Why Sport Matters
Melbourne v Port Adelaide
by Darren Spence
Someone once said ‘the reason why sport matters so much is that it doesn’t matter’…..that person obviously doesn’t follow the Demons. Supporting the Dees can sometimes seriously damage your health. Another 10:00am Sunday Jakarta time start – with me having the breaking strain of a Kit Kat means having a beer in the pub at 10:00am (well you can’t watch the footy without a beer can you?), another close game the Dees have lost, another game with ‘questionable’ umpire decisions (more on that later) and another game where some basic skill errors would cause a priest to swear (more on that later as well). Perhaps an MFC membership should come with cigarette packet like graphic health warnings? I have a few images in my head already – Ted and Angela screaming at the TV in their own unique ways, Sam getting out of his chair and storming off, Michael shaking his head, Sally just with her head in her hands and me – well me – just swearing and banging the table (yes I may have some anger issues but heh who doesn’t after following the Demons for over 40 years!?). Watching the game on the TV with no vision and no commentary and all you were able to hear was the crowd, you would have no problem knowing what was going on given the parochial noise at the Adelaide Oval. I don’t know why they were booing the umpires – once again they were getting the 50/50 decisions, Jones loses his head no free – Power goal, Wingard crashes into Watts’ arm – free Power goal, same thing happens to Pedersen – no free, no potential Demon goal!….Perhaps the Power faithful have their own pent up anger? – grown men having to wear teal every week is quite embarrassing. The game had the potential to turn ugly midway through the second (and no not because of all the vision of the Power fans in the crowd) but the boys rallied and played potentially the best sustained footy for the year. Certainly I haven’t seen us transition from defence to attack and score goals like that against top class opposition for many years. The game plan is starting to gel. Losing by 3 points in the end – I was guttered – that’s 6 games under 20 points this year but it certainly shows the leap forward the team has made in 2014, even if the ladder position doesn’t reflect this. I loved the pace – Blease and JKH were welcome additions and coupled with Kent the dash shown by the 3 of them added speed around the ball and pressure that has been missing much of this season. Without a doubt is Dom is Good was BOG – 32 touches, 7 tackles and 2 goals – this was his best game of his career – there is a lot to be excited about this boy, Watts played a blinder after half time, Jones was great and again I was impressed with Riley – 7 tackles in the first half shows us that he is a welcome addition to our squad and another shrewd recruit by the Demons brains trust. Costly turnovers at costly times again hurt us. The frustrating thing is the clangers by senior players (no names need mentioning) – this part of our game really needs to improve if we are going to turn these close losses into wins. We’ve had a week off now to collectively take a deep breath and get ready for the Lions at Etihad this Sunday. The boys will be super keen to get a win at this stadium for the first time in a long time and this certainly is the opportunity to do this. Let’s just hope the pictorial graphic health warnings are not needed!
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