Round 18 – Sydney v St Kilda: Pride Match – Respects for individuals and being a proud Sainter

 

Saturday, 22 July 2017
7:25 pm
Sydney Cricket Ground

 

At first, I respect individuals as always as well as diversity in the society. Then I am happy that both Sydney Swans and St Kilda are having annual games to respect the LFBTI community.

 

But two clubs are fighting for the pride within the club too. Swans and Saints had been rivals in the time when Swans were South Melbourne Football Club, under the Lakeside rivalry.

 

Meeting up fellow St Kilda supporters always makes me happy and my pride of being a Sainter is built up. On Monday, my workplace was a Kyoto version of the St Kilda fan base.

 

My new Sainter friend Rob and his girlfriend came in the restaurant for dining. I was cooking deep fried beef at the time and asked them to wait outside from the kitchen as we were full. Then Rob addressed me and I realised it was him. Indeed I looked after them.

 

Then another couple sat in the far end of the counter table. I asked them where they were from and then asked which AFL club they barracked for as found they were Melbournians. They were St Kilda supporters too and I told Rob about it too.

 

I wish we could sing the club song loudly but we couldn’t because other customers were there and we were too busy, so we had be neutral, sadly…

 

Then on Saturday, I saw two western ladies staring at a map and they looked they were looking a direction to a particular place. I offered help and then I collected my backpack. When I went back to them, one of them realised I was a Sainter from my St Kilda gear I had – a baseball cap and a Saints in New Zealand T-shirt. Afterwards she showed me her St Kilda tag on her suitcase.

 

We talked about footy and I mentioned the Pride Match. I suggested that the game would be tough and we hardly won over the Swans at SCG.

 

I had read Rohan Connolly’s Round 18 predictions on his new launched website Footyology. He mentions that St Kilda have only won twice at SCG in the last 20 years.

 

But I told her that I hoped our Saints played well and we farewelled.

 

I had nice St Kilda supporters around the corner and was motivated to support as always on the game day.

 

However, my work dominated over my enthusiasm on supporting my boys, unfortunately. I breached my own sports supporting codes.

 

On the important game day, I was placed in a busy restaurant in town from 5pm to midnight. As my working hours were seven, I could have a 30 minute break, but was unlikely to have because of the busy environment and the time slot.

 

However I kept in my mind about strong feelings towards the Saints and wondered what the score would be.

 

Released around 12.25 am on Sunday, I checked the final score and found we lost by 42 points. I was sad even if I had thought it would be hard to win. But why couldn’t we win over Swans even if Carlton beat them at MCG?

 

I had a long day at work on Sunday (10am to 11pm) and needed a rest between work and work meeting on Monday from the long Sunday and the heat at the kitchen (cooked deep fried beef at all my six-hour shift).

 

Finally I get a day off today (Tuesday), so watched a few videos to find out the strategies and positives of my club.

1. We couldn’t stop tall forward, Callum Sinclair. He took a contested two on one mark at the beginning of the game and then showed efforts. Roberton, Geary or Carlisle couldn’t help much.

2. We couldn’t get over Swans’ much pressure. Richo addressed the issue in the post match presser. Steele hardly found enough space to kick to his teammate and instead was tackled and gave away footy to Swans. Newnes’ kick was blocked in the very congested goal square. Then Montagna got an opportunity to score a goal, but was defeated by their high pressures. We really need to put much pressure to our opponents. Doing series of handballs and kicks should be done with accuracy. And tricking the opponents is needed too. Handball and kicking skills need to be improved.

3. Dunstan’s hardworking on kicks was impressive and he showed efforts with hungry. He tried to get his job done much and to secure his play spot. His long kick to Riewoldt was wonderful and helped him an easy goal. Other midfielders need to do such jobs to put much pressures on the opponents.

 

It’s really disappointing we slipped the ladder into eleventh now. I really wished my Saints to be top eight so that we win over Port next week under their curse of not winning against a top eight side. Port’s issues are shown on Facebook Footy memes pages. But you know we have to overcome such jinx. We win and then the memes would say “Now Power even can’t win over the team outside top eight. Power cut now!”

 

Learn from the SCG lesson and get ready to show our attacking footy at Adelaide Oval. We ended the Subiaco drought several weeks ago and had four wins in a row.

 

I know it’s hard to bounce back after being upset. At work, I dropped off rice bawls accidentally on Sunday. I was lucky not to injure anyone else and took sometime to calm and bounce back. But eventually I did well. Then my boys can do too.

 

Unfair fixtures put us to have to travel to Adelaide twice to face SA clubs. Only two Victorian clubs have such fixtures. Richmond have already travelled Adelaide twice this season to face SA clubs and won against Port there. We beat Tigers at Round 16. Now why not us? Smash Power!

 

Be hungry and show pride of playing for the Saints. I am proud of supporting this wonderful footy club with a good supporters community.

 

PS. Media needs to leave Rooey and Joey alone until they have made decisions on their futures. I hope they both play on in 2018. The two veterans are proud St Kilda footballers and don’t go anywhere else.

 

SYDNEY 3.5 7.8 11.14 14.17 (101)
ST KILDA 1.2 3.2 5.4 9.5 (59)

 

GOALS
Sydney: Sinclair 5, Franklin 3, Towers, Kennedy, Hewett, Heeney, Rohan, McVeigh
St Kilda: Bruce 3, Stevens, Savage, Riewoldt, Billings, Newnes, Dunstan

BEST
Sydney: Sinclair, Kennedy, Hannebery, Heeney, Franklin, Parker
St Kilda: Ross, Dunstan, Montagna, Bruce, Savage, Roberton

OUR VOTES
C Sinclair (SYD 3), Kennedy (SYD 2), Dunstan (STK 1)

Umpires: Stephens, Findlay, McInerney

Official crowd: 35,773