Light in August

Great win and all that but let’s get this out of the way first:

We remain a (slim) chance to play finals. Two months after being friendless and stranded equal bottom of the ladder; by my maths (which year 10 mathematics teacher Mr Hall will tell you is far from flash), we win all three and we’d be unlucky to miss.

Basically, the simplest cheat sheet I can come up with for us to make it is:

• We beat Adelaide, St Kilda and Sydney.
• Essendon beats West Coast this week.
• North beats Adelaide in round 22.
• Hawthorn beats Collingwood in round 23.

The most unlikely of those occurrences is us beating Sydney at home, but given that a) they may already have top two locked and b) they’re at least a three goal worse team at Homebush compared to the SCG, the planets may align.

Adelaide opening a can on Brisbane wasn’t ideal, but West Coast did the right thing by us (and themselves) by beating Collingwood. Even though West Coast are a competitor for a position, if Collingwood had won there would only have been one ‘live’ spot available.

It’s nice to dream.

First up, Hardwick deserves more credit than he is getting for turning this around.

He tinkered but stuck the course when plenty (my hand is up) doubted he had it in him. We all want to see McBean, Lennon and McDonough but put simply: we don’t beat Essendon if those three play instead of Gordon, Thomas and Griffiths. I still think we are two recent players short in the coaching box, so am encouraged by the news we are into Lenny Hayes for next year but given the majority of our off season time and resources went towards establishing the VFL team at a time and we lost Leppitsch and Campbell late in the piece, then this is understandable and turn aroundable for 2015. A coaching team of Hardwick, Hayes and Choco warms the cockles. 

Big stages and good oppositions have not been our friend. Rather than sneaking a big scalp mid year, we took down Essendon when they had everything to play for. If they had of won they wouldn’t be in this scrap for the eight. And, execution inside 50 aside it wasn’t as if they played badly. Heppell played as good as you can in a losing team, Zaharakis’ second half was top shelf, Hooker took the honours against Jack, Winderlich threatened all night and Goddard got 24 possessions and wasted only two of them.

My favourite part of the win is that it didn’t come down to Cotchin, Lids, Dusty and Riewoldt. None of whom (spoiler) were in my top five players. Miles was just sensational, especially early. Chaplin quickly realised that he had Daniher’s measure and helped Rance to cover Carlisle and conducted clean up projects all night. Brandon Ellis’ amazing season for a third year player continues. Griff was the hard leading target we all so desperately want him to be and few better eight possession games than Gordon’s spring to mind. I could go on.

In a game of surges, we weathered their run early, minimised the damage and then made the most of it when we were up and about.

Last year we got under the skin of other teams. That’s come back of late but on Friday night we did it without assaulting anyone, which is to be encouraged. Goddard proper filthied up and did little to negate my belief that he was exposed to lead too much during his childhood when he kept trying to kick it out when the umpire had called time on for the blood rule, which triggered this simple but brilliant tweet. Not to be outdone, Jake ‘you might have heard about me, I kicked eight goals against the Bulldogs’ Carlisle gave away a 100 metre penalty that resulted in a goal to Bachar, who buried it but otherwise had a filthy evening.

Speaking of Moneyball (I wasn’t but it’s fun anyway), Nathan Gordon’s set shot is my highlight. Dempsey made him earn a mark or a free kick (not sure which) and as a fringe player who’d just been bumped into next week, he had every excuse to miss, but he didn’t. And in doing so he made me look like a fool which is to be encouraged, and completely changed the momentum of the game at a time when they were all over us.

There are many, many more examples of which I could go into more detail: Lids playing through a heavy tag, Dusty’s goal in the third quarter, Griff playing with a busted hand, Titch’s last quarter (my god), Grigg getting busy, Matt Thomas’ clearance work in the first half, Newy’s pin point inside 50’s and big Ivan battling it out against one of the best rucks in the competition before sealing it after the siren.

It was all just so very good and fun to watch, and even if we miss out there is enough to build on for next year which is a pleasant change from the blow it all up and start again glumness that had taken over not all that long ago.

Votes

5: Anthony Miles

4: Troy Chaplin

3: Shane Edwards

2: Brandon Ellis

1: Ivan Maric

Unlucky: Nearly everyone but especially Cotchin, Deledio, Gordon and Petterd.

Leaderboards

The Benny

34: Brandon Ellis

27: Dustin Martin

26: Trent Cotchin

20: Jack Riewoldt

18: Alex Rance

15: Brett Deledio

14: David Astbury

13: Shaun Hampson and Anthony Miles

11: Bachar Houli, Shane Edwards and Ricky Petterd

10: Daniel Jackson

7: Troy Chaplin

6: Steven Morris, Matt Thomas and Ty Vickery

5: Nathan Foley

4: Sam Lloyd, Dylan Grimes, Ivan Maric and Shaun Grigg

2: Nick Vlastuin, Nathan Foley and Chris Newman

1: Ben Griffiths, Orren Stephenson, Matthew Dea and Ben Lennon

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award

13: Shaun Hampson and Anthony Miles

11: Bachar Houli and Ricky Petterd

7: Troy Chaplin

6: Matt Thomas

4: Shaun Grigg and Ivan Maric

1: Orren Stephenson

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player

4: Sam Lloyd

1: Ben Lennon

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot

11: Bachar Houli

7: Troy Chaplin

4: Shaun Grigg

Greg Tivendale Rookie Medal

13: Anthony Miles

6: Matt Thomas

1: Orren Stephenson

Championship Belt:

Incumbent	Winner	Streak	Wins
NA	Cotchin	1	1
Cotchin	Astbury	1	1
Astbury	Riewoldt	1	1
Riewoldt	Astbury	1	2
Astbury	Petterd	1	1
Petterd	Ellis	1	1
Ellis	Conca	1	1
Conca	Martin	1	1
Martin	Riewoldt	1	2
Riewoldt	Martin	1	2
Martin	Martin	2	3
Martin	Miles	1	1
Miles	Martin	1	4
Martin	Cotchin	1	2
Cotchin	Rance	1	1
Rance	Houli	1	1
Houli	Deledio	1	1
Deledio	Deledio	2	2
Deledio	Miles	1	2