Off-field consolations must suffice on a bad day for Bombers.

It was a tough day at the “G” on Anzac Day.  Not the company I was with of course, it’s the Annual Father /Son Bonding Day and we always get together for a pre match beer and chat about the season  so far. I admitted i wasn’t feeling to confident but thought if  the Dons were within a couple of goals in it late in the game who knows what could happen. My son, a black and white tragic and remembering what took place last year ,wasn’t too sure what to think.

It was quite warm in the bar, but when we got to our seats the temperature dropped and in double quick time so did my optimism. When Essendon footballers misdirect handballs, when they fumble the ball, when they drop marks, when they miss kick , when they miss tackles and when they allow their opponents  to roam free all over the ground you know things are going to be grim, extremely grim. And that is what happened from the first bounce. The Don’s were bloody hopeless, and The Pies were having a ball, even Cloke who has been specialising in kicking points recently, found that you can drop marks in the goal square and still have time to pick the ball up again and score a major.

The Dons hadn’t bother to kick a goal by quarter time, they were too busy handballing backwards to a player who had nowhere to go or give the ball up to an opponent and see if they could do better. And they certainly did, they banged through seven goals, as far as I could see the game was already over.  At quarter time I watched the Essendon huddle with all their specialist coaches instructing the various groupings of players. What on earth were they telling them that they hadn’t been told a thousand times before? I was sort of hoping it may have been something like, who is your opponent and how about sticking to him? And what about kicking the ball forward every now and again, and what about handballing to some one in the clear? But maybe in this day and age that’s too simple.

Half time, at least the Essendon Little League team won, but then they kicked the football towards their goal, but that doesn’t work in the big league does it?

And so the day got worse and worse for me, the good side of the story was that son was enjoying every minute of it. And in a strange, strange way I was feeling quite happy for him, he was looking very relaxed and contented.  The Don’s kept playing inept embarrassing football, good players were few and far to find, Gumbleton kept trying, Fletcher kept spoiling, Watson got the ball a bit but did little with it, and the rest, well they kept running and messing up. Not a pretty sight.

At long last the final siren, the Annual hug between father and son, Collingwood far too good although just how good depends on how bad Essendon was and as far as I’m concerned they were the pits.

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