View From Shepparton: Joy and pain in Shepparton and Jeparit

As someone has observed the things that give you the most joy can also give you the most pain. In this instance I was so deliriously happy after Brisbane’ s great comeback win and so deliriously unhappy after reading about the circumstances of Adelaide’s last-second loss. I hadn’t really expected Brisbane to go any further.

Let me explain further. On Friday evening there was of course the delayed telecast; how glad I am that this arrangement will cease after another zillion years. I watched until half-time and then took the coward’s way out, picking up the radio call with a view to tuning back in to the telecast if things went OK. I did not return to the telecast!

Cooney, Hahn and Eagleton amongst many others were just too good for us and at the end of the day our stars like Black and Rich were well contained. In addition kicking only 6 points in the first quarter was not a gigantic help to the cause. Our twin towers got 6 between them but that’s the weakness isn’t it, we have to not rely on them so much. I could half-heartedly blame the crook weather for all of Brisbane’s turnovers but the conditions were the same for both teams as I recall. No, we were done by far the better team and I hope that they can now go all of the way.

I was at a church fund-raising function at Jeparit on Saturday night and heard, one, that the  Cows were up by 21 points at quarter time and then, as was announced at the event, that Collingwood had won by five points. This pronouncement ruined for me what had been until then a really great night.

I didn’t know that Adelaide had gone out by as much as thirty two points and that then they been first stifled and then outscored out played and possibly out coached as the Pies ran all over them. I also didn’t know that they had lifted their game to kick the first three goals of the last quarter to regain the lead, then lose it and then have Tippet kick what was ostensibly the winning goal.

Here I now quote directly but selectively from Patrick Smith’s column in the Monday Oz, “Nick Maxwell grabs the footy from the a bounce down, He just whacks the ball on to his foot and it floats in the air. Clumsy kick, hard to mark … Otten is free to mark. He closes his eyes , the ball hits him in the face, but he wrestles the ball to his chest”. How I wish that had been the end of the story.

What is the end of the story is that there was a gutsy umpiring decision and Jack Anthony was up to it. Just on that point (pun intended), I have been railing all year about Aussie Rules players who cannot kick  straight when attempting pressure set shot goals. Well, Anthony proved for once and for all that it can be done and good on him.

Whilst it was a rotten weekend for me footy wise it was great for Bulldogs supporters because they can have a red hot go at St Kilda, and Collingwood supporters will be feeling the same way I was all last week. Geelong should beat them but Collingwood will be coming off a huge high. Mind you this circumstance didn’t help us!

About Peter Schumacher

Wannabe footy commentator and writer, used to be a wannabe footballer

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