Round 20 – North Melbourne v St Kilda: The Traianidis factor in the ancient city of Athens

 

 

 

 

Round 20 – North Melbourne v St Kilda: The Traianidis factor in the ancient city of Athens
By Jennifer Muirden

Saturday August 15, 2:10pm
Blundstone Arena, Hobart

Thank goodness for the amazing advancements in technology of modern times. I may currently be halfway around the world but that certainly did not stop me from tuning into the North Melbourne versus St Kilda match staged at picturesque Blundstone Arena in Hobart. The game commenced at 7:10am here in Athens so I was up early for breakfast and able to logon to afl.com and listen to the live feed without affecting any of my busy day of sightseeing.

In the lead up to today’s game, and being in the ancient city of Greece, my mind immediately flashed back to memories of one of my favourite players from the nineties, Jason Traianidis who wore the number 32. The irony was not lost on me that originally from Shepparton, Traianidis played in the 1995 North Melbourne Reserves Premiership team. He had been on the Kangaroos’ supplementary list that season and was almost drafted by the club in the 1996 pre-season but in the end they opted for Peter Bell. Thankfully for the mighty Saints, North Melbourne’s misfortune was certainly our gain.

Two of my favourite games I recall ‘Traiar’ playing were during the first two rounds of the 1999 AFL Season. In Round 1 the Saints suffered a devastating 89 point loss to Brisbane at the Gabba but Jason managed to get an impressive 24 disposals (18 kicks 6 handballs), 7 marks and 3 goals. Then in Round 2 at Waverley Park  he amounted a total of 29 disposals (19 kicks 10 handballs), 8 marks and 2 goals when St Kilda beat Melbourne by 46 points. This was truly the year Traianidis shone brightly and I loved watching him play.

Anyway back to modern times, and all in all I was proud of the Saints’ efforts in today’s game. Our first two and three quarters were outstanding but unfortunately the Kangaroos showed just why they are seriously in this year’s finals mix. In the second half of the third quarter and final term they well and truly pounced on us taking out the match convincingly by 37 points. Nonetheless our performance today certainly augurs well for the Saints’ future and thus my tribute song this round is dedicated towards the whole of the St Kilda Football team.
 

Definitely On A Road To Somewhere
Sung to the tune of ‘Road to Nowhere’ by Talking Heads

Well Richo knows where we’re going
And he sure knows where we’ve been
Needs to keep the forward line flowing
And keep our defence extra mean
But he can’t say the boys aren’t keen

And they’re not little children
And they know what they want
And the future is certain
Give them time to work it out

We’re on a road to somewhere
Believe in our side
Taking that ride to somewhere
We’ll take that ride

I’m feelin’ okay this morning
And you know
We’re on the road to paradise
Here we go, here we go

We’re on a road to somewhere
Believe in our side
Taking that ride to somewhere
We’ll take that ride

The young boys wonder where they are
I don’t care
Here is where time is on our side
They’ll take us there…take us there

We’re on a road to somewhere
We’re on a road to somewhere
We’re on a road to somewhere

There’s a Premiership in my mind
Come along Saints, take that ride
And it’ll be fine, baby, it’ll be fine

Our second cup’s not far away
For it’s closer day by day
And we can keep up the fight, baby, we’ll take flight
We will make a lot of fuss

We can try telling you what to do
But don’t make a fool out of us
And it’ll be alright, Saints, it’ll be right
Definitely on a road to somewhere!

 

NORTH MELBOURNE 2.1 4.3 14.9 18.12 (120)
ST KILDA     3.3  6.11  8.14  11.17 (83)

Goals
North Melbourne Drew Petrie 4, Lindsay Thomas 3, Brent Harvey, Taylor Garner 2, Jack Ziebell, Ben Cunnington, Sam Gibson, Shaun Atley, Jarrad Waite, Shaun Higgins, Robin Nahas 1
St Kilda Nick Riewoldt, Josh Bruce, Tom Hickey 2 David Armitage, Jarryn Geary, Darren Minchington, Jack Newnes, Jack Sinclair 1

My Best
North Melbourne 3 – Drew Petrie 2– Brent Harvey 1– Jack Ziebell
St Kilda 3 – David Armitage 2 – Jack Newnes 1– Jarryn Geary

Umpires Donlon, Deboy, Schmitt

Official crowd 14,346 at Blundstone Arena