MARCUS: Well gents, I don’t know about you but sometimes in my quiet moments, I think to myself, ‘If you’re not interested in sport, then what else is there?’, and this weekend certainly reinforced that belief. We’ll get in to why in a second, but we’ll start as we always do. Jonty, your best action from the weekend?
JONTY: Doveton star Michael ‘Pickles’ Henry had an outstanding game. I knew I was going to do a story on him, and I thought, I don’t want to put him in best action as well. He did something amazing in the first quarter, then a different player did something in the second and I thought ‘best action’, but Michael Henry kept producing. He had so many moments so I had to put him in. In the fourth quarter he took a screamer in front of the Doves bench. He comes off and says to Michael Cardamone in a serious tone, ‘I’m not feeling well’. Cardamone asked what was wrong and Henry said ‘I’ve got jet-lag.’ They were in raptures. He played an outstanding game and after taking that mark, he kicked it to Daniel Zajac who kicked the sealer for Doveton.
DAVE: He was a superstar, Pickles, in his prime. League best-and-fairest…an absolute jet!
JONTY: He still kicks it as well as ever.
DAVE: How much would he weigh do you reckon…he could ride the cup favourite this year?
JONTY: Probably 55 kilos dripping wet.
DAVE: It hurts me to say this, but my action, the Pakenham Women got beaten in their grand final on Sunday. A young girl called Grace Belloni from Olinda Ferny Creek, she’s 17-years-old and dominated the game and kicked four goals. Jonty, our Coates League expert, is she on the radar?
JONTY: She is, she’s around the Vic Metro mark in a strong Eastern Ranges outfit. Tall forward to watch for in next year’s draft.
DAVE: The Pakenham girls did their best, but Grace was a superstar. She looks the part and plays the part. She just qualified for finals and dominated the last two weeks. She took a couple of really good marks that stood out at that level of footy, you don’t see that every week…a class above.
MARCUS: For my best action, I’m going to cut to the chase. Saturday afternoon will go down as a ‘where were you when?’ moment…when Darcy Parish fired a handball to Elijah Tsatas who just about sealed Essendon’s ninth consecutive win over North Melbourne. It just warms the heart. The tension that was building when the kick hung in the air was massive, but it dropped home.
DAVE: As an Essendon supporter are you hanging your hat on beating West Coast and North Melbourne in the last two weeks?
MARCUS: No, I just hate North Melbourne and was glad to see them knocked-off in the biggest sporting event on Saturday afternoon…(boys laugh).
TILLIES TRIUMPH
MARCUS: There’s few experiences in sport that can build tension quite like a penalty shootout. Jonty, what were your recollections of Saturday’s drama?
JONTY: I watched the first 15 minutes at Doveton, then went home and watched there, so I missed the second part of the first half. The first 20 minutes of the second half I thought we should have scored, then felt felt like we were clinging on with outstanding defence. I wish we made an earlier substitution and brought on some fresher legs, but that shootout, as someone who doesn’t follow soccer as close as other sports, was probably as memorable a moment as I can recall in a professional sporting sense in my life. Mackenzie Arnold, how good was she? It’s easy to look at her saves but to think about her composure, having missed that penalty, but also coming off her line and how much that could have thrown her off, but still make that save, was incredible.
MARCUS: It’s a great point on Arnold because, she makes the save, and then the review says she comes off the line, but then she goes the same side as the penalty taker and saves the next kick. I’m sure she was heartbroken to hit the post with the one that could have sealed the result. As a goalkeeper myself I know that saving penalties can be pretty tough (boys laugh again). Mary Fowler’s bullet penalty into the bottom corner was my highlight. A couple of steps and rocketed it into the back of the net.
DAVE: Wasn’t it ironic that Fowler had so many chances in regular time? And I don’t think she did anything wrong, she wouldn’t have known that that defender was coming from the inside, she just would have thought she was going to score. How unlucky that Mary kicked it straight into her? Even a deflection would have seen it go in for a goal. The shootout overall, it’s right up there with the Cathy Freeman gold medal in Sydney I think. Who knows what’s to come? The Gazette comes out Wednesday and we’ve got the semi-final Wednesday night against the Poms, so we might top that moment. But how good are they? They’ve just captured the whole country. What politician or policy can bring a country together like a big sporting team? People can laugh off the impact of sport, but those people have to look at this World Cup and what it’s doing for the country.
JONTY: I watched a replay of the shootout and Tameka Yallop had to nail her penalty to keep it alive. The France goalkeeper actually came off her line, so if that didn’t go through, we would have had an extra element of drama!
MARCUS: VAR and the R stands for Ralphsmith. (Boys laugh again…Marcus has turned comedian this week).
JONTY: Very anxious Ralphsmith, perhaps. VAR would have been handy on Friday night to save a few cardiac arrests, with Jeremy Cameron’s goals.
