Tipping the Final Curtain

Tony was the only one to get a point last week, which was not enough to put him in contention. Noone can beat Jacob now in fact, though if the cards fall perfectly John may equalise.

Here are our scores:

Jacob: 39
John: 36
Hamish: 35
Tony: 35
Dave: 34
Drsimmo: 33

And now for the final act, which is promising to be a cracker betwen two great teams.

I'm tipping Adelaide to beat Melbourne 3:2.

Jacob's tip:
Melbourne 2:1

Incidentally, The West End Terrorists beat Sickaz last week 2 nil in a tightly fought match of Indoor Soccer. But the winter soccer is all getting organised and the boys start training for that this week. Jacob keeps saying now that he can't wait for 'real soccer' to start. To which I reply, "Me too."

To the ineffable universal, may the Grand Final be a cracker, may the best team win, may there be good sportsmanship on and off the field, and may there be no serious injuries.

Cheers.

Rump Steak and Footy with Jacob

I had everything set up to 'watch' this Newcastle vs Melbourne game in the best way possible. I had the A-League 'live' site up as well as the SBS live scoring site, and had Melbourne radio playing live meanwhile.

Jacob walked into my room. Neighbours had finished. He said, "Let's go."

"What?"

"Let's go to town. This game decides the fate of Queensland man."

"Ok, we'll be late, but let's go. Put your shoes on."

We caught the train, and when we arrived at the Pig & Whistle, we had missed half an hour but it was still nil all.

I'd expected maybe a lot of Roar fans as the Pig & Whistle always play A-League games and I think is one of the official Roar fan bars. We could mostly only spot obvious Sydney supporters.

After the first Newcastle goal, I asked one of them (we were about one foot away from a whole table of these black shirts), "Who do you hope will win?"

"Melbourne."

"I actually hope Newcastle will win. You see I'm a Roar supporter." I stopped myself, in courtesy, from saying, "I really want Queensland to be the ones to knock you guys out of the competition!" So I probably didn't quite make sense.

"But if Melbourne win, then Roar are safe as well as Sydney."

"Yeah," I said, "but it will make it a cracker of a game tomorrow."

The bloke went back to his iced chocolate.

What? A bunch of young male Sydney fans drinking coffees and iced milk drinks?

No...

They did look very uniform. I noticed their shirts weren't actually jerseys, but collared shirts, with all the sponsors upon them, and they all had matching track pants as well. They weren't drinking, and then one said, "I'm going to go for a massage. At 8.30 we can get a massage."

I turned to the bloke again. "You aren't the team are you?"

"No."

How silly of me. "Are you playing for the Cove in the curtain raiser?"

"No."

"Um, it's just that you all have matching track pants, and, um, none of you are drinking."

"Ok, we're the players."

"What's your name?"

"David."

"David who?"

"David Carney."

"Oh."

I'll only make one real note. These guys clearly wanted Melbourne to win. They were noticeably stunned as Newcastle walked over Melbourne. In their eyes - each and every one of the eight or nine of them there - was, "Oh fuck, we might not make the finals." They did not look confident to me. As Jacob pointed out, maybe there were a bunch of Roar players somewhere looking the same way. The only certainty is, this one tomorrow night is really going to be a cracker.

As they left (as soon as the fourth goal was scored), I said to David Zdrilic, "May the best team win." He said, "Thanks mate," and I reckon that was about as much as either of us could have expected from the other.

I meant it though. May the best team win. I reckon the Roar are the best team, but in under twenty-four hours, we'll all know.

Two Games, Fast and Furious

G'day. This is going to be quick because I really should be in bed.

Sydney vs Melbourne was not brilliant football, but I loved it. It was for once absolutely appropriate that I was distracted by the rugby league (at the Muddy Farmer, I was the only one watching the football), because this was a rough game. The sheer passion between these traditional rivals is entertaining in itself.

Football, but not as you know it? Um... yeah sure. Like a cross between AFL, rugby and basketball, and a good old fashioned rumble, SE Hinton style. Loved it for some reason. Maybe it was my mood. Maybe it was the rugby on the other screens. Anyway the best team won. Melbourne and Sydney can both be brutal, but Melbourne has class as well.

There was a much, much more important game this morning. I've mentioned that I've taken on the management of Jacob's 12 and under indoor soccer team. Their first game was last week, where they lost 5:1. Well it is a furiously fast game, brilliant to watch. Last week I mentioned the rule that they can't kick the ball over head height. The mechanism of the goalie semi-circle wherein nobody but the goalie may go is also a clever innovation, avoiding the horrible physical clashes like that between Perth and Central Coast last night, and keeping the game about skill and tact.

