Round 6 – Hawthorn v St Kilda: Sympathy and Time Out

 

Saturday April 29th, 7.25 pm

University of Tasmania

 

Getting ready for dinner then the game.

 

There has been a noticeable shift in the way random people are responding to my ever-worn St Kilda scarf this season.  There’s been the usual, ‘Go Saints’ from tradies in utes and kids in the street, but I seem to have become a supporter somewhat in need of pity.

 

‘Terrible team you support,’ from a Saints fan, completely disowning their own pain and projecting it all onto me.

 

‘Right of way for a St Kilda supporter,’ said someone letting me pass.

 

‘Go Saints, you’re a good person….’ From another. I’m a good person for sticking fat? I’m a good person for acknowledging that even though my team seem to have completely missed all boats of skill and ability this year, I am a good person for still wearing the colours?

 

I think Saints supporters need a cuppa and a good lie down this season.  My Uncle Bob is considering an overseas holiday. Six games in, and the break within football season seems a damn good idea.

 

And when Uncle Bob and Aunty Betty travel, they, unlike me, don’t take a computer to watch missed games overseas. They go cold turkey. Or, for this year, they go in peace.

 

Out of sight, out of mind. Or going out of your mind.

 

This week has seen me away in seaside Sorrento for a much-needed break. It has been still and sunny and mild and a tonic. I have slept, walked, looked, eaten and read Gideon Haigh’s magnificent A Scandal in Bohemia: The Life and Death of Mollie Dean and eaten some more. We have had footy to watch mid-week and a weekend full of it. The sun has been gentle and healing.

 

 

 

And then Hawthorn played St Kilda in Tassie.

 

To say we were in it for three quarters is to miss the fact that we could have been ahead. And the Hawks could have been ahead too.

 

In Sam Gilbert’s 200th game, he was both an engine and often the cause of muck-ups. Everyone had the yips. Tim Membrey will have nightmares about the sitter that went sideways as he ran into the goal square. But he went on to kick one through from a more difficult position moments later.

 

Some ‘great’ quotes from Channel 7 were sometimes more engaging than the game.

 

‘Starts left and stays left.’

 

‘They (Saints) like to switch’ (and then turn over the ball for Hawks to gaol).

 

‘Set shots have been terrible this season’. (Meaning it’s not just us.)

 

From Rina, my holiday mate, ‘’They are everywhere.  All I can see are Hawthorn jumpers.’

 

‘Can’t believe what I’m seeing’ said after Membrey’s miss.

 

In the second quarter, after we got three goals through Membrey, Sinclair and Hickey, Rina taught me a fist bump routine – high five, finger grip, thumb grip, fist bump and explosion. That was fun footy watching for a few moments.

 

Paddy McCartin continues to improve, and if they didn’t land the ball at his feet or over his head, he’d improve more.

 

The last quarter tested Saints’ faith and skill and made my drafted family of Hawks supporters happy. I think the hardest part of the night, other than the eventual flogging, was seeing Jeff Kennett so happy.

 

We head home to Melbourne tomorrow, and I’ll expect more sympathy and compassion. Saints fans obviously need it in spades this year.

 

About Yvette Wroby

Yvette Wroby writes, cartoons, paints through life and gets most pleasure when it's about football, and more specifically the Saints. Believes in following dreams and having a go.

Comments

  1. Patrick O'Brien says

    Hi Yvonne

    It’s hard to know what’s happening this year. Some progress each year for the past two or three seasons, a couple of positive signings, and the beginning of this campaign had a bit of hope about it. That’s just gone gone gone.

    What happened – or didn’t happen – in the off season? The on ground skills are deplorable and the kicking, as we know, is … something. About twice as many behinds as goals, I believe. I blame Harms.

    At least you got to take a nice photo!

    Patrick

  2. Yvette Wroby says

    Hi Patrick, yes, blaming Harms might be one way to go. It saves the angst of the usual cycle… coaches, players, running up and down to a point of pure exhaustion.

    The goal coach that was employed in October last year might be on shaky grounds!

  3. Patrick O'Brien says

    Yes I hope they kept the receipt. It’s quite an achievement to take a team whose kicking is already woeful and make them even worse.

  4. danIel flesch says

    Yvette , there are a lot of Hawthorn supporters who share your feelings about Kennett’s happy face .
    Years ago I felt sorry for Carlton supporters when John Elliot was their Pres.
    And now Port Adelaide has “Kochie” (ugh!)

  5. Hi Yvette,

    I hope visiting Sorrento was a good treatment.

    After reading your article, I remember I had sang ‘Come back to Sorrento’ in Japanese lyrics at primary school. The town has St Kilda supporting communities, I guess. Then the singing might have made me becoming a St Kilda supporter, although it took about 30 years to complete the mission…

    Let’s hope we beat Demons on Sunday.

    Go the mighty Saints!

    Yoshi

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