Well at the end of last week’s report, I remarked that it would be interesting to see how long the cheerful sporting atmosphere of that game would continue into the season. It turned out the answer was about five minutes into the next game. Barnstoneworth started the better and pretty much kept the ball in their attacking half for the first five minutes, making Beachside look as sluggish and disconnected as Australian broadband internet capability after the Liberals sabotaged the NBN. But soon enough Beachside found their rhythm and the game became a tightly fought contest. Barnstoneworth defended deep and in numbers, relying on the long ball over the top as their primary form of attack. The pace and skill level of the Barnstoneworth strikers made this a potentially effective strategy, but the Beachside defence gave their opponents little space to get free and Mr Lowy was always quick off his line to clear any balls he was called on for. Aside from the occasional dangerous long ball from Barnstoneworth, Beachside were largely winning the midfield contest and feeding Jonno and Westy (it would feel incomplete if I didn’t acknowledge that according to Wikipedia, ‘westies’ are another name for bogans) to use their pace on either wings.
There were a number of 'almost' moments and half chances that were let down by a poor finish or the final pass, but the best chance of the half came late when a penalty was awarded for a handball on the goal line. Lump stepped up and determined not to repeat Biggsy’s mistake from last week, hit the ball a little bit harder and straight at the keeper, who somehow kept it out. Maybe it should have been predictable that when a bunch of grumpy has-beens like myself come up against some immature kids tempers would flare from pretty early on. The ongoing trashtalk was about as uninspired and dull as Foxtel programming (FYI Dover, telling someone you are twice their age is a weird sledge). I felt the officiating was pretty good last week, but this week it appeared that the referee may have had a direct line to the AFL umpiring department; as he seemed to vary his interpretation of certain rules at regular intervals. I don’t think you could say this favoured either team in particular, but it did make things a little confusing for everyone, especially with some pretty average tackles being thrown around. The first half ended nil-all and both teams would have rated themselves a chance going into what would prove to be an eventful second half. After getting run down more often than Housing Tasmania properties, Lump came to life after half time, pushing deeper into attack and causing the Barnstoneworth defence a lot of problems with his attacking play. Beachside looked strong early, but suffered a series of blows midway through the half that put them on the back foot. According to Wikipedia (obviously my source for all research) Mr Lowy is about 90 years old, so it wasn’t entirely surprising when one of his hamstrings pinged, but it was more of a surprise soon after when Beachside’s youngest player, Westy, suffered the same fate. Barnstoneworth took a shock lead from a corner midway through the half when Beachside’s poor marking on a corner proved almost as costly as a game of tennis with Nathan Buckley. The unmarked player was given time to control the ball and pick his spot from close range and made no mistake. They say bad things come in threes, but after two injuries and a goal against the play, Beachside’s troubles were still not over. Soon after, Gaz was given his second yellow- they were probably both there, but the ref had missed about 10 others by now it was a bit about what actually what constituted a card and what didn’t (tip for Gaz, if you at least look like you are trying to get the ball, you might be less likely to get carded)- and they were reduced to ten players. Beachside went to three at the back and continued to press for an equaliser, but the reduced cover in defence meant for a couple of scares when Barnstoneworth countered. It took a good save by Gibbo to keep the score at 1-nil after his defence gave him about as much protection as the Covidsafe app has, and he was forced to save in a 1-on-1. Another chopping tackle in the penalty box upended Pat for the second week in a row and this time Dover stepped up and tucked his penalty into the corner of the net to level the scores. In the final ten minutes, Barnstoneworth began to win more ball in the middle and put more sustained pressure on the beachside defence, but there were no clear cut chances. Neither team could feel too disappointed with the final score of 1-all. Barnstoneworth had done well to absorb Beachside pressure for much for the game before taking the lead and looking to grab the ascendancy. For their part, Beachside had done well to eke out a draw when a loss was looking likely. There is a saying in sport that what happens on the field stays on the field, which holds as a corollary that you can be a jerk on the field and it should be forgotten about afterwards. But I reckon this is incorrect (sorry Dover), and this game brought this into pretty sharp focus. Despite the game pretty quickly becoming as spiteful as Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's marriage and I suspect neither team leaving with much respect for the other, it was still quite enjoyable due to the close scores and intensity. Having said that, I do find grown adults posturing like this a bit tiresome and childish. Luckily one can only assume that next week’s game against the scholarly gentlemen of university will be a much more civilised affair… Well maybe.
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