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Going to the football on a Friday night is a good excuse to get out of the office on time, and this year, since the changes to the Westgate/ Citylink interchange, Friday night traffic is usually not too bad. In previous years, the journey home on Friday evenings often took more than an hour, with traffic sometimes backing up as far as Burke Road, and occasionally even further.

Our outing had been planned for some weeks, and we went with our lovely neighbours who are avid Bulldogs fans, to see them play St Kilda. We went early enough to get good seats, and settled down to munch on our dinner, brought from home, as we waited for the match to start. The tension before the game was not at the fever pitch that it was when we played Collingwood, and the punters largely were supporting the Bulldogs before the match. The rationale? Although St Kilda had beaten the Dogs three times last season, Riewoldt was out, and he was the difference in the very close preliminary final last September.

The weeks slowly tick by without the Saints star forward, Nick Riewoldt, who had a bad hamstring injury requiring surgery a few weeks ago. Saints fans are hopeful that he will return in time for the finals.The newspapers were full of analysis and opinion, could St Kilda win without Riewoldt? Would his absence mean that the season was virtually over? That speculation started, within minutes of him being injured, with radio commentators giving up on the Saints chances almost immediately. One thing is certain, and that is that Nick will not be back playing for at least another two months. His teammates have demonstrated that they have other ideas, and, that they intend putting them into action.

Friday night's game was an agonising, defensive game, except for a two minute and fifty one second burst of play by St Kilda in the final quarter, which tore the game out of the grasp of the shattered Bulldog players. Like in the game against Collingwood a few weeks ago, St Kilda were never out of touch, and that sense of team and determination and will to succeed got them across the line by 3 points.

The game was ugly to watch for the most part, but afterwards, I watched most of the final quarter on delayed telecast, and then again the next morning on replay, and that magical burst of play seemed to have been the result of a pressure cooker atmosphere, where the build up of tension eventually caused a boil over, and many of the chances which fell to the Saints were taken, and those which the Dogs had at the crucial times were not. Did the Dogs take the foot off the pedal, just a wee bit, or was it a combination of psychological pressure after ninety six minutes of an incredibly tense and close match?

Whatever the answer is, we came home marvelling at how awful a game could look, and I was careful to keep a lid on the excitement bubbling up inside me, for it's becoming clear that St Kilda are formidable with Riewoldt, but the team are very hard to defeat without him..

 

GO SAINTS!

 

Oh yeah, the Footy season. AFL. (Australian Football League) has definitely started...

 

As long term readers of this blog know, I am a totally foccussed St Kilda supporter, who has been following them for many years.

 

Last Friday night, after somehow managing to get tickets to see the sold out match, G and I set out on the train to travel the short journey into town. Alighting at Southern Cross Station (aka Spencer Street Station) it's a short walk down the Northern end of the platform along the walkway that joins Bourke Street to the Docklands Stadium.

 

I always find my pace lengthening as I approach the Stadium, until we met the crush of excited St Kilda and Collingwood supporters thronging around Gate 3, where loud speaker announcements constantly advising supporters to go to other gates where the queues were less. One of the rewards of pre-booking tickets, is that you can walk in at any time, and your seat will still be available. But I was a bit sorry that we came in at the last moment, because you miss the build up before the start of the game. In this case, we got to our seats to see the start, and the aggression and ferocity of tackling, stupid free kicks given away on both sides and low scoring had us on the edge of our seats. I find watching a close match on TV to be much more stressful than it actually is at the game, and although it was very close for three quarters it was not from brilliance of forward moves, generally, rather the defensive pressure which made the game so riveting. Add to the mix, the serious hamstring injury to Saints star, Nick Riewoldt just before half time, who would surely miss 10-12 matches. Then, serious injuries to two other key Saints, Sam Fisher who was knocked out, and carted off on a stretcher; and Lenny Hayes with a badly broken nose. By mid way through the third quarter the radio commentators were giving St Kilda no chance of winning the match. Indeed, all was poised at the start of the last quarter, for a rout, according to all the experts.

 

However, St Kilda had not read the revised script, and burst out of the blocks, scoring two goals in two minutes, followed by another three to break the game open, and it was all over.

 

As we left the ground, the forlorn sight of Nick on crutches, at some distance from his celebrating team mates brought a tear to my eye, but also raised the question: How do the rest of the team carry the weight of a superstar in their midst, on a week to week basis? Do they feel that an undue amount of praise is given to him, when AFL is surely a team game, and there must be significant contributions from the other 21 players on the team to win one game, let alone for the 22 out of 25 games which they won last year? Without question Nick Riewoldt is a superstar of the game, and he will be sorely missed. But labelling St Kilda as entirely reliant on one player denies the effectiveness of a polished, resilient and flexible team who will be able to cope, and who will rise to the challenge.

