THE PATH TO IMMORTALITY IS 2 (or 3) STEPS AWAY

When we last spoke I mentioned that the finals series up here in sunny Capricornia was not that far away. Now we are well and truly inside the last month, and this weekend we are back down the highway to face BITS in the reserves 2nd semi-final. For me however it could have been all over before it began. During the opening exchanges of the first quarter against the Glenmore Bulls in the last win (an easy win for our 2’s holding them to 2 goals for the game) I felt a pop in my calf. In past years, this would mean that once again the right calf needed attention but much to my frustration this one would be the LEFT calf. In a sign of desperation, I stayed on the ground and blew a few gettable goalscoring opportunities before eventually calling it a day midway through the last term.

After having to sit out the session on the Tuesday afterwards, I ended up training last Saturday (it would be about the only time where just about everyone would be able to train as a group) for a lot longer than I anticipated or even had hoped. OK, the lure of goal kicking practice did more good than harm in the motivation stakes although I couldn’t go at full tempo at any stage. Still, the calf continued to improve and improve, and after a solid goal kicking session of 40 minutes this evening (Thursday Night) I was included in the 18. Fortunately I do not need to decide which 5 players will miss the cut for this weekend, a task that may not be performed until about 11:30 AM on Saturday Morning which is precisely an hour before the scheduled start, unless one of the junior matches runs into extra time.
Which brings me to our other teams. The Under 13’s played last weekend against BITS, a team that they had losses of 6 and 9 points against as well as a draw during the regular season. However this time the lads and lasses (there are 3 girls in the team, girls are able to play up to this age group before graduating to the women’s comp) put it all together and booked a preliminary final birth by 8 points. The Under 15’s only managed to win once throughout the year, constantly struggling for numbers. The Under 17’s had a very interesting story to tell which ended in heartbreak. They managed to win the last round match against Glenmore to seemingly secure 4th spot. Unfortunately an administrative oversight and a keen eye from an opposition coaching staff member saw that one player playing under an alias was positively identified as someone else (he was a basketball coach of the player in question) and another was not even registered. The team was not told of this until the Tuesday Night before the scheduled first semi final after they had trained. Hopefully the lesson will have been learned for future reference.

The seniors didn’t manage to beat Glenmore and thus ended a disappointing year on an all too familiar note. It certainly wasn’t for lack of effort, but their key players executed far too well at critical times when we looked as though we were getting into the game. Still a few have been dropping into our training sessions (which may or may not be a good thing for us) obviously seeing our campaign as the start of next year’s pre-season.

So onto this Saturday, and the selected side that we will put on the park is as follows….

B: John “Senior” FRASER, Tony BOOLE, Thomas LAYCOCK

HB: Brad STACEY, Jay HUMPHRIES, Daniel “Budgie” TRINCA

C: Joel “Whippet” ROBINSON, Scott “G-Train” GINNIVAN (C), Ryan “Spelly” SPELLMAN

HF: Wayne “Schimma” CLIFFORD, Tim “Christmas” CARROLL (C), Roy “Red” WEST (C0ach)

F: Cameron “Drunket” WYATT, Luke FRENKEN, Mick JEFFREY

R: Garry “Gilly” GILLESPIE, Darrell “Stupid” NEWSOME, Ethan “Rock” ROSE

INT FROM: Hayden “Hobbit” BENNETT, Jason DEAN, Rob AKERS, David PEZAROS, Michael MAWER, Peter “PJ” SCARBOROUGH, Alastair MURRAY, Luke DAVEY, Troy “Tee Roy” SUTHERLAND, Thomas SHACKLETON

About Mick Jeffrey

39 Year Old, 16 year Bulldogs. over 280 combined senior/reserves appearances for Brothers AFC in AFL Capricornia. 26 time Marathon finisher, three time Ultra Marathon finisher and three time Comrades Marathon competitor (though not finisher yet).

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