Riewoldt quiet in the first half, and starting to look dangerous....
Geelong under siege...but a point the difference in the Saints favour and I am still coping, just...
Managed to articulate a few words to the lovely N at half time, and a wonderful contest.
Wednesday morning, and now just three sleeps to the Grand Final. If you are not familiar with Australian sport perhaps you might think the finals fever demonstrated in
A trip down to Geelong will demonstrate the passion of that city for their footy team, and in St Kilda there is a building wrapped in a red, white and black flag, as well as many manifestations of enthusiasm for St Kilda across the city of Melbourne. Ian (Molly) Meldrum, famous Australian music guru, and die hard Saints fan, who apparently fainted in the last few minutes of the 1966 grand final, and consequently did not hear the final siren or see the winning point scored, regularly redecorates the brick walls in front of his house in the St Kilda and Melbourne Storm (Rugby League) colours on either side of the gate. Molly Is just one of some celebrity supporters of St Kilda, including Shane Warne, Marina Prior, Eric Bana and Kate Langbroek and not forgetting Alicia Molik and Geoff Ogilvie.
In the long years when the Saints were a downtrodden team, who admittedly had a really good time, despite the lack of success; this year they appear much more focussed on the job at hand, realising that the end goal is not to win lots of matches during the year, but to win the big one.
On Friday there will be a parade of competing team players in the city, and even our work place is entering into the theme with wear your team jumper day....not that I hadn't been splashing around the red, black and white for months!
Saturday morning is traditional for grand final breakfasts, and the afternoon set aside for viewing the match from wherever...Only one hundred thousand people can actually go to the game. Most of the rest of us will watch on TV...
I guess I am going to get through the week, and the supportive emails from friends give me the general feeling that lots of people would like St Kilda to win.... Sentiment is all very well, but in the end, the performance on the ground is what will count....
Go Saints!
Grand final week started on Saturday evening, after the result of the Geelong Collingwood match was known, finally we knew who was going to play who, although we've known that there was every chance that the top teams would get there, it's not been unheard of for the leaders at the end of the home and away matches to miss the Grand Final. In case you've been on another planet, the competing teams are St Kilda and
To GAblett's credit, he has also been able to rise above the expectations of everyone in some ways exceeding the exploits of his famous father, also Gary Ablett, in winning both a Premiership in 2007 and the Brownlow in 2009.
But now, we can move on, after being able to comment on the often tasteful, but sometimes appalling dress sense of the wives and girlfriends of the footballers or club personnel (see The Age for photos)
Now the conversations are couched in terms of: was Collingwood that bad on Saturday night, or was
The betting favours the Cats, so apparently the bookmakers are hoping that the tipsters are wrong. Then , as always in these things there are some respected commentators who give the Saints a good chance to win, too.
It all remains to be seen- I just have to survive the week....
