Friday night saw us hosting the entire staff of KCGM in what has become our traditional end of season fixture. It has long been the practice in these games that any Masters players who have been recruited from KCGM cross the floor and play for them; on the form shown on Tuesday night when the KCGM mob joined us for training this was looking ominous! Take Brodie, Jet-Li, Jonesy and, on recent form, Les from our ranks and we start to thin out very rapidly! It was with some relief that when I arrived at the ground I saw all of our KCGM employed Master’s players suited up in the Red, black & white; the good news continued when Riggas indicated he wanted to coach for the night. I’m taking this as a nomination for the position for next season and hereby second it.. no AGM required! It also meant that, with the weather closing in and the staples in my leg in danger of rusting, I was able to take shelter in the coach’s box!
Numbers were excellent and at any one time we had six on the bench; truth be known, the rain was so heavy for most of the night that we couldn’t see most of the players to count them; we reckoned if we still had our six on the bench, we probably had the right numbers on the paddock. We put Nobby down at full-forward because he was carrying bit of an injury… not such an injury that he couldn’t scissor kick the first goal over his head from a pack thirty metres out, or run out the entire game at full tilt, but definitely not able to play in the back line…
We also welcomed back one of our prodigal sons in big Zane Padman on his return from Canadia (to quote Budgie-Boy).. probably wasn’t the night to be trying to find your touch after not handling a footy for four months.
The KCGM games have always been well contested affairs with some excellent footy played and this was no exception; the slippery conditions made ball handling very difficult and as a consequence there were plenty of packs formed but the desperation shown at the bottom of the packs would have made this game one of the most hotly contested games we’ve played all year. One of the KCGM players must have still had his earplugs in when the ‘no knees in the contest’ rule was explained but other than that it was good hard contested footy and looked like great fun.
Porky Ryan enjoyed the return to Master’s colours and after the quarter time break and a promotion from half back to half forward declared “in the forward line now boys; they’ve seen my POTENTIAL”… Toxic was having none of it and quickly chimed in with “potential for heart attack”. None of this was lost on Pavy who promised to put Tox in the votes for the comment!
I had two standout highlights!
The first was Les Hall’s continued good form; on a night when conditions made it nearly impossible to stand and completely impossible to grab the ball, Les has made the play of the day (OK, it was night but you get the idea). On a hard lead out from full forward he’s plucked a beautiful one grab mark out of no-where. The rotations off the bench were thick and fast but everyone who came to the bench was saying “Did you see Les take that mark?” or words to that effect. It was magnificent! The fairytale was completed when from about 40 metres out on a bit of an angle he’s put the subsequent kick straight through the big sticks, post high! Awesome! He was also a bit stiff not to snap a goal a little later in the game when he gathered a loose ball about forty out and in front, but hit the post… I was down there watching the cricket the next day and the post was still quivering..
My other highlight was Brett’s ‘not-mark’… Swirling winds, driving rain, a slippery ball and a not perfect kick all conspired against him but it was no less funny as a result.. he got wrong footed and the footy hit him flush on the dial! For the briefest moment he had a halo of spray backlit by one of the lighting towers… can you remember the ‘Flashdance’ film clip from the eighties? Well, it was nothing like that…
Joey Jet-Li did a ‘Reverse Johnno’ – played two quarters at full forward and got his only touch at full back… if that ain’t kick chasing, I don’t know what is!
Best players? No idea! Grommet and Porky got heaps of it, Aids was everywhere and Rosco was like a junkyard dog at the bottom of the packs and probably my ‘Best on’, but apologies if I’ve missed another standout but most of the game was played on the far wing (& don’t give me any crap about the strong crosswind; you blokes were trying to get out of range so you couldn’t hear Riggas when he tried to drag you! You need to get a bit further than that to not hear Riggas when he yells… Caronie Dam might nearly do it).

As always with the KCGM games, a great game, well attended and very enjoyable for all involved; it was only a shame that the weather put a dampener on it as I think a lot of parents dragged their kids home for a hot bath not long after the game finished.
Well done to Pavy and Bully on the whistles and to Joey and co for the organization.

Cheers

Kanga