AFL Round 6 – St Kilda v Brisbane: The View of New Zealand from Shepparton

THE VIEW FROM SHEPPARTON: BRISBANE V ST KILDA ANZAC DAY 25 APRIL 2014 AT WESTPAC REGIONAL STADIUM WELLINGTON

Call me a naysayer but I reckon that playing footy in New Zealand is a waste of space. You can’t expect outsiders to get seriously interested when one game a year is played in what is in effect a totally foreign culture, at least when  it comes to matters of sport, if not other things.

Added to that was that the Anzac atmosphere engendered, having just viewed the proceedings at the MCG, was so lacking that it was almost embarrassing. So that experiment didn’t work either.

Added to the above was that on a personal level was that as a bit of a junkie I normally go to the gym at about 5:15am but somehow I couldn’t even raise the energy to attend the 6 am dawn service when I had fully intended to do. I think that compared to what passes for life in most parts of the world we are singularly blessed and should be able to pay respect to the memory of those whose actions allowed us to have the life we do today. I think of my uncle, Bill Nichterlein, whom I never met, who was shot down out of Darwin in 1942. So I felt pretty weak on that front.

It was with that mindset that I watched the Brisbane take on St Kilda at Wellington. WE WON, beat a team which the previous week had thrashed the recently hot Essendon, albeit not without the help of a couple of seemingly dubious umpiring decisions in the last quarter when the St Kilda were on course to haul back a five goal deficit. Fortunately near the end Ray sprayed an easy running shot for goal and a just prior to that a shot from Steven had been smothered through for a point in a desperate act of defence by the Lions defenders.

Prior to the agonisingly close win being achieved Brisbane  had clearly out played the Saints particularly in the first quarter with Raines snapping a goal on the run, Green goaling soon after and Lewis Taylor, having taken a great mark over his shoulder going the wrong way following the flight of the ball, (a ripper pass from Aish). Redden has been criticised for being slow but got a really good goal on the run. Dunstan had previously scored the Saint’s first goal, Montagna their second.

One thing that made me cross and say unprintable (well they used to be) things occurred when,  as happened in final round last year, Green,  having outmanoeuvred  two Saints defenders who went to ground in his wake missed a certain goal by dribbling the ball into a last standing defender rather than kicking it over him. The Minister for Home Affairs told me to “settle down, Boris”.

Brisbane to my delight managed to make more headway in the second quarter the highlight of which was Aish getting a goal from a long way out, really sharp angle which Jonathon Brown somehow managed to shepherd through whilst going for and then not going for a mark on the line. Aish is aged eighteen and as a Norwood man I am loving seeing him come to the top particularly when Leigh Matthews had observed in another game that Aish was having difficulties coming to terms with the speed of AFL football. As a born and bred Croweater I had taken total exception to this even slight criticism of a fellow South Aussie, and I had thought, “You just wait and see how good he really is”.

At half time Brisbane up by 25 points with a seemingly slightly injured Riewoldt being held in check by Joel Patfull, but Montagna was an ever present danger. Eli Templeton went down in the first quarter in what seemed to be almost friendly fire, result a broken arm, rotten luck for a young exciting player.

St Kilda started to make ground in third quarter but Brown, who sometimes has the yips scored a much needed goal to stem the tide a little. Brisbane up by nineteen at three quarter time. Dare I believe that we could prevail? We did, with Brown kicking a captain’s goal, (well it would have been such had he still been captain) with the Lions then hanging on for the last four minutes to win by three points

My sour mood of two hours ago had dissipated. Next year I will ensure that I get to the dawn service and honour in particular Uncle Bill’s memory and in so doing honour all who fought for our country.

Brisbane                 4.3      8.5      10.9   12.10             82

St Kilda                     2.2      4.4      7.8      11.13             79

Goals              Brisbane: Brown, Redden, Taylor 2; Raines, Merrett, Zorko Aish, Green, West.

St Kilda: Jones, Montagna 2; Billings, Saunders, Dunstan, Riewoldt, Stanley, Dempster, Delaney.

Best                Brisbane: Raines, Patfull, Aish, Redden, Zorko.

St Kilda: Montagna, Hayes, Dempster Delaney.

 

Umpires        Jeffery, Kamolins, Hay.                 Crowd 13409

 

Our Votes     Montagna, (St Kilda) 3, Hayes, (St Kilda) 2, Raines, (Brisbane) 1.