Greetings Tipsters
We may have talked up Freo or Port but it’s being obvious for a while now that the Grand Final would feature Hawthorn and Sydney. Two teams that are a long way ahead of every other.
Almost didn’t seem like it, late Satnite. The game was running much as expected until halfway thru the last term, when Port cracked the chalice and made a fast run. I was cheering for them, a great team to watch when they hit the nitro.
But the kids couldn’t run over the men. Frinite, the upstarts barely rubbed the sleep from their eyes before the nightmare walloped ‘em.
Saturday, the Grand Final we had to have. Just ask Clarkson or Longmire, they’ve known these last twelve months that the other would be the only true contender. These are the two best teams in the league, tough, fast, strong, brilliant, experienced, there aint much to choose between them.
Sound admininstration? Yep. Fast wingmen? You bet. Club culture? Bloody oath. Tough in the clinches? Like no other.
It comes down to details, the most important being the extra day Swans have to recover from an easy win. Is there a psychological fatigue factor for Hawthorn, from that last quarter? Newbold is talking like Hawthorn has already done good. The players won’t notice that.
The difference isn’t necessarily Tippett and Franklin, it’s which team gets ahold of the ball. It’s attitude and there’s barely a cigarette paper between Kennedy and Mitchell when there’s a ball to be won. Crammed full of premiership players and All-Australians, there aint much splitting these teams.
For all the talk about Franklin, Tippett, Goodes – and Reid, remember him? Kicked three in a flag team – there’s Roughead, Gunston Breust. Will Gibson and Lake do their jobs as well as Richards and Grundy?
Across the park, there is three fifths of buggerall between these teams. That three fifths will be the difference. That and the extra day.
Hawthorn have had a great, tough year, maybe they’re tired, but they may be full of vim and vigour for the one last crack Sydney are The Team, will they take too much for granted like the Hawks did two year back?
It comes down to two goups of 22 players, who’re gonna run 10 miles, thumping each other, kicking, trying to make a shred of a difference. For what it’s worth (stop, hey, what’s that sound, everybody look what’s going down) this chainsmoker reckons there’ll be a goal or so in it at halftime, Syd will have wasted chances while Hawks made the most. There’ll be one hell of a tussle in the third until Swans break away late, and confirm it in the fourth. Something like 17.20 to 14.10 in the end.
Cheers Tipsters
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About Earl O'Neill
Freelance gardener, I've thousands of books, thousands of records, one fast motorcycle and one gorgeous smart funny sexy woman. Life's pretty darn neat.
Hope you are on the money about the contest but not the result, Earl. There’ll be no “jubilation across the nation and dancing in the streets” if the Buddy Bondi Billionaires salute.