Anyway, excuse the whiskey-induced stream-of-consciousness going on here, but this clash, between Jacob's team, the West End Terrorists, and the Mongooses (Mongeese?) was one of the most important games I've ever witnessed, for a simple reason.

It wasn't because the Terrorists won 7:zip, though that was great.

It was because Jacob scored his first goal in a competition match. He was so cool. He didn't jump and whoop and have sex with his nearest team mate. He just turned, straight-faced, and ran back to his position for kick off. But I could feel his pride from 50 feet. And I did a bit of whooping for him. I was a proud Dad, and for that matter a proud manager.

Go the Terrorists. I hope I don't get incarcerated for saying that.

Melbourne vs Queensland

I'm not going to say much. It was good football, and the best team won. The Roar were a bit panicky from the beginning and never really looked confident, whereas Victory have a cool momentum about them which is going to be very hard for any team in this competition to beat. If the Roar can't do it, who can?

For Queensland the only joy was the revenge from the Broncos.

My addendum is yet again about the difficulty for a punter to even see A-League games. Once again I showed up at The Muddy Farmer, as it has proved a good venue for me until now. But they didn't have Fox Sport 3, which is a brand new channel, or that's what they said. I wasn't the only one disappointed this time. There was a small group of folk who had planned to first watch the football and then the Rugby. This is in Queensland mind, and surely the idea of a prequel for the rugby final of a good Brisbane vs Melbourne game should even be a bit of a feature. Not so.

It simply had to be their mistake and they obviously didn't try to figure it out. I called a friend who figured out how to get his Fox to the new channel and allowed me to invite myself over.

And yes, as John said, I really should just bite the bullet and get Fox, but it hardly corrodes my point that the lack of free-to-air coverage is seriously undermining the ability for the A-League's following to develop.

Peace.

Perth vs Melbourne

Frustrations of a Football Fan in Oz

There was an evil choice to begin with this afternoon as I really wanted to watch this game but it clashed with the social football in Davies Park. I may as well advertise it here, as all are welcome, all ages, men and women. Every Sunday, 4.30pm in Davies Park, West End (corner of Jane St and Montague Rd). Anyway, I did pop along, but without embarassing myself with an excuse, took off quickly to go to the Clarence, one of my preferred pubs for over five years now, for the game on Fox.

It is the last time I will go to the Clarence for any reason. Fortunately I did arrive just in time to witness Reinaldo score for Manchester United against Reading. It was a beautifully placed long shot, expertly between two defenders and taking the goalie quite by surprise. The result of that match was 1:1.

But the barman point-blank refused to put a screen on the soccer, as the cricket final was on. It wasn't clear even whether it was Fox's decision or his, as he was looking at the program saying, "yeah, it was on here, but it's not on because of the cricket final." I was disappointed, to say the least. Finishing my schooner of Gold, I had enough time to carefully observe that noone was watching the cricket on any of the four screens it was playing. If anything I saw one old couple look up and observe the score once, which is about all you need to do with the cricket as far as I can see.

Anyway, I went home frustrated, wishing I had just gone to the kick-about, and discovered on the Net that in fact the football was on the other Fox channel.

Back in my car I went to The Muddy Farmer in Annerley, closer anyway. Upon walking in the football was already on, on the first screen I saw. Sure they were playing the cricket on other screens (still noone watched, and when some kids came in soon after they turned the main screen over to Jurassic Park). But this pub has a new convert. Especially because I can bring Jacob here too, I'll be coming here for the games in future. The Clarence Corner Hotel can officially go f*** itself.

Anyway, I arrived in the 27th minute and was pleasantly surprised to see a very equal looking competition. Ten minutes later Jacob called me - he was following it on the Net. We both wanted Perth to win just so Melbourne wouldn't leap too far ahead of Brisbane on the table. From his internet perspective, Perth was getting most of the possession and goal chances, but from my perspective I could see that they were beng professionally foiled all the same, so it looked pretty equal.

In the second half Melbourne came on meaning business and I do think the best team won, however many times Perth got the ball up the field. Melbourne's defence was very tight. Possibly Perth's relatively inexperienced goalkeeper let them down a bit as well. At the same time, after such a persistent concerted effort the final goal was also deserved. The result was about right from my view.

The final frustration for the evening, and a reason I am rushing this review, is that half way through the second half I was invited to dinner and single malt whiskey with Jacob's coach and the same's housemate (father of Gary, who was the top goal scorer in Jacob's team). The reason that was frustrating is because I was already half way through the Muddy Farmer's Catch of the Day: Steamed fillet filled with jullienne of vegetable on jasmine rice, topped with a mild tomato and sweet basil salsa, grilled prawns, salad and fries. $17.50. Very nice, but unfortunately also a bit filling.

The whiskey at least will be appreciated. Cheers!