Round 14 v Wet Toast at Carrara

I came to the couch with a fair amount of trepidation about this one. The Tiges have been mainly winning but never looking entirely convincing. And Wet Toast has been the form team of the competition. So I figured that this encounter would really be the test of whether our Tiges were timing a run of best form for the business end of the season or whether we were just kidding ourselves. Many of the games I’ve watched this year have been frustrating spectacles. Our boys have often played in fits and starts, without great fluency and polish. Also, I’ve frequently had cause to wonder why it’s apparently so bloody difficult to kick the ball between those big sticks (see useful diagram attached).

So, right from the first bounce, this game was a pleasurable revelation. The Tigers played with a sustained confidence and intensity that, to my eye, far exceeded anything produced in earlier games. We seemed to have the game predominantly on our terms, so that the blue-and-yellow blokes were frequently corralled, harassed and forced to chase their tails. It was a beautiful thing to behold. Also, for the first time in ages, we somehow managed to kick goals.

The highlights of course were Dusty’s outrageous curler launched from the disused pie-stand somewhere beyond the right-hand forward pocket and then, later, big Noah’s long, long bomb from the centre square. Approaching the end of the game, I was amazed to note that we’d managed to kick 14 goals and only three behinds. I would have sustained this amazement right to the finish if freckly Jack hadn’t momentarily forgotten the old adage that there’s no ‘i’ in ‘team’ and butchered a straightforward close-range shot with a needless bit of smart-arsery.

Overall though, this performance begs the question: why can’t we kick at goal with this level of proficiency every week? Let’s hope that this might be the game that banishes the yips from our collective boot!

Aside from all the above, these are the things I most appreciated:

• Noah Balta playing with such flair and authority (even if this did include his inadvertent sinking of a knee into Josh Kennedy’s temple early in the game);
• Our two-prong ruck division largely nullifying the brilliance of big Nic Nat;
• Our tall blokes in the forward line working hard to frequently bring the ball to ground, so that our smaller blokes could pounce on the crumbs and those acclaimed Wet Toast defenders never got to dictate terms;
• Cotch’s manic efforts to win the contested ball at the centre bounce and around the stoppages;
• Fridge Graham’s frequent and imposing efforts to chase, tackle and extract the ball from traffic.

Mainly though I thought we just looked like a bloody good team, with everyone meshing together to become a force greater than the sum of its parts. For the first time in this weird year of football, I’m prepared to believe that our team is a genuine chance to go all the way. But of course, we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves…

Benny Votes

5. Noah Balta
4. Trent Cotchin
3. Jack Graham
2. Bachar Houli
1. Dustin Martin

Leaderboard
26: Martin
22: Bolton
14: Vlastuin
13: Short, Grimes
12: Balta
11: Cotchin
10: Lambert
9: Baker, McIntosh
7: Prestia, Riewoldt, Graham
6: Soldo
5: Higgins, Eggmolesse-Smith, Chol, Houli
4: Caddy
3: Lynch
2: Pickett
1: Castagna, Aarts