I'd like to think that the shithouse amount of hits I've been getting over the past week have more to do with the fact that Blogger is down for at least six hours every day than any other reason. It might also have something to do with the fact that despite republishing my archives five times they're still not working. It's tempting to follow the crowd and jump ship to Moveable Type, but what would I bitch about then?
Anyway, for those of you tuning in during the rare moments of full-scale TSP operations, let's continue on.
As mentioned earlier I subjected myself to the horrors of the Docklands Monstrosity Stadium yesterday afternoon to see Melbourne's win over Footscray. As far as the game goes I was pleased with the way we played, a bit disappointed that the game wasn't put away more convincingly in the last quarter when we had a massive height advantage up forward and absolutely bewildered by some of the worst umpiring in the history of the game.
You tend to cop the odd suspicious decision when your team has won by six goals but some of the rubbish being dealt out today was almost criminal in it's scale. Clint Bizzell took a mark, ran about five metres playing on, got nailed by a perfect tackle by one of the Bulldogs defenders and somehow earnt a free-kick. I almost felt guilty seeing him slot the resulting kick through for a goal. Then there was the fact that if David Neitz had been paid half the free-kicks that Luke Darcy gave away in ruck contests inside the forward 50 he would have kicked 15, not seven. That the mysterious decisions were dealt evenly between the two sides may have been the umpires only saving grace.
I've covered my hatred for Coronial Stadium before (good luck getting that link to work without the aid of voodoo) so there's no need to go into it again except to say that anybody who expects me to praise the idea of having sat inside while Melbourne experienced the mother of all rainstorms today is in for a surprise. I'd still rather sit in the pissing rain at the MCG (even without the Ponsford Stand) for four quarters than one perfectly dry one at the Corporate Hell Hole. I was heartened to hear on the radio today that plenty of Medallion Club members will be voting with their feet and not renewing at the end of this season. I'm sick to death of the AFL and their assorted goons trying to ram down our throat what a great place it is. It's crap. Waverley was a dive in the middle of nowhere but at least it had character.
I do, against better judgement, find myself agreeing with St. Kilda President the improbably named Rod Butterss when he says that we need a 25,000 seat ground somewhere in Melbourne for those clubs without a massive bandwagon supporter base to play profitably at. The future of Footscray, North, Melbourne and god-forbid even St. Kilda is at stake as long as they are continually forced (and in some cases even choose for some reason) to play at Docklands.
I'll be taking the trip down to Geelong next Saturday to hopefully see us bury the Kardinia Park curse once and for all. Must get to as many games as possible while I'm not rostered to work on weekends, listening to the Essendon debacle last week whilst trying to make it look like I was working was far too difficult.
PS: I humbly withdraw my claims that Richmond will finish last and Freo will make the 8 this year.
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