Roos confirm doubts

I wasn’t feeling good about this game during the week. North Melbourne weren’t a chance to end a three-game losing streak against the ‘Scray. Talking with the local butcher, who goes for the Bulldogs, he asks if I want to make a wager on the game, like we always do when these two teams play. The usual wager is a coke and mars bar (diet coke for him), but I kindly decline this time around. Why waste a coke and mars bar on a game that is already decided, with the Dogs in great nick and the Roos fielding a new debutant, Marcus White, the third in the past two weeks (Macmillan and Speight). I didn’t like the Roos’ chances at all.

Come Sunday, and I was raring for the game to start. North were going to win, I could just feel it. Essendon had comprehensively knocked off St Kilda, Port had beaten Hawthorn, Melbourne had beaten Brisbane, it was the round of upsets. Sadly, I would have to rely on the radio for the day, as Dad, my sister Hayley and I ventured to Bendigo to see family.

After picking Hayley up from her house in Shepparton, we go to McDonalds for some breakfast. After that, we were on the road. I keep myself occupied by reading the Herald Sun and the Age, while also listening to my jPod (yes, I’ve been converted to the type that calls it a jPod, I blame you Susie).

Finally, we arrive in Bendigo. Weird place. Windy roads that led to more windy roads, leading to nothing in the end. We pick up my Nana and head to Beechworth bakery, which we go to everytime we are in Bendigo for lunch. I’ve been on the short drive there many times before, yet I wouldn’t have the faintest clue of how to get there. Dad also notes that he doesn’t even know the route; he just drives around and eventually finds it. I have a rather poor meat pie for lunch, before Nana and my Aunty pass me a couple of cards for my upcoming 16th birthday. Back in the car after lunch, I open the cards and out falls $100.

Dad, Hayley and I decide to go to the big shopping centre. We again spend a bit of time driving around trying to find it, while listening to the game on the footy. The Roos make a good start. Dad stops in a little street littered with shops. Hayley and I go for a walk, we walk past Club X, and she asks if I want to go in. I shake my head, as I’m not old enough, although I reckon I could pass as an 18 year old. Hayley goes in trying to find a brand of shoes, yeah right.

Back in the car, we go out to the shopping centre with the Roos in a good position over the Dogs. So far so good. I hope to hear the same things when I return back to the car. I buy a few shirts with my money, and soon we are back on the road, heading back to my Nana’s little apartment. We watch the first quarter on TV, where Sam Wright kicks a couple of early goals, but the Bulldogs get on top and lead at quarter time. We decide to leave, so we can get back home before dark.

Tuning into the radio again, the Roos are 21 points down in the third quarter after a Ryan Griffen goal. Lachie Hansen gets his first, but Barry Hall replies at the other end. Leigh Adams impresses with a goal on the run, and the margin is only 13 points. 13 points! We’re right in this! Hall kicks his fifth and his apprentice, Jarrad Grant (avatar) boots his first and the Dogs all of a sudden lead by 29 points at three quarter time.

Griffen puts through his second at the start of the final quarter, and Ben Cunnington misses an easy shot after slipping on the sketchy Etihad Stadium surface. Easton Wood stretches the lead out to 40, Hall kicks goal number six, Griffen bags his third and the first gamer in Liam Jones gets his name in the paper. Brodie Moles takes it out to 66 points, and I start to realise why I had such doubts during the week about the game. Daniel Giansiracusa kicks his fourth in between North goals to Brent Harvey and Aaron ‘Good One Week Shocking The Next’ Edwards. As I rest my head against the car door, looking out the window, Giansiracusa and Hall finish the Bulldog demolition with their fifth and seventh goals respectively. The only interest remaining in the game is whether the Roos can stay on 10.10, which would give them quite a unique quarter-by-quarter scoreline. It doesn’t happen, the Bulldogs win. Julia Gillard, in the crowd, is happy with the win, congratulating the man she was supposed to replace in the goalsquare, Barry Hall, after the game.

Finally, Dad and I arrive back home after dropping Hayley off. Mum gets back home from her trip to Adelaide not too long afterwards. I wonder what she’s cooking for tea.

Western Bulldogs 6.2—9.3—13.7—22.11.143

North Melbourne 3.3—6.6—8.8—10.12.72

Goalkickers:

Western Bulldogs-Hall 7, Giansiracusa 5, Griffen 3, Williams, Wood, Moles, Johnson, Grant, Higgins, Jones

North Melbourne-Harvey 3, Adams 2, Wright 2, Edwards, McIntosh, Hansen

Best:

Western Bulldogs-Boyd, Hall, Giansiracusa, Griffen, Cross, Picken

North Melbourne-Adams, Harvey, Wright, Rawlings

Crowd:

28,038 at Etihad Stadium

Votes:

3: Matthew Boyd (WB)

2: Barry Hall (WB)

1: Daniel Giansiracusa (WB)

About Josh Barnstable

21 year old North Melbourne supporter from country Victoria. Currently living in Melbourne studying a Bachelor of Sports Media. Dreams of becoming a sports journalist and broadcaster.

Comments

  1. Steve Healy says

    Thank you Josh, I knew you must’ve been thinking of me when you wrote the last line. Yeah, I reckon you could JUST pass as an 18 year old, with a bit of good luck. And you should’ve mentioned in your match report that you told me before the game that there was no way the roos would lose by more than 60, hahaha only joking.

    Us defeating Brisbane was hardly an upset by the way.

  2. Never gave a thought of you when writing that line Steve lol.

    It was an upset with the bookmakers.

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