Adelaide 9.15 (69) lost to Richmond 10.19 (79)
Can someone who has visited the AFL LadderPredictor twice already today claim he doesn’t care where his team finishes? Not credibly, no.
I did not believe we could beat the Crows. I did not dare hope. But I was looking forward to this game more than any since the Carlton final last year (although that was hope mixed with fear and loathing, as it was Carlton and I half expected what eventuated).
Of course, being 4 goals up on Saturday night meant nothing; I still felt we were going to cough it up once the Adelaide A-graders started getting involved. Nothing in the first half from Sloan, Tex, Betts and Dangerfield – those guys were going to wake up and roll us, I thought.
We were still in the box seat when Mackay was injured. Why the %$#^& does a motorised gurney have to drive around the boundary like its a lap of honour? For God’s sake, point the thing at the medical room and floor it – get off. For the sake of the injured player and the team that had the momentum when the injury happens, in this case, the prone-to-nerves Tiges. Cue a rapid Crows fightback and suddenly we were only 3 points up and looking like we had done scoring for the night.
Once the kids go to bed at half time I click into serious mode, and I had finished the cider supplies and was riding the TV pretty hard by this stage. The goal review was farcical; is the 4th umpire the only person in Australia who gets Ch7’s footy in HD? What possible flicker of a pixel did he pick up to think that ball touched the padding? Only two people in the country thought that was a point; the video ump and Rhett Bartlett (who I am prepared to believe has hereditary superpowers). As Sloan pumped another one through moments later I don’t think it made much difference to the swing of the pendulum in the game. Even before we went behind I had surrendered the four points.
But – although the Tigers kicked 1.9 in that harrowing 3rd quarter, there was really only Deledio’s shot from about 25m that you could call a howler.
I haven’t watched back the last quarter – at the time it was just a shapeless frenzy, until Flash Gordon snapped beautifully to put us in front. Then we did a new trick – we iced the clock with skill and confidence! I love it. Dusty maybe pushed the hapless young Crow in the back to kick the sealer but I didn’t think so at the time. I just imagined Dugald going into raptures about his hips. Dugald ♥ Dusty’s hips – I am going to carve that into a tree outside Punt Road.
So we won, and now I am all about the AFL ladder predictor. I HONESTLY DON’T MIND MISSING THE FINALS as long as we give 100% against Saints and Swans. I wish there was an AFL Turn Up To Play Predictor. My pass marks (not that I care about %, see below) are (i) win every quarter against the Saints and (ii) be in with a genuine chance against the Swans going into the last quarter. Not a “Bruce feels like a couple of quick ones could relight the fire” chance; a genuine chance.
Like a surprising number of our fellow travellers here at TTBB and on Twitter, I find footy maths to be good fun; the combs and perms of the last few rounds are always a good workout for the brain. To my eyes, our percentage is irrelevant. No-one can catch us and we can’t reasonably catch Essendon, the only team in cooee of our %. A 2% swing is bloody hard to achieve at this end of the season.
It’s just occurred to me that after the shock and dismay of the Tatyoon Tiger’s early season-ending injury, we have actually had a blesséd run. Our 2013 B&F has only managed 10 games, and his leadership has been missed. But the official injury list now is those two, plus a couple of idiots each with a case of sore buttocks from sitting on the pine for an extended period after snotting a bloke who wasn’t looking. And then hopefully getting their arses kicked by everyone from Brendon down to the bootstudder.
Er, as I was saying, we have a very healthy list and it ALL GOES WELL FOR THE FUTURE. Go Tiges.