Round 3 – Essendon v St Kilda: Realising the importance of the balance in many fields

 

 

 

 

Saturday, 3 April 2021
4:35 pm
Marvel Stadium, Docklands

 

Affected massively by COVID-19, the restaurant that I am working for has been in the continuous mode of opening the premise and then shutting, for a year. They have closed three times during the tough period.

 

I have been paid under the employment program, like Job Keeper in Australia, but staying home is so painful, and I don’t have an outlet for my energy and motivation to contribute my work for society. Also having no human contacts is bad for mental health.

 

Therefore, I have sought for a new full time job since the first state of emergency had been declared a year ago. But I ended up getting two more part time jobs. The restaurant job has been a full time work, but they have been giving me fewer hours in the last 12 months.

 

The restaurant was back in business on Saturday 20 March, and the bike hiring shop wants me to work more days. Also last month, I started working for an Osaka based, Aussie owned online auction retailer and now it’s a three-days-a-week work. So I have no days off in the first half of April…

 

Meanwhile the Saints had been said that the away game against the Dons would be an easy to win game.

 

However, instead, I was extremely shocked when I tuned in the Watch AFL app while we were playing the third quarter and when I started a break at the restaurant work. Saints trailed by 50 points!

 

Centre clearance was dominated by the Bombers. St Kilda showed lack of efforts in the midfield and defense. Kicking and handballing skills were poor. Midfielders and defenders didn’t hit the target in kicks or handpasses.

 

Where were our attacking footy gone? What had happened with hungriness and efforts? Why did we perform so poor?

 

And for myself, I realised that I was having an unbalanced life. I had no time to follow the Saints footy live or go to the Dingoes training at all. Having three part time jobs and organising my working schedules are so hard! I made a mistake putting myself in rosters for April.

 

Even others will be against me, but I showed lack of efforts in supporting my boys. Even though I can’t control my boys, footballers could sense my bad attitudes in following them as the biggest Saints fan in Japan.

 

Having too many injuries causes an unbalanced list for the Saints. Unavailability for two key ruckmen of Paddy Ryder and Rowan Marshall has been the disaster. That’s why we allowed Max Gawn to dominate at Round 2. Then the same happened in the Saturday twilight game.

 

I had bad balance for both physically (workload) and mentally (seeing the horrible game, and related to work and cancelled Dingoes tournament). But realising the issues at such an early stage is the positive, and then I could set an alternative life path. I hope Brett Ratten is writing Plan B and Jarryd Roughead encourages boys positively. And don’t forget to take what Nick Riewoldt said on Monday night on his Fox Footy show.

 

 

ESSENDON 6.4 12.6 16.10 22.11 (143)
ST KILDA 3.3 4.5 6.9 9.14 (68)

 

GOALS
Essendon: Hooker 5, Stringer 4, McDonald-Tipungwuti 3, Snelling 2, Waterman 2, Jones 2, Cox, Redman, McGrath, Smith
St Kilda: Higgins 3, Billings 2, Membrey, Crouch, Steele, King

 

BEST
Essendon: Parish, Merrett, Stringer, Hooker, Ham, Ridley, Smith
St Kilda: Steele, Membrey

 

INJURIES
Essendon: Redman (right hamstring)
St Kilda: Gresham (right Achilles tendon), Jones (right ankle)

 

SUBSTITUTES
Essendon: Tom Cutler (replaced Mason Redman)
St Kilda: Ben Long (replaced Jade Gresham)

 

The Tigers (Covid) Almanac 2020 will be published in 2021. It will have all the usual features – a game by game account of the Tigers season – and will also include some of the best Almanac writing from the Covid winter.  Pre-order HERE

 

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