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ADDED SUNDAY 01/06/2008 Originally my plans were to attend the Schoolboy Championships at Northgate to check on the progress of the Downs boys. I hear Regional College lad Ellis Jensen, from Concordia College has stepped up to the mark, as I expected he would, and as I told people he would. However, dire weather predictions for Brisbane and that Super 14 final at 5:30pm kept me at home. I had a look at a little Under 12 rugby up at the Grammar Junior Carnival, and ran into a couple of local legends of the game. One I haven't see for a while, a quietly spoken gentleman that I went to school with, and a sporting freak, Steve Sweeney. This guy played in the TGS first XV at age 15, in the second row, at over 100 kilos as a boy, and excelled, and played the next two years at inside centre, the last as captain. But he could run, he could jump, and he could play cricket. Some memorable stories about Sween and cricket. He was a casual cricketer and enjoyed playing in the 4th XI. These guys had a few casuals and would go out and score 4 for 435 or so off their 30 odd overs and bowl the other side out for 30 and 40. When they played on Kent Oval, a small TGS oval, balls were travelling everywhere, a long way from the oval. Anyway, and this is not as the story goes, this is true story, Sween was invited down to have a hit in the nets for the first one particular day. Of course the whole school went to watch as Sween smacked the 1st XI bowlers all over the park before heading off saying he didn't want to play any level other than the 4ths. Steve went on to play first grade for Souths in Brisbane and represented Qld Under 19 before travel took him overseas for many years. He is a very good coach and teacher and is taking up doing some coaching with the TGS 16A's. That will be awesome for them. The other, also a very, very good coach, and a bit of a lark, ex Bears and Uni player, Qld B, Redcliffe A Grade in the days of Shaw, Pedro Civonacieva (senior) and outright violence is now coach of the Bears Under 20, has coached A grade at all levels up here. Jacko was also playing first grade in Brisbane at 18 or 19, and tells many stories of violence, but we might relay them later in an "I remember series" in the off season. Jacko is also coaching the Bears Under 12 side, that contains giant lad, Matt Chong Nee, who must be close to 100 kilos, at least 85 in any case. I am told Michael "Dillo" Dillon was there somewhere too. I am always on the lookout for sly shots from those Goondi blokes! From TGS I headed up to Heritage Oval to have a look at the Bears vs University Under 20's. A few kids I have coached are playing there, Mitch Logan who I have rated locally as the best thinker in the game locally since he was about 9, my thoughts have not changed after yesterday, and of course Gary "The Dark Shark" Chong Nee. It was a stop start affair, cynical affair, well cynical from one side, in a match played in a bit of drizzle, some sunshine, and quite high winds. There are a number of guys playing positions that they are not used to, or haven't played before. It was a game Uni was expected, apparently to win easily, and by alot. Unfortunately no one told the Bears, and Uni finished up playing against themselves. The penalty count must have been in the vicinity of 40 to 5 against Uni. There were also a number of yellow cards against Uni. I thought the ref erred really badly. I saw at least 6 red card offences, and they were against two players only, in fact it is a long time since I have seen a side perform in a fashion like this. Someone needs to take a long hard look at attitudes, philosophies and mindsets here. Uni were rudderless until Mitch Logan moved to 10, got them on the front foot, used the wind thoughtfully rather than tried to work against it, and used the footy with purpose. Mitch always seems to turn up at the right place at the right time. He is the consummate thinking footballer. For the Bears, I liked their hammer work off slow ball, and their ability to recognize, generally when to spread away from the hammer situations. I would like to see them stay on their feet for longer as they punch through contact, but Uni struggled to defend this simple but effective play off slow ball. Alex McKenzie was very strong at the lineout for the Bears. The Bears were leading by 15 to 7, Uni fought back to 15 to 14 on the back of Mitch Logan's guidance from 10, when he moved there, but nothing I saw yesterday is driving me to attend another Under 20 match here on the Downs. Some guys eventually will be asked to match their big talk with some action that equals or goes close to equaling their vocal claims. I would assume that Uni will blame the ref. Hearing some of their officials bleat over the last few years would have the world believe that the world is against Uni. If you are going to coach and play cynical football, then the consequences will be what happened yesterday. If you are going to play cynical, cheap shot football, the consequences will be non selection at any level further up the tree, and plenty of time on the sidelines suspended.
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WE DON'T STOP PLAYING BECAUSE WE GROW OLD, WE GROW OLD BECAUSE WE STOP PLAYING. |
