Blog Day 184 - 25 September 2020

Welcome to another virus free Friday, my word they are coming around quickly.

This should have been one of the biggest weekends in Melbourne's sporting calendar as it should have been grand final weekend.  Today, Friday, would have been a public holiday with the streets alive with supporters dressed in their club colours flocking into the city for the grand final parade.  Those of us not attending the game would normally be making plans for game day barbecues or pies and hot dogs in front of the telly.  Well, this year will certainly be different.

I have only ever been to one VFL/AFL grand final and that was sometime in the 70's when I had a standing room ticket at the back of the old Southern Stand.  I can't even remember who was playing.

I can vividly recall one other VFL grand final. It was 1966 grand final when St Kilda beat Collingwood by a point.  I was actually at the NWFU grand final at West Park in Burnie in Tassie.  I can't recall who they beat but the Burnie Tigers won the flag that day.  The funny thing was that when the local game finished, the last few minutes of the VFL game was played over the loudspeakers at the ground and nobody left the ground everybody stayed there to listen to the end of the VFL game.  At the time St Kilda had a large following on the north west coast of Tasmania due to people like Darrel Baldock and other Tasmanians playing for them.  I reckon the St Kilda win was as popular as the Burnie win was at West Park that day.

There was another funny football story that occurred at the West Park oval.  It was around the same time, maybe a year or two later when another local team, Wynyard I think, was playing a southern team for the state title.  At the final siren Wynyard led by one point and an opposition player had marked the ball right in front of goal, so a point would have drawn the game and a goal would have handed the state title to the southern team.  So what did the Wynyard supporters do?  They streamed onto the ground and pulled up the goal posts and removed them from the ground so the opposition player couldn't have his kick and Wynyard retained the lead.  I think that the game was declared a "no game" and the state title wasn't awarded that year.

And to add insult to injury the story is that the Wynyard supporters took the goal posts home with them on the train.

The AFL is looking for ways to liven up the game, maybe with 5 minutes to play in the last quarter each team could have say 20 selected supporters allowed onto the ground and whilst the game is going on the supporters could try and steal the other team's goal posts.  As an idea it needs a bit of work but it would certainly liven things up. 

I  know some St Kilda supporters who are somewhat disappointed that their first finals appearances in something like 200 years will be played interstate.  And if by some unexplained quirk of fate St Kilda actually got into the grand final it will be played interstate for the first time ever with local supporters unable to attend.  

Sad to hear of the cricketer Dean Jones passing away of a heart attack in India overnight.  Jones was selected for the Australian test team under Alan Border (Captain Grumpy) and was one of the cricketers who was instrumental in the recovery of Australian cricket after the World Series debacle.  His score of 210 runs in the heat and humidity of Madras in India in 1986 was the stuff of cricketing legend.  After his innings he was so dehydrated he had to be placed on an intravenous drip.

Somewhere along the way Jones offended the cricketing gods of the ACB and his test career was cut short although he continued playing in ODI games.  He then moved into commentating, writing for the press and coaching.  He was opinionated (who isn't) with strong views about the game that put some in the game offside.  I think that he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder possibly about the way he was treated by the cricketing establishment but I reckon that he had mellowed a little over the past few years.  Sad to see another of the characters of the game go, joining David Hookes and Max (Tangles) Walker.

Look at me writing about sporting stuff, wouldn't believe it would you.

Update of figures and things tomorrow.