..Said Left Hand Fred
I know it's drastic. Perhaps old fashioned. Not in tune with the modern way of nurturing, encouraging, building self-confidence, five year plans. All of the spin which covers poor performance. But could I just invoke it once this year. Respectfully. Quietly in the back of the dressing room with the playing group. It won't take long and it may get results. Won't even raise my voice.
Please look away now if you are easily offended.
Good thank you. F me dead, you blokes kiddin' or what?
There, easily done. Just needed to ask the question. Is there any chance of a red-hot go? Any danger of rousing those fragile egos, arousing, to a level whereby you might actually like to inflict some pain upon the opposition. Have a crack. Cause a ruction. I know, I know, just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you. Life can be unfair. Unforgiving. Then again you are on a fair whack and you're doing diddly squat.
It's been mentioned before. If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. It's been established your mind is empty its just the second part we are trying to work on. Being ready, being open.
You've been pampered through the system since the under 14's. Got your pocket pissed in so many times you feel like a shop front in Chapel Street. That could be a good career option. God knows we need more shop fronts.
Maybe we could trawl through the archives for inspirational messages. Was it General Westmoreland 'We met the enemy and he was us.' Maybe you just saw his reflection while you were taking a slash. Fixing your hair. Watching the big screen to see how you looked. That'd be two possessions then wouldn't it and three if they replay it.
Ah, but fickleness is a fickle thing. The Cats remember that. Maybe that's the driver. None could creep in this week. It's the unfurling at the Cattery. A love-in. The Demons are spaseratas and write your own ticket, but funnily enough they've got form down there. Drew the last time they played there, won the time before that. Got done by fourteen points the previous visit. Got nigh on twelve goals start this time at the line.
The last time I remember such a margin was Fitzroy in its death throes playing Carlton. We were in the Shaky Coral Isles and the margin was similarly out around the seventy-mark start for the Royboys. Couple of Blue boys fancied a punt and got on the Roys at the margin. Couldn't happen these days but it did then and the Blues still played like world-beaters and flogged them but the margin came in at a satisfactory and respectable, unquestionable, sixty something points. Sixty-three to be exact.
All parties satisfied and it might have been just luck.
Where there is an open mind there will always be a frontier. Just a matter of getting there first or getting a good spot in the queue. They are a contrast in ways Geelong and Melbourne. Geelong 'stuck', looked at the whole and took their decisions from there. Did it as a group. A fragile, fractured group at the time, openly derided for frivolously squandering talent. Only two seasons ago. Won the night flag and celebrated. In style with two thumping victories in rounds one and two of season 2006 and then the Hawks came down to Kardinia Park and did a job on them as rank outsiders and the season turned to muck. But they learnt from it. They'd had forty odd years of learning. They've learnt it good.
The Dees stayed loyal to an ageing bunch of talented players of good character who just couldn't quite cut the mustard. There has always been a fault line there. Flying one minute, lose seven in a row the next. Then fly again. But never high enough. The coach took the rap. The ten-year coach, who reinvented himself and was open to change was sent packing. The ten-year players retained. Perhaps the cosy relationship did have to be severed, altered, but possibly they cut off the wrong bit.
To look through the teams that lined up in when these two teams clashed in round 21, 2006, a majority of the players are still there. The game was a draw. At season's end Melbourne finished in the finals with 13 wins; Geelong with 10 wins was club in crisis. Perhaps mainly because of the high pre-season and historical expectations.
Both clubs took something out of the season. One a degree of satisfaction that they were around the mark. The other a scorching self-examination that left them with the determination to make a mark. Their mark. Their expectation.
Twelve goals start is the legacy in a season and a bit.
One determined to deserve success. The other assumed they'd achieve it. It's the **** me dead clause and not too many clubs want to invoke it.
Could mean their job and if its hard to get your snout in the trough, it's a bloody sight harder to take it out.
The beauty of the five year plan.
(Unfortunately not mine, check it out here:
www.sportsbet.com.au/ )
forgive my ignorance but at first i thought goodbrew and elmo sounded "drunk" and as is was just bantering away...your poem sounds deep, native dialect mixed with oz lingo
am dead on this one...
or had too much to drink
