brownlow count should be very interesting.
Thank you Everybody.
You must be thrilled with the win Peter. Yes Fruchocs are good. I have never been to the old Adelaide Oval.
Ben, we are a bit unlucky but I reckon this is our year.
Thankyou Rulebook, the first premiership is always special.
Hopefully this is not my last flag smokie.
Yes Dave, very well called.
I enjoyed making the post Anna.
Thanks Paddy, It was amazing, I enjoyed it so much, I reckon Payneham would have until that last goal.
The mad monday was all my friends asking about it at school. A lot of them play for Walkerville.
Bit of a bummer I had to do work though.
Thanks Gubby, nice pun. I reckon the umpires might favour Dustin a bit but Tom Mitchell will be up there.
where doing well this year in div 1 to 1st on ladder Aidan
Thanks Henry, yeah we’re doing so well. Hopefully we can win this year in div. 1!