MARCUS: Dave, Jonty and I are too young to remember John Aloisi’s penalty in 2005. Were you watching that at the time and do you think it will resonate the same way with the public, or was it as tense?
DAVE: I think this one will resonate more. Aloisi’s was to qualify, this was to reach a semi-final. I think this will stand the test of time. I don’t know about you boys, but I just had this feeling inside me that, even though it looked glum, I just felt there was no way they were going to lose. They were going through all this drama, but destiny was unfolding. There was something telling me that the girls are going to go all the way. I trust them, even amidst all the drama.
MARCUS: Has anyone’s stocks risen as quickly in the space of a fortnight as Tony Gustavsson’s? After the Nigeria game he looked like his head was on a platter.
DAVE: I would love to see his contract and the bonuses for clearing each stage. I think that bloke was smiling for more reasons than just his team winning on Saturday.
JONTY: I think it’s interesting comparing the Socceroos’ run last year to the Matildas. The Socceroos did very well, but I don’t think it’s captured the public the same way the Matildas have.
FOOTY PENALTY SHOOTOUT
MARCUS: As we must do as football media people, let’s apply the concept of a penalty shootout to footy. If our leagues were competing against each other in a shootout, who would be the five we pick from each league to participate? Only one player per team can be chosen. In this context, a penalty kick is 30 metres out from goal, directly in front.
DAVE: Nathan Gardner from Cora Lynn is on 95 goals this year and is going to kick his 100th this week against Kooweerup. Big bull, and his season speaks for himself. Nick Baltas from Inverloch-Kongwak, he doesn’t miss in front of goal. Cam Pedersen is the big star, he’s next, to keep things solid. Likewise, Adam Oxley plays centre-half-back for Tooradin, but you trust his finishing ability. Lastly, Mason McGarrity, the best small forward in West Gippsland Footy. Good luck beating that group boys.
JONTY: We’ll see. Matt Wetering from Springvale Districts. He’d be higher on the list but he’s injured for the rest of the season, so I’m not sure how his injury would affect accuracy. Cam Williamson always makes the most of his opportunities for Doveton, regardless of where he is. Hampton Park’s Tanner Stanton for his experience at number three. Michael Dolan next for Dingley, he kicked 11 goals against St Kilda City last week. And Marc Holt, you can’t look past him, he’s a legend.
MARCUS: My first choice is Will Howe, I don’t think he’d be fazed by the moment, very calm operator. Chayce Black at Wandin gets the nod because his key forwards have been inaccurate as of late, and he’s a beautiful kick. Pakenham’s Matthew Vaiano has got a booming left foot and kicks them from everywhere. Carmine Porcaro at Upwey Tecoma, I haven’t seen too much of him but from what I have seen, he’s kicked crucial goals under pressure, as he did against Pakenham. And last is Myles Wareham, arguably the best set shot in the competition and won the goal kicking in Division One last year.
GREEN AND GOLD GLORY
MARCUS: In the last 12 months, our main national teams have had a pretty incredible run. World Test Championship, Women’s T20 World Cup, Netball World Cup, the Socceroos equalled their best ever World Cup run in Qatar, and the Matildas are reaching new heights. Next week, the FIBA Basketball World Cup kicks off, so the Boomers will be exciting to watch there. You couldn’t ask for much more than what the teams are currently delivering. So I thought it would be fun to rank the national teams, based on what it would mean to you, personally, to see them achieve the pinnacle of their sport.
JONTY: 1: Men’s Test team winning the Ashes. Unfortunately the World Test Championship doesn’t have quite the same cut-through. 2: Matildas after jumping on the bandwagon in the last month. 3: Women’s cricketers. 4: Boomers. 5: Diamonds. 6: Socceroos.
DAVE: I’m going to go lowest to highest and build anticipation. 6: Women’s cricket. It’s almost a fait accompli for them, they win all the time. 5: Boomers. 4: The Diamonds. I feel sorry for them because they’ve been overshadowed by the Tillies, even though they just won the World Cup. They haven’t got the attention they deserved, and I love my netball. 3: The Test team. Now, I’m not a massive soccer fan, so I can’t believe I’ve got them at one and two, but seeing what they’ve done for the whole community, they’ve brought the whole country together. So Socceroos at two, and the Tillies at one.
MARCUS: We’ve got the same one and two, but I’ve got the Matildas at two. The Socceroos are almost must-watch viewing for me. Part of that is because we don’t see them very often compared to the Test side, and what they did last year was incredible. When they’re up-and-running, the way they galvanise the country is on another level. 3: Boomers, in a similar vain to the Socceroos in that they’ll always be underdogs. The Bronze medal game in Tokyo was super emotional with Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, all those guys. 4: Women’s cricket team, as a pillar of professionalism. 5: Diamonds. 6: Test team. They get the highest exposure of all the sides we’ve ranked, and they just won the World Test Championship but it didn’t cut through.
JONTY: You have made me really question my choices, I will give you that.
