Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, the WA Masters Country Carnival of 2014 has been run and won and while for the first time in my memory, we haven’t managed to salute the judges in any of our games, a great time was had by all.
The first game was against Busselton on a ground the size of a postage stamp. Side was something like;
FF – Pav, Bondy, Cobber
HF – Brett, Kanga, Deano
C – Aids, Gav, Rosco
HB – Cobber Jnr, Chappy, Blake
FB – Griffo, Muzz, Hally
Foll; – Colonel, Wang, Jet-Li
Pine – Frysie, Dave Harley, Wolfie
Small grounds as a rule are not very forgiving if your skills aren’t pinpoint accurate and sad to say, ours weren’t! The ground and as a consequence, the ball, was pretty slippery and we continually short passed; when you are trying to thread the needle in such a crowd it was always going to turn pear-shaped.. We did manage to get on the board a few times, especially in the second half but I reckon they probably pipped us when they kicked a couple of late goals.. Wang was outstanding, Rosco, Aids, Gav Huntley and Joey Jet-Li were awesome, The Colonel did a cracking job in the ruck and Muzza, who was playing on a bloke head and shoulders taller and about 30 kgs heavier was also in the mix, even if his opponent did get a couple of late goals. We lost Bondy to a quad injury early and Dave Harley stepped up to the plate; he needed to have a couple of kicks to blow out the cobwebs but the marking was spot on from the get-go and he was a solid target all day. Frysie also presented a good target up forward and has a pretty safe pair of hands.
The second game was against Dalyellup… I can’t sugar coat it, we got beaten up! It was obvious from Bully’s first umpiring decision when he pinged a bloke for breaking the second tackle that they play under different rules than us.. if that wasn’t obvious, the sling tackle that had me slammed through the earth’s crust (and in the process, wrestling the ‘Snickers’ crown off Muzz for the spray I then delivered) probably reinforced the point, the stop marks in my back from when the same bloke later took a screamer over me just added insult to injury. By the end of it most of us had stories of the back-handers, scragging, etc. and Wang was out with a shoulder injury before half time. At one stage one of their blokes gave away a free kick and then with his bottom lip dragging on the ground rolled to ball back to (I think?!) Dave, I’m not sure if anything was said but Bully awarded 15 metre penalty which resulted in a certain goal. Should have seen this bloke?! “Don’t get off your bike Precious, I’ll pick up your pump!”
Brett and Blake battled hard against the odds as they had done all day and we did manage a couple of goals in the second but they’d smashed us in the centre and well and truly got the jump on us by then. It is a long time since I’ve come off a footy field that sore and I reckon I had a few mates..
In the layoff before our final game it was confirmed that Wang’s shoulder was ‘Jimmy Krakouered’ and while he was done for the day, all was not lost; Gav had done a bit of recruiting and we still had about four on the bench. Bart apparently lives just around the corner and when given the option of bogging out his shed or playing footy he (after making sure ‘Her Indoors’ was looking the other way) grabbed his boots and put his hand up – brilliant!
Our final game was scheduled for the main ground which after so much recent rain appeared to have grown… a lot! We were lining up against Bunbury and we were all struggling a bit. Griffo was sore and Muzz and Hally had battled hard all day so I moved them up to the full forward line for a chop out but other than that the line-up was not too different from the first game.
As it turns out, the final game was far and away our best and the most enjoyable game! We relished the open spaces, all managed to extract a bit more run out of our legs and we worked really hard to lock the ball in our forward line. While the Bunbury boys would have got the better of us, they played in great spirit and it was good fun.
Sarg in his only game for us was a great pick-up, marshalling the troops and giving us a bit of voice around the packs, Rosco was the standout; he must have run about 15kms and only blotted his copybook when he laughed out loud at me when I yelled out for my shot on goal to be shepherded through (Kicked from about 40 out, it hit the base of the pack about 10 or 15 metres out… Hmm.. probably a fair call Rosco?!)
The game must have looked too much like fun because after finding the secret compartment in the bottom of Aids Lally’s footy bag, Wang has trotted onto the paddock; he was so full of pills that his eyes were like two piss holes in the snow and he rattled when he ran! He promptly drove his bad shoulder into a massive tackle to pick up a ‘holding the ball decision’.. the poor bloke he hit was last seen wandering the Hayden Ballentyne Wing, holding his head and wondering what Carmen Miranda was doing in Mandurah and why had she hit him over the head with her maracas?
Chappy took until the last game to actually start hitting up his own team mates.. prior to that he’d been making new friends with all the opposition players by hand passing to them, or in the case of one memorable kickout from full back, drilling a pass to an opposition player, directly in front, 15.05 metres from goal! (& what is wrong with going in straight lines when you’re on your own and in the clear? Fair Dinkum, more U-turns than a mixo rabbit! Inner ear infection perhaps Chappy?..). the good news is that with all his new friends he was able to pick up a couple of extra games after we were done… I hope he carried some of the new found form into the extra games.
Special mention must be given to the Perth blokes who suited up for us; Dave Harley, Griffo, Cobber Jnr and Gav are family, are always great to catch up with and are always welcome additions to a footy side but the other blokes who stepped up in Wolfie, Frysie, Bart, Griffo’s young bloke Mick and Sarg were the difference between us having an enjoyable carnival or being undermanned and being flogged from pillar to post all day.. Thanks again Fellas; very much appreciated!
Great also to have Lofty and Dick down to support us; you always feel like you’re doing something right when the people who built the club continue to support us so thank you too.
Well done Bully who manned the whistle all day and did a great job.. We appreciate it even if Dalyellup didn’t.
Bondy came into the carnival carrying a bit of a niggle so didn’t get much game time but he manned the interchange and did a great job making sure everyone got a decent crack at it.
Bomber rolled up about midday looking resplendent and refreshed and proceeded to do buggerall in his role as team manager but at least he was making more sense than he had the previous night.
Well done to me for getting through three games of a carnival, even if the only kick I got was in the kidneys..
‘Allstars’ were Colonel for his tireless work in the ruck across three games and Muzz for doing a great job down at fullback against bigger opponents and more than holding his own.
Special honourable mention to Wang (more rattles than a Toorak Toddler when he came back on but a great effort).
Also in the mix were Rosco, Gav, Aids, Joey and Griffo and Deano who was our principle goal scorer all day.
All in all an excellent carnival with the only real disappointment being Pavy’s failure to improve on his ‘play on, slam home a point, soccer style celebration’ of last year! (But there is always next year Pav, and we have faith in you!)
Cheers
Kanga