Depending on where you are coming from, it is easy to be gloomy about Round 5, but I reckon that this round was exhilarating. Besides, I spoke to the great man, Gary Ablett, that’s more than most of you, dear readers, have achieved.
The events organiser and I were in Adelaide over the long weekend, and from this distance in time last Thursday night seems about ten years ago. Nevertheless lodging as we were in a very average motel with a less than average small analogue TV in a less than average location within the room, I recall the Lions giving St Kilda a huge fright. Schneider fixed us up in the second half. Sydney must be a strong team to have let him go. Redden and a whole host of other Brisbane youngsters looked pretty good at times. The Melbourne papers are saying that St Kilda are stuffed but they did have a win at the Gabba. Sadly though I have to admit that these days such an achievement has lost most of its currency.
Being in Adelaide I had to of course support the Crows against Carlton, but the fact is that had I been in Guantanamo Bay I still would have supported the Crows against Carlton. Adelaide were OK but were another team that fell over at the last hurdle. I thought that when they were 11 points up in the last quarter they were home and hosed, but a stupid turnover on the half back line when a Crows player dropped an absolute sitter which then ultimately resulted in a Carlton goal was the beginning of the end. I like the modern game but I don’t like this idea of kicking across goal when making clearances. It just increases the chance of errors being made, as happened in this instance. And as for kicking back in defence, just call it play on and get rid of this partial reference to soccer.
So, Saturday morning in Adelaide. This is my home town but I hadn’t been back for 5 years. Thus I had social commitments overdue to have been met. Got off to a great start. As I haven’t lived there for 35 years I am a bit rusty on the geography, particularly in areas that I was never familiar with in the first place. The organiser and I had an 8 am appointment with a friend at the Adelaide Hilton in Victoria Square. The blurb at the motel advised that it was 6 kilometres to the city. An easy walk. Trouble was it was 10.5 kilometres. That was OK but we were 35 minutes late. Had to tell our friend that we would have to reschedule because we were due to get to Rundle Street by about 9:15 to see our magnificent local Shepparton Brass Band in the street segment of a national band competition being held in Adelaide over the Easter weekend. Missed that too. Half the reason for our Adelaide visit had been blown. Had wanted to go to the Suns Port game. That didn’t happen either, because the logistics of sitting 2 adults and 4 children in a family car didn’t add up.
Decided to walk to the Zoo instead. Was sitting with said family in an Adelaide park adjacent to the start point of the march, gloomily thinking about the immediate past couple of hours and what was to follow when son in law noticed that the Suns footy club was doing some stretches in an area close by to where were sitting. They had attracted no attention whatever, they were just a completely anonymous bunch of blokes. I approached the group a little tentatively. What I wanted to do was to have an in depth conversation lasting a few hours with both Gary Ablett and Karmichael Hunt as to how life was and how they hoped it would turn out. But I didn’t want to look like a complete nutter. So speaking in the general direction of the Son of God, I said, “Best of luck today fellahs, hope that you have a win’. He replied in a muted voice, “Thanks”. I wandered away and my family mused that as I had had my Nikon D90 camera with me I had blown a great photo op. Probably had, too. Thus was my brush with greatness.
Anyway the Suns got up as I had expected, (I lie), and what a great thing for football that was. How I fervently hope that some Melbourne teams cop it as well. Of course it left South Australian football at its lowest ebb ever but that’s life, there are winners and losers. And let’s face it, sure the Suns are young team but they have some names on their list.
Rumour has it that Freo got up against the Scraggers. I was asleep at the time but apparently, having lost a lead held throughout the game in the last quarter they regained it. So un-Freo-like.
The Anzac day game was fantastic but I always thought that the Pies would maintain the initiative. Essendon have improved so much however. James Hird said it all in terms of all the teams that didn’t win even if they had honorable losses, “It was a disappointing result”. What a great game it was. What a great round it was!
Richmond beat North, didn’t think that they would.
Geelong had a mighty win against the Hawks, particularly given the start that they gave them. Franklin had two in a hurry and should have had three. The match was a write off but no, the Cats came back and in the last half were awesome. Bring on the Maggies.
I thus think that for two coaches they would be thinking about the season thus far, to quote Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. One coach is up 5 zip the other down 4 zip. Is it a matter of being in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time? Who knows. How ironic it is that it is the Scott twins on either side of the scale.
The Pandas were OK but I would have much rather been at Football Park.
About Peter Schumacher
Wannabe footy commentator and writer, used to be a wannabe footballer
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