Swan Song

And I don't mean "Cheer, cheer the red and the white ..." -- I'm being clever about them coming oh-so-close-but-yet-oh-so-far from winning the AFL premiereship yesterday.

Well done to West Coast. I concede that they played a much better game throughout the entire match. Sydney really came back hard in that last half especially, but it simply wasn't enough to overtake the Eagles. That goal-for-goal business in the final quarter actually had me cheering and applauding sport on television!! (That has never happened before in my life - ever! Watching the match with fifteen other people kinda helps to get carried away with the emotion, though. And Wifey, bless her, was all gung-ho about it as well. Must be the hormones.)



Credit where credit's due:
The Eagles bested the Swans yesterday.
Another feather in their cap.

IMHO, and please understand that I'm not whinging or complaining or making excuses (because I readily admit that the better team won on the day), the problem Sydney faced was half-butterfingers and half-bad decisions by the umpires.

I'm not looking for lengthy debate on the matter (but go ahead if you want to argue in the short term, *sigh*), and I realise Sydney got a free kick late in the game that was perhaps questionable, but the amount of frees and fifties that should have been paid to Sydney throughout the rest of the game that weren't was incredible.

I'm not one to slag on the umpires - they do an impressively stressful job and have to go by what they see (them's the rules), so I'm not attacking them for their decisions, but it would have been nice to see some consistency with the way each team was given free kicks and fifty metre penalties, rather than what seemed like a very biased slant towards the Eagles for most of the game.

But all that being said, it was a ripper of a game and to be beaten by one point (although painful) at least shows how close the teams were pitted against each other. Now if only Sydney hadn't had such an awwwwwwwful first quarter in particular, they might not have run away from us. But that's how it goes. I'm sure that if the score was the other way around, I wouldn't be arguing (and I'm not arguing now, either), so well done to the Eagles and bring on 2007.


PS - If that still sounds smug, I don't know how to please some people! :)

PPS - I nearly forgot ... well done to Colls Bolls for a great performance at the Grand Final! Yes, I spotted you, you clever thing, and I shouted out who you were (and presumably still are) to all my gathered friends. How exciting! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a real Grand Final performer in our midst!


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