It was Footy Day at my work today and there was face-painting and handball and goal-kicking competitions and people dressed in their team colours. And one of the organisers of the day is an Essendon supporter and so we had the 2000 Grand Final to watch on DVD.
Now there have been some awful Grand Finals over the years but this was surely hard to beat for pure badness. It was a triumph for thuggery and it was a thumping for the Demons who didn’t deserve it. And I’d seen Long’s assault on Simmons before but ten years on it looked much worse than I remembered. He charged into the young man who had his head over the ball and it was clear Long had no intention other than to hurt his opponent. And while he might have hit him front-on he instead twisted his body in his last step so that his hip hit Simmons in the head. Or was it the neck? Either way Simmons was knocked unconscious and was lucky not to have a broken spine.
Classy Essendon, really classy. But they were a frightened, nervous team. They’d been a great side, apparently, for while and hadn’t landed a flag yet and they just had to get this one, whatever it cost. Serve them right for getting one lousy flag in three “great” seasons. But a shame it came at the expense of the Demons.
Now for tomorrow. The Pies and the Saints have played sixteen Grand Finals between them in the last fifty years for a total of two Premierships. So it’s really a clash of the tragics. You could say that neither club deserves to lose tomorrow, that both deserve to win.
Except it’s not true. Collingwood don’t deserve anything! Go Saints!
No comments:
Post a Comment