The real footy season has now started, and I have once again put the St Kilda matches into my diary, so that social events can be planned around my attention span for other things besides football.

 

Saturday week ago, we had guests for dinner, and dinner was not ready to be served until the St Kilda-Sydney match had started. This created something of a dilemma: should I be rude and stay in the family room watching the direct telecast on TV, or should I be sociable and sit with our guests. Fortunately for me, the game got off to a slow start from the Saints' point of view, and in the first quarter they failed to score a goal for some time, so I was happy enough to catch the occasional glimpse as I went back to the kitchen.

 

By half time, I was able to find a seat in the family room, without offending social sensibilities, then grab some knitting in an attempt to hide my nervousness at the close game, and watch the end.

Pink Ukulele was very impressed at the speed of knitting when the tension was at it's highest and will be pleased to know that both sleeves have now been completed.

 

Last Saturday, a headache dared to intrude on my pleasant six days off in a row, and we decided not to go to a birthday party or the footy, instead, we stayed home and watched the game on delayed telecast. Unbelievably, St Kilda kicked eight straight goals to North Melbourne Kangaroos' no score. After that, the end result was academic, and I was able to enjoy the sight of Nick Riewoldt kicking 7 goals, and do a bit more knitting at the same time.

 

More enjoyable weekends over the winter will follow

A couple of surprises this week: Who says "No, thanks", when you are asked if you would like a ticket ( and dinner) at the Australian Open Tennis? Certainly, not me.  First match of the evening will feature Rafael Nadal, ranked 2,  playing Philipp Kohlschreiber at 7pm, followed by Svetlana Kuznetzova, ranked 3,  v Angelique Kerber.

 

Living in Melbourne at this time of year is fun, some of our team managed to be only a few steps away from the second in line to the British throne last night at the tennis, and there are many other celebrities and sportspeople in town.

 

And in another unexpected, but welcome surprise: two tickets each for Gold Class Cinema have arrived on the desks of my colleagues and me.

 

A long weekend is about to start, too, which I hope will mean several long sleep ins, if the cats allow. Sometimes, they just want to get up and play. But if the morning is cool, they love to luxuriate in the bed, liking nothing better than a slumbering human to smooch up to.

 

Australia Day is the official reason for the long weekend (on Tuesday) and of course , there may have to be a lamb chop on the barbie to celebrate....(BBQ)

It has been pointed out that it is some time since I wrote in this forum, and that my last entry said that there was life after football, but there clearly isn't....as I haven't been able to bring myself to write anything at all until today.

Maybe if my team was Collingwood, it would be a bit easier to get over it, they have been in 13 losing finals apparently, not that I care about them....

It's just that the excitement of getting there was fantastic, but the disappointment is palpable, still.

I'm not used to extended heat waves in November, either...can't really come to terms with night after night being hot. Not helped by three felines cuddling up in the night.... I sincerely hope this is not a harbinger of a hot summer to come, otherwise the aforementioned felines will be in another room.

 

Somehow, I managed to survive the last quarter, and with seven minutes to go, the scores were even. I can't describe the feeling, though when Geelong scored a goal (from a trademark Chapman snap) and a point, which meant that St Kilda had to kick two goals in the remaining seconds to win: a point from the Saints, then a mark to the Cats in the forward line just before the siren and it was all over...

The feeling of desolation was not the same as the loss in 1997; the Saints last GF appearance, when they were thumped by Adelaide who had a burst of brilliant play in the third quarter to break to game apart.

This game is likely to go down as one of the great matches, a titanic struggle, and a battle of wills. Unfortunately, there has to be a winner, and a loser.

 

In the psyche of the long time Saints supporter, we never really think we can win, until the siren goes. This season we've got used to winning, but can never take it for granted, and rightfully so.

Maybe next year....

 

I think Saints have missed some opportunities they should have taken. In the Saints attacking zone, now a goal from Montagna of St Kilda and Saints in front again...

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.

 

Third glass of cognac started...the game still there to be won....despite the Saints being in front, the Cats will not lie down.

I have calmed down a little bit, but still a fair way to go...and as the game restarts, tension levels rise, yet again....

A titanic struggle...umpiring errors...scores were going to be level at half time...then a free kick paid for dissension with the umpire against Geelong and Saints in front by a goal.

A goal is a goal...

 

Rain is teeming down, and what an amazing match.